New machine helps company expand its integration strategy

With the purchase of a new blowmolding machine, Pioneer Eclipse Corp. continues to stay on the road less traveled. At a time when conventional business wisdom is to outsource any non-core operation, Pioneer decided to keep most of its work in-house. The vertically-integrated company manufactures floor cleaning products, the specialized chemicals used by the machines and the blow-molded containers in which the chemicals are packaged.

The Sparta, NC-based company had been blowmolding its primary containers, square-shaped 10-litre handled jugs, for 12 years on a Uniloy Milacron Liberty IS4500 in-line shuttle machine. The stacking design used for 90% of all chemical products has a recessed bottom that allows the handle and spout of one container to nest into the bottom of another container. At one time, the company had contracted out the blowmolding of containers, but found the transportation costs prohibitive, and frequently encountered quality problems.

Uniloy Milacron UMS 16.D shuttle blowmolding machine that could serve as a backup to the Liberty, as well as handle rising production of four-litre jugs.

“The sales volume for this size has been steadily growing, so we decided we might as well make our own,” says David Wooten, chemical manufacturing manager for Pioneer. “A lot of customers in European and Asian countries like the smaller containers.” Wooten notes that the company also sells products in quart sizes and spray bottles. The company wanted a machine with the flexibility to also produce those containers in-house when sales volume reached sufficient levels.

The Uniloy 16.D shuttle machine offered the smallest footprint of any machine that could accept the 10-litre molds from the Liberty machine. It is a dual-station machine with a maximum width of 9 feet, 11 inches, and a length of 18 feet, 4 inches. The machine features a bobbing extruder and horizontal clamp system that allows low overall machine profile and short blowpins.

“Uniloy’s shuttle solutions center, FGH Systems Inc., (Denville NJ), came up with a turnkey proposal that covered engineering modifications to the 10-litre molds, the design and build of four-litre molds, as well as installation and start-up of the new machine at Pioneer’s plant.

“It was extremely tight and difficult to make the 10-litre molds work in the new, smaller machine,” says Frank Hohmann, FGH president. “We shaved an inch off the existing molds, created a height adapter for the Liberty, and worked out backing plate adapters for the 16.D to convert cooling lines from the Liberty.”

The adaptations allow the existing molds to be used on either the old Liberty machine or the new UMS 16.D machine. FGH also created a mold design for four-litre containers that allow Pioneer to change inserts to run different neck finishes and cap types.

Uniloy Milacron Inc. 513-536-3320