Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-17-2024

Abstract

Plastic processing is an important step in creating products used in everyday life. With the generous donation of the Rocheleau R-4 blow-molding machine from Chevron-Phillips, we offer PSU students the ability to study blow-molding through hands-on lab activities. The Rocheleau blow molder, an extrusion blow-molding machine, is used to produce hollow plastic products through shaping a molten plastic parison in a specialized mold. Our team installed the Rocheleau R-4 blow-molding machine to resume production of Gorilla water bottles. These bottles are sold for the purposes of fundraising and advertising PSU and ETECH-Plastics. To successfully install the blow molder, we cleaned and prepped the machine, adapted the Gorilla bottle mold to the machine, and made adjustments to machine parameters to achieve desirable Gorilla bottles. Challenges we encountered included the functionality between the programmable logic controller and the human machine interface, and adapting the mold to fit the new machine. Despite these obstacles, we successfully installed the blow-molder. We also modified the mold and head tooling to produce parisons with the proper diameter in order to resume Gorilla bottle production. In service to future PSU Plastics students, we developed a process window and work instructions to allow novices to operate the machine safely and efficiently, as well as produce optimized blow-molded parts. Installation of the Rocheleau R-4 blow-molder will allow the production of the Gorilla Bottles to continue, so that future students and members of the plastic industry will have the opportunity to learn the about blow-molding through hands-on lab activities.

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