By Bill Bregar
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
Published: January 1, 2014 11:34 am ET
Updated: January 1, 2014 11:35 am ET
Swiss mold maker Schöttli Group presented a new needle valve concept on a cup lid mold, in an industry first at K 2013.
The mold was running lids on a four-cavity mold at the company’s K show booth, working on an all-electric Arburg Allrounder Alldrive with a clamping force of 150 metric tons.
The needle valve helps minimize the wall thickness for packaging applications, without reducing their high quality and stability, and while boosting output rates by using a higher-number of mold cavities.
The cycle time on the lid was two seconds.
The shutoff needle does not enter the runner, so the melt does not share its path with the needle. This accommodates stack molds with a lower height, and lighter molds, company officials said. The needle valve also allows the use of smaller mold sizes with a higher number of cavities.
Thanks to a patented funnel design, color and material changes can be done without problems.
The concept does not split the melt when it flows around the needle inside the nozzle. There is no lateral pressure on the needle as it is retracted from the meld, during injection.
Schöttli Group is based in Diesenhofen, Switzerland. | 
