The History of Blowing Machines for Plastic Materials: from Glass to Plastic

The history of blow molding machines for plastic materials has its roots in the beginning of the last century, when we began to think about packaging for liquid foods, such as milk, produced in lighter materials than glass.

However, the time was not yet fully ripe as the plastic material par excellence, HDPE , had not yet made its presence in the world of bottle production.

The possibility of obtaining finished products in a completely hollow shape, by blowing a thermoplastic material, was known since 1920 and applied to some cellulose and glass objects.

It was a real revolution, if we think that packaging had always been monopolized by glass bottles which date back, with certainty, to the period of the Pharaohs in Egypt, having found handcrafted glass jars and funerary containers inside the tombs.

Although, the birth of blown glass , the forerunner of modern glass bottles, can be traced back to the 1st century BC , when glass blowing through a hollow metal tube was experimented for the first time.

With cane blowing, production became faster and cheaper, giving the possibility of producing bottles, flasks and containers also suitable for the common people and not just objects for the rich.

So, in 1938, two American inventors, Enoch Ferngren and William Kopitke , thought of a way to use the principles of glass blowing in the plastics industry.

Thus they created the first plastic blow molding machine and sold it to the Hartford Empire Company.

But we had to go back to the 1940s to see the first successes of this technology, mainly due to the introduction of polyethylene . This material, and then also PVC, allowed the large-scale production of blown bottles.

However, the greatest development of this technology dates back to the early 1960s, when some patent limitations disappeared.

The blowing process is substantially similar to that of glass blowing, so much so that many of the first operators of automatic and robotic blowing machines came from that sector.

The first technology for blowing hollow bodies was extrusion-blowing, applied first for small bottles and later for large 5-litre containers; the injection-blowing technology followed, used above all for vials and bottles for pharmaceutical and cosmetic use.

The Italian Pioneers

The history of hollow body blowing began in Italy with Giuseppe Moi , a Sardinian who moved to Milan in 1937 and managed to enthusiastically enter the industrial activity of this city; after fifty years of activity, in 1987, Moi had established around thirty companies in Italy and abroad.

The first independent activity of this extraordinary character was the injection molding of religious articles and plastic toys in 1945-49 . G.Moi was founded in 1950 and a year later manufactured the first Italian half-litre blow molding machine, equipped with twin-screw extruders, intended for the production of detergent bottles.

This blow molding machine was followed by 2, 10, 50 and 500 liter machines (1962); starting from the 10 liter models, the systems were equipped with an accumulation head.

Moi's activity ceased in 1980 when the patents and technology were transferred to Triulzi, which continued the construction of these blow molders intended mainly for the production of large products for the automotive industry.

Giuseppe Moi also has to his credit the construction of the first machines for the extrusion of expanded PE sheets and pipes, also supplied to the United States.

The story continues with two companies that were once separate and are now divisions of the American Uniloy group: Moretti and Co-Mec . The first was founded in 1957 by the brothers Domenico and Giorgio Moretti in Abbiategrasso, with the company name: "Mechanical workshop for the construction of machines and molds for blowing hollow bodies in plastic material".

In addition to these machines, the company built extruders, extrusion heads, dies and drives for roller shutters and small calenders.

One of the first blowing machines, built in 1959, was a pneumatic continuous extrusion machine for the production of two-litre containers for detergents.

In 1961 the first machine for the extrusion blowing of containers up to 30 liters was built and the company established itself as one of the main manufacturers of machines for blowing technical parts.

Co-Mec , founded in 1960 by Herberto Hauda , initially operated in Florence as a processor of plastic materials. Later the headquarters were moved to Calenzano (FI) where the construction of machines also began.

Until 1965, Co-Mec built pneumatic blowers with a maximum capacity of 5 litres; in 1966 the first hydraulic machine was put on the market, with a double head for up to one liter and a single head for containers up to 5 litres. In the mid-1960s, special heads were manufactured for two-components (PVC and PE), with striped coloring.

It is worth mentioning the promotional action in this sector of Piero Giacobbe , also known because in 1954 he founded the Giornale delle materiali plastici which was later sold to SIR.

Giacobbe, today owner of the Magic group with his son Ferruccio, founded ASCO (Association of plastics machinery manufacturers) in 1960 which put hollow body blowing systems on the market.

The first blow molding plant, called Olimpia, dates back to 1960 , while a year later the Mini Magic model was built, which anticipates in its name the future Magic MP company.

At the beginning of the 1970s, a strong manufacturing industry of machines for blowing hollow bodies also established itself in Italy, even if production was then limited to extrusion-blowing and not to injection-blowing.

The offer covered from small units for pharmaceutical containers up to complete systems for drums and containers of a thousand liters and more. The unlocking of the use of non-toxic, UV-stabilised and shock-resistant PVC for blowing bottles intended for non-carbonated mineral water dates back to those years.

Four bottling plants began adopting PVC for this use.

In 1970 there were eleven manufacturers present in Italy, compared to four in 1960. In 1970 CoMec put on the market a blow molding machine with a blowing nozzle from above and with neck calibration .

In the early 1970s it developed the extrusion-blowing of hollow nylon bodies with high viscosity and in 1973 it proposed the CS Series also for co-extrusion of up to three layers.

Fratelli Moretti built four models of the M Series blow molding machine, with one group, for PVC containers of up to six liters of capacity and four MB models with two groups with automatic sprue breaking and ejection; it also proposed the Compact series, with five models for containers from 20 to 250 liters and extruders up to 120 mm in diameter.

Omea supplied two models of automatic blow molding machines with vertical extruder and four types with horizontal extruder (up to fifty litres): the head was of the accumulation type with adjustment of the parison thickness.

Beloit Italia of Pinerolo (TO) built two different models with rotating stations (up to six). We then find three companies: Newpac of Zingonia (BG), Costaplastik of Macherio (MI) and Mossi e Ghisolfi of Tortona, which after a transformation activity, began the construction of some types of blow molding machines.

Mossi & Ghisolfi specialized in the construction of complete plants for the production of milk bottles; it also marketed the machines of the French Sidel, intended for the production of PVC bottles for mineral water, wine and oil.

Locati e Pavesi of Milan had made a name for itself with the LP 200 model for containers of up to 5 litres, characterized by a plate closing system implemented using sturdy knee pads.

Magic, founded as mentioned by Piero Giacobbe in 1965, soon acquired an important place in the panorama of Italian manufacturers of machines for containers up to 200 litres; in particular, we highlight the Miniblow models for processing rigid PVC for food use, with automatic desprung in production and calibration of the packages and Maxiblow, the latter for hollow bodies up to 50 litres, with accumulation head and adjustment of the thickness and parison weight.

Category: news - technique - plastic - blow molding machines - history

Photo Kautex

Sources: IQS-Donadini-Kautex