Sipa’s mould refurbishing and conversion services in China are an important element of its complete PET preform and bottle mould offering. They provide customers with the option of having some components replaced by new ones in order to improve preform quality (refurbishment), or having the mould converted to produce a completely new (and quite often lighter) design of preform.

The advantage of mould conversion over buying a brand new mould lies in the lower capital investment involved. The existing mould is reused, and return of investment is faster. Customers can choose which is best for them by having a mould audit carried out by Sipa experts in the field. The state of wear of mould components can be assessed in their own plant, and different options on refurbishing or conversion can then be proposed.

The mould refurbishing and conversion services complement Sipa’s extensive in-house capability to develop and produce brand new high performance moulds and hot runners in-house. The hot half of each Sipa mould requires maintenance only after five million cycles, and it is possible to maintain components such as piston, flange O-rings and pin valves without opening the whole mould.

The company’s range of solutions benefits from Sipa’s special focus on reducing energy consumption. With better distribution flow and a higher water temperature (14-15°C instead of 8°C), water consumption is minimized and performance in terms of condensation reduction is improved.

The smooth, polished, rounded profiles on Sipa hot runners reduce stress on material, resulting in better preform quality and a reduced acetaldehyde (AA) level. Mould systems also exhibit enhanced cooling performance, resulting in high quality preforms, maximum productivity and reduced production costs.

Sipa’s service centre in Hangzhou, China, complements two others in Italy (Vittorio Veneto, the company’s headquarters) and the USA (Atlanta). It has been in operation since 2004. Having started out as a support operation for existing customers in China that Sipa had previously handled directly from Italy, the Hangzhou operation has rapidly expanded its portfolio.

Recently enlarged production capacity in Hangzhou means that Sipa can now produce 300 cavities a month for blow moulding and 800 cavities for injection moulding. With mould plate manufacturing as well, a 144-cavity cold half can be created in six weeks. Sipa continues to add new machines every year, and has a strong focus on lean manufacturing to improve efficiency and reduce lead time.