Collapsible aluminum tube production line

2021-04-12

Introduction

Aluminum Collapsible Tubes are the favored packaging form for ointments and creams demanding high barrier characteristics for Product durability over a prolonged shelf-life. These are extensively utilized World over for packaging of Pharmaceutical, Hair-Care, and Industrial. Aluminum collapsible tubes are usually coated from the inside to produce lasting durability. Collapsible tubes preserve them within products from oxidation.

The production process of a collapsible tube is a sequence of technological operations that are very different. It is a constant method and fully automatic: from storing the aluminum slugs in the press to the packaging device where the tubes are put in the boxes. There is no requirement to control the tubes manually since they are moved through a range of machines, with the semi-finished product's automatic passage between one device and the subsequent.

1. Mechanical procedure

2. Internal coating

3. Printing procedure

4. End of line

1. Mechanical method

(Press, tube clipping and rolling thread device, shaving elimination system, phaser)

The method starts with storing the annealed aluminum slugs, from the tumbling section, into the press's feeder; these slugs, through a lift and a selector, are automatically moved to the horizontal press where they encounter cold contact extrusion.

The slug is then pressed between the tip and the matrix. So with more significant pressure, it generates a plastic deformation of the aluminum.

First, the tube's shoulder and mouth are created while the excess aluminum slides along the circumferential portion between the matrix and the top, making the tube body. Such a speedy sliding of the material provides the semi-finished product a tube body, in one blow and a rise in temperature of about 200° C.

The semi-finished product is then moved from the press to the tube trimming and thread rolling device. Every manufacturer begins with this method for producing aluminum collapsible tubes and aluminum lotion tubes.

In this second machine, the semi-finished result is threaded and cut to the wanted length. After this process, the collapsible tube dimension is achieved. The tube's shoulder is polished thanks to a rotating brush that makes it quite sleek and shiny. Many production lines also have automatic systems for eliminating any shavings from the extrusion phase.

All waste and production scraps are extracted mechanically and aspired by a centralized system for waste collection. All of the aluminum scraps are 100% recyclable. These initial operations of the aluminum tube-forming process are mainly mechanical and qualitatively define the finished tube's dimensional characteristics.

2.Internal coating
(annealing oven, internal coating, polymerization oven, accumulator)
Proceeding down the line on examining the production procedure, the discharge conveyor of the trimming and threading device sets the semi-finished product on a small accumulator, which attaches the devices performing the mechanical process as explained above with the following annealing method where the collapsible tube becomes collapsible at temperatures above 400 ° C.
The stuff of the semi-finished product, in fact, after the extrusion process and the plastic deformation, as explained earlier, recrystallizes and firms. Therefore, it is vital to attain very high annealing temperatures to provide elasticity back to the tube.
The tube is now available to move into the internal coating device, which ensures a protecting interior so that you can fill it with almost any kind of product. The coating method involves the protecting layer utilizing pistols that contemporaneously revolve and shift.
The tube is polymerized at a temperature that changes according to the coating utilized, approximately 300° C. Both these methods, which have just been explained, are crucial. They define the tube's resistance to aggressive agents and its capability to keep the product's organoleptic properties contains unchanged.
The subsequent action is another accumulator, which transports the tube to the printing machine, serving as the driving force if there is a generation line stoppage. This process you must follow if you want to produce metal cosmetic tubes.
3.Printing process
(coater device, lithographic machine, evaporating ovens)
The first device in the printing method is the coater device, which applies a coat of external enamel on the tube's cover by contact.
The tube is then conveyed to a drying oven, where the enamel is condensed at a temperature between 110°C and 140°C. The enameled, dry tube moves to the printing device, where the ink is employed utilizing an offset process to achieve the wanted lithograph. Repeatedly, the tube runs into a drying oven after this process, where the ink is fused into the enamel. The temperature, in this case, varies from 140°C to 170°C.
4.End of the line
(Accumulator, Leak Control, Capping machine, latex machine, packing device)
The line's end has more than one machine: accumulator, leak control, capping machine, latex machine, and packing machine. The Leak Control device is present on all the generation lines, and it verifies the 100% perfect seal of the tube. This machine has a very excellent carrying system that passes the tubes at variable speeds, holding the tubes at the worksite.
A refined design can prove any waste of pressure at the workstation, any cuts or holes on the whole tube surface, and the layer by injecting controlled air into the tube at a maintained pressure and diminishing the defective ones. The capping machine screws the caps on the tube and, if necessary, applies a plastic insert.
Other applications are available on the same device for particular needs, such as a guarantee seal or quality control seal. The latex device implements a latex ring on the tube's opening as an additional seal guarantee once it is filled and locked. The latex employment is brought out on two tubes together through two centrifuges pieces. After these latex applications, the transporter's tube is moved in front of the box it will be packed in.
The packing device has a sensor that counts the collapsible tubes that pass, controls their introduction into the box, row by row, until the package is filled. The aluminum collapsible tubes, automatically driven inside the boxes with pushers, are available for qualitative control and arrangement in the warehouse, available for delivery once the cartons are accumulated onto the pellets. The pellets are wrapped with extensible plastic film.