Blow Molding

Extrusion blow molding

Introduction

A parison is formed by an extruder, and the basic process is illustrated

below:

The 1st patent for extruded polymer parison molding was US

Patent 237168 filed May 28, 1880. For over the past century there
has been extensive technological and new product development,
with much more development and innovation continuously
occurring.

1. parison being extruded

2. compressed air inflates parison
3. blown container being ejected

The blow molding industry is one of the fastest growing industries.

Bottle and liquid container applications dominate the market. E.g.
polyethylene (PE) squeeze bottle for washing liquid
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for cooking oils and fruit squash
bottle
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for carbonated beverage
bottle, and others.
The basic consumer polymers, PE, PP, PVC, & PET are
increasingly being combined with special barrier layer materials.
Oxygen and water vapor resistant coating are successfully
preserving flavor and extending product shelf life.
New process technology brings the wide scale introduction of
multi-layer containers to our supermarket shelves.
Blow molding is the 3rd largest plastic processing technique
worldwide for producing many different products. It consumes
about 10% of all plastics; about 36% goes to extrusion, and 32%
goes to injection molding.
Two basic types of blow molding:
Extrusion blow molding
Injection blow molding
The following discusses these two types of moldings

A typical extrusion blow molding cycle for one gallon

container is illustrated blew:

A double station automatic extrusion blow molding machine is

given below:

Parison Analysis
With downward extrusion. Two important factors are:
1. parison sag caused by gravity acting on the semimolten extrudate, and
2. die swell.

The wall distribution and thickness of the blow molding can

be programmed based on the part requirement. An example
of bottle is given below:

Early in the parison, extrusion die-swell thicken the walls,

later, the increased weight stretches the parison to thin the
walls.
They tend to oppose one another to some extent, together
they act to give parison with thick-walled bottoms and
thin-walled tops.
The uniformness of the wall thickness is important for
certain application. A parison variator can be used to
control the wall thickness.
A parison variator:

It is straightforward matter to calculate the wall thickness of

a blown bottle if the dimensions of the die and the amount of
die swell are know. Figure below show wall thickness of a
blow molding

A typical parison variator is shown below:

Swelling of thickness of parison: B t =

The behavior of the closed parison during the inflation

process is a manifestation of its extension-flow rheological
properties. It has been observed that parison does not
inflate uniformly and tends to bulge out in the center.
Blow-out can occur if the ratio of the mold diameter to the
parison diameter (the blow-up ratio) is too high.

hp
hd

Dp

Swelling of parison diameter: Bp = D

d

It was shown by Cogswell [Plastics and Polymers, 38,

391, 1970] based on the analysis of a simplified geometric
analysis of the elastic recoil process, the following
relationship exist:
2
t
p

B =

Therefore: h

Process control
d

As blow molding becomes more complex, molders require

greater accuracy and increased variations in the types of
cycles.

The parison is inflated to mold diameter Dm, and assume

constant material volume and no draw down:

D p h p = Dm hm
hm =

Dp hp
Dm

On the other hand, extension thinning unstable inflation

and increase likelihood of blow-outs.

2
p

D
D

It is thought that extension thickening behavior implies

that a resin will be easy to inflate and unlikely to exit
blow-out.

( B ) = B D (h B )

D p hd

Dm

2
p

2
p

Dm

Thus, knowing die dimensions, mold diameter, and

diametric swell ratio, we can find the wall thickness of the
molding. Bp can be found by direct measurement or from
Bt .

Different types of process controls can be used to meet the

requirements of the molders operating needs. Control
systems available can monitor, feedback control the process.
Knowledge of the machines and its operating principle is a
prerequisite before an intelligent process control system can
be developed and used.
Some interrelation of the process conditions and their effects
on output and properties are given on the next pages.

Injection blow molding

Injection blow molding process is used for containers that
have very close tolerance threaded necks, wide mouth
openings, solid handles (e.g. as shown below), and highly
styled shapes. It features good materials distribution and
the production of finished containers without the need for
trimming.

Process
Injection blow molding has basically three stages
(see figure blow)

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 First stage: Plastic melted in a reciprocating screw

injection molding machine is injected into a split steel
cavity to produce a preform parison, which in turn, is
temperature conditioned for later blow molding. The
preform is much like a test tube with a screw finish at the
top. This finish is molded to close tolerances.

Views of a three-stage injection blow molding machine

Second stage: The preform is transferred on a core rod to

blow molding stage. Air is blown through the core rod to
expand the conditioned preform against a cold, usually
aluminum, blow mold cavity. The container has now been
produced.
Third stage: The container is transferred again on the core
rod. The finished container is ejected from the machine.
Possible fourth stage: Some injection molding blow
molders have a fourth stage. This stage is added in one of
three places.
It can be between the injection stage and blow stage to
provide extra temperature conditioning time.
It can be between the blow stage and ejection stage to
provide time for some secondary operation, such as hot
stamping or labeling.
It can be between the ejection stage and the preform
injection stage to provide time to detect any improperly
ejected conditioners.

A typical injection blow molding cycle:

Schematic of a typical three stage injection blow molder

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Multi-layer containers via coextrusion, coinjection, and coating

Coextrusion blow molding

The barrier requirement to meet packaging needs vary

depending on the product being packed. Properties that
may need to be retained or excluded can include gases,
water vapor, aroma, taste, solvents, etc. In addition, every
barrier package must respond to the specific customers
processing techniques and distribution system.
There are three basic ways in which to increase the barrier
properties of a plastic container:
The first is to improve the barrier properties of the
single or copolymer being used in a mono-layer
container.
The second is to place a barrier coating on either
the inside or the outside of the mono-ploymer
layer.
The third is to employ several distinctive
polymers in a multi-layer structure with each
providing a different specific barrier or
performance quality.
There are two basic approaches to the production of multilayer structures. These are coextrusion and coinjection.
Coinjection blow molding

For further information on blow molding, please refer to Blow

Molding Handbook by Rosato/Rosato, Hanser Publishers

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