One of our latest introductions is the thermoforming machine ACF 980 – P in the new XL version.
The main difference with the standard version is that the XL version has maximum mould size mm 980X840 instead of mm 980X780. It is specifically designed for the North American market in which, in order to use existing moulds that come from the most popular thermoforming machine over there, the ACF 980 had to be able to use a 33 inches mould.
It has a lot of new features, such as a 5 steps oven that, compared to the 3 steps, helps the machine to work better with polypropylene. You can even find a 100 tons forming station that helps forming and cutting at the same time, a 80 tons punching station and a 100 tons cutting station with a closing force monitoring system that helps to have the best force setting and to reduce the wear of steel rules.
About the stacking station, the machine has a robot with two linear axes plus a rotary axis, in order to assure the highest flexibility in every stacking situation.
At the end of the line has been installed the EASY LIFT, an automatic system that helps to handle thermoformed products easily thanks to a conveyor belt that receive these products and brings them downward up to a limit of 800mm from the ground.
This machine will be used to produce polypropylene lunchboxes and fruits/vegetables containers with PET.
The ACF 980 – P XL has been designed and build respecting the environment. Both Hardware and Software were designed to reduce every kind of waste thanks to the implementation of some innovative technologies (like KERS).
With the EASY SOFTWARE we introduced a new function that allows you to monitor the power consumption in real time, to have a clear overview in every moment you want.
Furthermore, the energy saving system allows the optimization of the oven in relation to the mould dimension, in order to avoid waste.
About the Hardware, we introduced a new kind of resistances used to warmup the material, which allow the oven to reach the right temperature with a power consumption decreased up to 20%. All machine movements are made thanks to servomotors that use a regenerative system (input of electricity into the network during the braking phase of the motors) that allow to have a energy saving up to 20%.
These technologies introduced by us allow the machine to be ready to work with every kind of plastic materials that come from recycled bottles (R-PET) and new compostable and biodegradable bioplastics (such as PLA and MATER-BI that, thanks to its new characteristics and to the high content of renewable raw materials, allows to optimize the usage of organic waste and to reduce the environmental impact).
Moreover, the machine has every feature that the industry 4.0 requires and it is ready to be integrated in a smart factory system.