Ultra Purge™ helped an extrusion blow moulding manufacturer of cosmetic packaging make up for significant cleaning downtime.

Case Study Thermoplastics:
Easy, safe, and efficient color change of SAN polymer without colour streaks and without scratching the mold

WHAT WE ACHIEVED.

A European extrusion blow moudling company manufacturing cosmetics packaging was experiencing significant downtime in their production process. Stoppage for cleaning during colour changeover from cosmetic containers was particularly challenging and led to residual colour streaking that caused a cumulative standstill of up to 10 hours monthly. After employing a tailored formulation of Chem-Trend’s Ultra Purge™ line, the manufacturer achieved a 95% reduction in downtime for cleaning and a minimised scrap rate.

HOW WE GOT THERE.

Working alongside the customer, our thermoplastics experts examined the pigment in use and investigated the precise scrap amount being produced during the SAN colour change. We found that the competitor purging compound in use was producing scrap for more than two hours at a time. Additionally, we observed that the product was scratching the mould’s polished surface – this issue alone caused up to three hours of downtime to re-establish the proper surface condition to the mould. To improve the screw and barrel cleaning process, we experimented with screw positioning, back pressure, and injection speed to find the proper settings. For hot runner cleaning, we implemented and compared two different tailored Ultra Purge™ mixtures, both of which eliminated the problematic colour streaks.

OUR SOLUTION.

We helped streamline a complicated two-step cleaning process into a simpler one-step method to remove the sticky red organic pigment. The old method consisted of virgin SAN being applied first to clean the machine’s screws, followed by an additional infusion of virgin resin to remove contamination from the hot runner system. By using Ultra Purge™ to clean the machine, the manufacturer reduced the total amount of virgin resin needed for the purging process contributing to an overall cost savings of material used to purge of around 60%. Additionally, the tailored Ultra Purge™ solution offered a concentrated mix ratio that dramatically reduced streaking.

Up to 95%

REDUCTION OF DOWNTIME FOR CLEANING

> 3%

REDUCTION OF SCRAP RATE

~60%

MATERIAL COST SAVINGS TO PURGE