Eileen Yu, Vice General Manager
Published Updated 3 min readTechnology
Judging by domestic and international market trends, and driven by the large-scale production of plastic bottles, drums, auto parts and industrial blow-molded parts, specialized, fully automatic production lines of all sizes, high-speed, stable and energy-efficient, with matching auxiliary equipment, will become the mainstream of the extrusion blow molding industry in the next few years.
Large and extra-large extrusion blow molding units and production lines
(1) Large extrusion blow molding units and production lines for pallets.
The rapid development of logistics, food, fertilizer, petrochemical, household chemicals, railway transportation and warehousing, pharmaceutical and feed, beer, beverage and other industries will certainly drive the rapid development of the pallet manufacturing industry, especially the blow-molded pallet manufacturing industry.
In recent years, the injection-molded pallet industry has developed considerably. However, because of the inherent limitations of their raw materials and molding mechanism, injection-molded pallets have a short service life and are prone to deformation or breakage under large temperature differences and heavy-duty use. The high-strength blow-molded pallet has the advantages of high impact strength and durability, and is regarded as the first choice for plastic pallets. Its annual market demand is about 20%, while the annual production capacity of domestic high-strength blow molding trays is basically 100. Within 10,000 blocks, it is far from meeting the needs of the market.
At present, most of the large extrusion machines in China are mainly general-purpose models, which are used for the production of 1000 L IBC plastic drums and for the production of blow-molded pallets, and the equipment capacity cannot be fully utilized. Developing large and extra-large blow molding units and high-speed lines dedicated to pallet production is therefore a main focus for some companies in the industry.
(2) Large extrusion blow molding units for IBC containers.
There are already a number of blow molding machine manufacturers in China that can manufacture 1000 L IBC plastic drums, but most of them are general-purpose equipment. At present, few domestic 1000 L blow molding machines use radial parison wall thickness control, which results in uneven wall thickness at the four corners of the product, higher raw material consumption and poorer equipment performance. This deserves close attention from domestic manufacturers of large blow molding machines.
(3) Other large extrusion molding machines. China is a country with a variety of climatic and environmental conditions. There is large market demand for water storage tanks with different requirements. Therefore, research and development of ultra-large hollow molding machines that are more suitable for the needs of the product market is also one of the development directions. In recent years, some large-scale blow molding products manufacturers have jointly developed dedicated production equipment for water storage tanks, with product volumes reaching 2,000 L.
Automatic extrusion blow molding machine
Multi-layer extrusion blow molding units and production lines
(1) Automobile multi-layer plastic fuel tank production equipment.
(2) Multi-layer three-dimensional extrusion forming unit. At present, domestic fully automatic blow molding machine manufacturers have the design and manufacturing capabilities of multi-layer three-dimensional hollow molding units, but since the domestic market has not yet formed a huge market demand, the development of this technology is relatively slow. The development and upgrading of the domestic car industry will boost the development of such units.
(3) Many companies have mastered the design and manufacture of multi-layer extrusion blow molding lines for household chemical drums and bottles.
Is there still a place for semi-automatic machines?
Rising labor costs and upgrading downstream markets have made automated, integrated blow molding lines the first choice for many manufacturers. Building them takes strong R&D and long experience, which is harder for small machine makers.
Semi-automatic and simple machines still have a market. Many small workshop-style producers find the capital cost of a fully automatic line too high, and even with an automatic machine they would struggle to match the supporting equipment. For them, a stable semi-automatic setup can come first, with automation added as the business grows.