Public Funding for Blow Moulding Technologies Ltd

This project will develop ground breaking software that will enable the development of sustainable plastic packaging materials and designs for the plastic bottle industry, an industry that has a global worth of £129billion and is manufacturing bottles at a rate of 1million/min. The project will focus on the development of innovative state of the art software that will enable packaging to be designed and manufactured with just the right amount of material. It will automate the design process for preforms and bottles for the complex stretch blow moulding process enabling a faster uptake of new materials and designs incorporating more recycled content. The software developed in this project will offer an automated virtual design process that will enable a paradigm shift in the design and manufacture of plastic bottles.

Blow Moulding Technologies (BMT) is a global leader in simulation technology and precision instrumentation for the stretch blow moulding (SBM) industry. To date, BMT have developed (public-funded) innovative hardware and software solutions to help bottle manufacturers optimise their blow moulding process and implement more sustainable solutions. In this project, BMT will combine their data-driven machinery, simulation technology and automated-intelligence processes to develop a virtual replica, or digital twin, of the SBM process. This enables manufacturers to get real-time status updates and use these updates for detection, diagnosis, and prognosis. This highly innovative technology has the potential to fast-track the bottle industry in their inevitable transition to sustainable materials and significantly reduce their carbon footprint.

This project will develop ground breaking software that will enable the development of **sustainable plastic packaging materials and designs for the plastic bottle industry**, an industry that has a global worth of £129billion and is manufacturing bottles at a rate of 1million/min. The project will focus on the development of innovative state of the art software that will enable packaging to be designed and manufactured with just the right amount of material. It will automate the design process for preforms and bottles for the complex stretch blow moulding process enabling a faster uptake of new materials and designs incorporating more recycled content. The software developed in this project will offer an automated virtual design process that will enable a paradigm shift in the design and manufacture of plastic bottles.

"Blow Moulding Technologies (BMT) is a micro SME who sell instrumentation and software to the Stretch Blow Moulding (SBM) industry, founded in 2011 as a spin-out from Queen's University Belfast, The world currently consumes 1 million plastic bottles per minute, therefore SBM process **demands high rates of production**. As the world advances towards half a trillion plastic bottle/annum by 2021, **productivity is hampered by large inefficiencies** frequently caused by **temperature variables** such as operator subjectivity, variation in material properties and environment changes, giving rise to material wastage, product defects and machine down-time. Furthermore, **increased public environmental concern** in the mass production and pollution of plastic bottles has instigated a **strong market opportunity for the use of recycled PET resins and bio-based polymers from waste bottles**. Our **vision** for this project is to develop ground-breaking technology to enable the intelligent control of temperature within the SBM process in the production of Plastic Bottles. Working alongside our partners, P&G, Sidel, Sacmi and Beverage Plastics, BMT's proposed solution involves the development of an **automated data-driven inline temperature management system** with advanced infrared sensor technology and control algorithms. Heated preforms will be ejected automatically at regular intervals prior to blowing to provide real-time internal and external temperature data. The temperature data will be communicated back to the SBM ovens through bespoke software to allow a more accurate control of the process temperature. Greater temperature control will lead to a **reduction in production trouble-shooting, reduction in machine down-time** and **greater productivity.** It will optimise bottle production leading to the consumption of **less raw material**, **generate less waste** and **decrease product defects** leading to **greater material use efficiency**. The system will permit a **greater optimisation of products**, in particular it will allow more accurate **production of recycled PET** within a narrower SBM process window. It will lead to **lighter more efficient preforms** which can still reach the **targeted performance standards** such as 'shelf-life' and 'top-load', with greater **ease of manufacture.** Savings on **production efficiencies** will also result in **lower running costs** and a **reduced carbon footprint**. This project represents **cutting edge innovation** through the creation of an inline system which does not require human touch. The ability to minimise all temperature related trouble-shooting within the SBM process through the use of intelligent algorithms communicating the exact measurements of the inner and outer profiles of the heated preforms is **a major step forward in the SBM industry.**"