LANFRANCHI of Italy has developed a new rotative unscrambler twister for PET preform handling which has been designed to unscramble difficult to handle PET preforms, such as those that have the neck ring diameter smaller than the body diameter, and are therefore not suitable for orientation using traditional unscrambling systems.
With a trend to light weight PET bottles using preforms requiring high stretch-to-blow ratios, smaller preform body diameters are becoming more common.
The Lanfranchi LRPU rotative unscrambler twister undertakes 5 simple steps:-
1. Preforms are introduced in the lower part of the selection cylinder and fall into specially designed spaces (cradles) on the circumference of the cylinder
2. Preforms inside the cradles go through a position reading station which determines the position of the neck
3. Preforms reach an opening in the side structure and are extracted by the suction head of the vacuum star wheel
4. The suction heads, driven by an electrical or pneumatic system, rotate in clockwise or counter clockwise direction, depending on the instructions received from the reading station, in order to turn the performs to a vertical position
5. Preforms are inserted in the descent channel guides to be conveyed to the PET stretch blow moulder machine
The LRPU machine is currently available in speeds ranging from 8,000 to 18,000 preforms / hour with higher out-puts planned.
LANFRANCHI is represented in Oceania by HBM Plastics & Packaging Technologies.