DAZZLING VARIETY

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 8

DAZZLING VARIETY

Output has grown in the! last three decades from a very r limited range of products: worth only a few thousand dollars a year to an annual output worth several million dollars. At Christchurch, the company blow-moulds plastic containers varying in sire from four ounces to one gallon. The dazzling variety of shapes, sizes and colours of the containers produced testify to the giant strides taken by the plastics industry in recent years. Thousands of pounds of plastic raw materials a week flow from a hopper into the blow-moulding machine below where it is heated to melting

il point. The molten material • is formed into a tubular pariqson by a diehead, then a twoI: piece mould closes on it from i opposing sides and air is i injected through the mould to blow the parison into ‘shape. i When the mould opens, seconds later, the formed container is ejected by a blast of compressed air into a recei'iver where it is quickly /examined by an operator for any flaws. Finally, the package-to-be is screen printed in any num- : ber of colours and variety of i designs, dried, packed, and ' stored for despatch to the ! customer.