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Plastic Moulding Processes - Blow Moulding, Plastic Bottle Moulding
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Blow moulding is a process commonly used to form plastic bottles and other hollow packaging such as toothpaste tubes, soy sauce squeeze tubes and even fuel tanks.
There are 3 main types of blow moulding processes: Extrusion blow moulding, injection blow moulding and stretch blow moulding.
In the common Stretch Blow Moulding (SBM) process, the plastic is first moulded into a "preform" using the Injection Moulded Process. These preforms are produced with the necks of the bottles, including threads (the "finish") on one end. These preforms are packaged, and fed later (after cooling) into an blow moulding machine.
In the stretch blow moulding process, the preforms are heated above their glass transition temperature, then blown using high pressure air into bottles using metal blow molds. Usually the preform is stretched with a core rod as part of the process. The stretching of some polymers, such as PET results in strain hardening of the resin, allowing the bottles to resist deforming under the pressures formed by carbonated beverages.
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