Public visé par ce guide

If you make bottles as an OEM, run a contract packing plant, or you’re a brand pulling HDPE in-house, this guide is for you.

It also helps plant, maintenance, quality, and procurement teams get on the same page about specs, costs, and risks.

HDPE Bottle Line at a Glance

An HDPE line starts at resin reception and ends at palletized, tested bottles.

• Upstream: silos/bag dump → drying/conditioning (if specified) → blending (virgin, PCR, masterbatch).
• Forming: moulage par soufflage-extrusion.
• Downstream: deflash/trim → leak test → vision/weight → bagging/cartoning → palletizing → stretch wrap.

Extrusion moulage par soufflage sits in the middle. Upstream controls melt qualité. Downstream protects your margin.

Resin and Materials Readiness

Pick the right HDPE grade. PE80 vs PE100 signals mechanical strength; what matters in practice is MFI (flow) and ESCR.

• MFI: 0.2–1.0 g/10 min is common for bottles. Lower MFI = higher viscosity = better top-load, more parison control.
• Additives: color masterbatch, slip, antistat. Keep totals tight to avoid haze or odor.
• PCR blends: start at 25–30% and qualify. Watch gels, black specs, and odor. Screw/feeds need stable dosing.
• Barrier co-ex: for oxygen-sensitive fills, add EVOH with tie-layers. Control layer ratios and melt temps to avoid delamination.

Utilities and Infrastructure

Compressed Air

• Instrument air: clean, dry air for valves and sensors.
• Blow air: higher pressure/flow for pre-blow and finish blow. Size receivers to flatten demand spikes.

Cooling

• Chillers sized for peak ambient conditions.
• Mold temperature control units (TCUs) keep steel at steady setpoints. Uneven cooling = ovality.

Electrical

• Budget kWh per bottle and track it.
• Log voltage qualité (sags, harmonics). Sensitive drives like clean power.

Core Forming: Extrusion Blow Molding (for HDPE)

Continuous vs Accumulator Head

• Continuous: small-to-medium bottles at high cadence; excellent for shampoos, dairy, and household products.
• Accumulator: large parisons (jerrycans, handleware), complex pinch-offs, higher shot mass.

Head and Parison Control

• Die head geometry shapes die swell and wall map.
• Parison programming (multi-point) thickens where you need strength: corners, handles, neck support.
• Clamp force must resist internal blow pressures without flash creep.
• Cooling time is the long pole; boost heat extraction before chasing cycle time elsewhere.

Why Not Injection Blow Here?

For HDPE, le soufflage par extrusion is the workhorse, especially for handleware and multi-layer. Injection blow fits some narrow necks, but it’s not this guide’s focus.

Mold, Neck, and Tooling Choices

• Cavities vs cycle time: more cavities reduce seconds per bottle but demand more clamp force and cooling capacity.
• Mold steels: P20 for general use; H13 or beryllium copper inserts for heat pull-out.
• Surface finishes: VDI textures, chemical etch, or polish to manage scuff, gloss, and label adhesion.
• Neck finishes: follow cap standards. Design deflash paths that don’t scar sealing lands.
• Handleware: robust pinch-off land and radii. Weak weld lines here mean leaks.

Downstream That Protects Margin

• Deflashing, trimming, and reaming keep neck bores clean and threads true.
• Leak test by pressure decay or vacuum. Set cycle time to match blow rate.
• Vision plus weight checks catch inclusions, short shots, and ovality.
• Inline reclaim: grind flash and feed back under control. Keep the loop tight to avoid property drift.

Line Layouts That Actually Flow

• Cells help for short SKUs and fast changes. Straight lines win for volume and long runs.
• Conveyors with smart accumulation.
• Buffers before testers to absorb micro-stops.
• Sightlines so one operator sees key chokepoints.
• Maintenance envelopes around hot molds and knives. Safety first.

Changeovers Without the Drama

• Aim for sub-30 minutes on like-for-like changes.
• Quick-change frames, self-centering guides, quick-disconnect water and air.
• Hot vs cold swaps: hot saves time but needs discipline and PPE.
• Recipe libraries and job cards remove guesswork. Photos help.

Digital Layer and Data Capture

• Track OEE (availability, performance, quality).
• Run SPC on wall thickness and neck dimensions; watch Cpk.
• Monitor energy per bottle on a live dashboard.
• Connect via OPC-UA/MQTT to your MES for batch genealogy and traceability.

Energy, Waste, and TCO

Servo-hydraulic clamps and smart pumps cut idle draw. Real savings show in kWh/kg, not just nameplates.

Kill Scrap at the Source

• Parison sag → lower melt temp, shorter air-time, tweak die gap.
• Flash → clamp alignment, pinch-off land, head centering.
• Coups courts → head temperature balance, accumulator shot size, venting.

Translate energy, scrap, and labor into cents per container. That’s how decisions stick.

Quality Standards and Compliance

• Keep food-contact files tidy: DoC, migration tests, and food-grade lubricants.
• Map your FSSC 22000/ISO 22000 touchpoints: raw resin, foreign matter control, lube spills, tool control, and line clearance.

Safety and Environmental Controls

• Guard hot areas and blades. Use interlocks and practice LOTO.
• Control noise, VOCs from inks/cleaners, and dust from grinders.
• Stop pellet spills at the source — they find drains.

Capacity Planning and Scalability

• At 5–10M bottles/year, one line with modest automation works.
• At 50–100M, think parallel lines, shared testers, and automated palletizing. Your bill of process changes with scale.

Procurement Scorecard

• Throughput at spec
• Energy (kWh/kg and kWh/bottle)
• Changeover time
• PCR capability and co-ex options
• Service SLAs, spares ladders, training hours
• Remote diagnostics and language support

Budgeting the Full Line

• CapEx: forming machine, molds, downstream, utilities, and install.
• OpEx: resin first, then energy, labor, maintenance, and QA.
• Run sensitivity cases for energy tariffs and scrap rates. Small deltas, big money.

RFQ Checklist (Copy-Paste Ready)

• Bottle drawing(s) with wall-thickness map and target Cpk
• Resin grade(s), PCR % and masterbatch details
• Output target (bph and shifts), changeover frequency
• Top-load, drop, leak-rate limits, vision rules
• Co-ex layers and barrier targets (if any)
• Utilities available (air, water, power quality)
• FAT tests: energy/bottle, output at spec, QA pass rates
• Périmètre de la SAT et portes d'acceptation
• Liste des kits de pièces de rechange, années de garantie, délais d'intervention, heures de formation

Mise en service et montée en régime

• Valider les éléments majeurs lors de la FAT (chez le fournisseur). Valider l'intégration lors de la SAT (sur site).
• Planifier une montée en régime de 90 jours avec verrouillage des “réglages optimaux”. Certifier les opérateurs, puis augmenter progressivement les cadences.

Guide de dépannage

• Variation d'épaisseur/ovalisation → Profil de la paraison, centrage de la filière, équilibre du refroidissement.
• Flash → Parallélisme des serre-joints, usure de la coupure, pression en tête.
• Courts-circuits/brûlures → Éventage, températures de matière, chronométrage du cycle.
• Voile → Humidité dans la matière mère, cisaillement excessif, tamis sales.
• Fuites au col → Bavures d'ébavurage, filetages ovalisés, entailles sur le plan de joint.
• Pincement des anses/fuites/voilage → Géométrie du plan de joint, asymétrie du refroidissement, température d'injection.

Corriger la cause. Ne pas se contenter de trier.

Maintenance pour une disponibilité élevée

• Contrôles quotidiens/hebdomadaires/mensuels, lubrification et remplacement des filtres.
• Surveiller l'état hydraulique : propreté de l'huile, température et fuites.
• Avoir sous la main les pièces de rechange critiques. Suivre les modes de défaillance et refabriquer avant la panne.

Durabilité et Reporting

• Se préparer à l'utilisation de PCR et exécuter des sprints d'allègement. Publier le CO₂ pour 1000 bouteilles.
• Réutiliser l'eau lorsque c'est possible. Récupérer la chaleur des compresseurs.
• Boucler la boucle des chutes avec une réincorporation rigoureuse.

Quand le Soufflage Étiré entre en jeu

Si vous traitez aussi du PET, le soufflage étiré moulage par soufflage partage des éléments de votre aval : testeurs, convoyeurs, palettisation, parfois le contrôle qualité. Planifier pour éviter les conflits de ressources humaines et d'utilités.

(Ce guide se concentre sur le soufflage extrusion pour le PEHD. Le soufflage étiré est votre partenaire pour le PET, pas un remplacement.)

Glossaire et Modèles

Paraison

Le tube chaud extrudé avant soufflage.

Tête à accumulateur

Stocke une dose de matière fondue pour les pièces de grande taille.

Couche de liaison

Couche adhésive liant la barrière au PEHD.

Cpk

Indice de capabilité du procédé ; plus il est élevé, plus le contrôle est strict.

Modèles à préparer : feuille de demande de prix, checklist FAT, et SOP de changement de référence. Faites simple. Faites en sorte qu'ils soient utilisés.