IN Brief:
- IMI’s Industrial Automation sector has developed a bespoke PET blowing block system for Tech-Long.
- The solution has increased PET bottle production capacity by 10% while reducing compressed air consumption.
- The system is designed for aseptic and non-aseptic bottling, including dairy, juice, and functional drink applications.
IMI’s Industrial Automation sector has developed a bespoke PET blowing block solution for Tech-Long, delivering a 10% increase in production capacity while reducing compressed air consumption in PET bottle manufacturing.
The collaboration focused on high-speed bottling environments, where compressed air demand, blowing precision, hygiene requirements, and line output all influence operating cost. IMI’s application engineering team in China developed a configurable four-valve blowing block system incorporating a Px/AR single valve for Tech-Long’s PET bottle manufacturing equipment.
The solution can operate in both aseptic and non-aseptic conditions, making it suitable for beverage lines handling dairy drinks, juices, functional beverages, and standard PET bottled products. Sensitive beverages place additional demands on hygienic design, while conventional bottled products continue to require output, repeatability, and efficient air use.
Tech-Long supplies equipment across blowing, filling, capping, labelling, packing, palletising, and complete-line systems. Its PET equipment base includes blow moulding machinery and blowing-filling-capping blocks used in beverage production. The new IMI system was developed to address limitations in a legacy configuration, including high compressed air use and constraints on machine output.
Compressed air is among the most expensive utilities in PET bottle production. Bottle blowing uses controlled high-pressure air to expand heated preforms inside moulds, while pneumatic systems also support actuation and machine functions across the line. Inefficient air use raises energy cost and can limit throughput on high-speed blowing systems.
IMI Norgren’s PET bottling portfolio includes blowing blocks, air recovery systems, cooling valves, pneumatic stretch actuators, and air-management components. The company’s PET technology work focuses on air flow, air recovery, valve positioning, and reduction of dead space volume. In the Tech-Long project, the bespoke architecture has been designed around both efficiency and hygienic operation.
A blowing block is not the most visible part of a PET line, but it sits close to the point where energy use, bottle formation, and cycle performance converge. Improvements at that stage can lift output and reduce utility demand without replacing the entire production platform. That makes subsystem redesign attractive for operators trying to increase capacity within existing factories.
Packaging equipment development is increasingly tied to material and energy reduction. Sidel’s lightweight PET bottle for edible oil used preform heating and structural design to reduce plastic while maintaining strength. IMI’s work with Tech-Long approaches the same manufacturing pressure from the machinery side, improving the process that forms the bottle rather than only the bottle geometry.
The combination of higher output and lower compressed air use can change production economics. Bottling lines often operate under tight capacity windows, with seasonal peaks, promotional activity, SKU complexity, and product changeovers affecting availability. A 10% capacity gain can provide headroom for new products or defer additional capital expenditure, while reduced air consumption lowers energy cost across every run.
Aseptic compatibility adds a further requirement. Dairy drinks, juices, and functional beverages are more demanding than standard water or carbonated soft drink applications because product safety depends on maintaining sterile or hygienic conditions through the blowing and filling environment. Components used in these zones have to support cleaning, contamination control, and reliable operation while maintaining high-speed performance.
The project also reflects the changing role of component engineering in OEM machinery. Machine builders increasingly need suppliers to provide application-specific systems rather than standard catalogue components. Energy efficiency, hygiene, output, footprint, serviceability, and monitoring are all part of equipment competitiveness, and those requirements often have to be resolved at design stage.
Compressed air optimisation will remain a practical target as beverage producers confront higher utility costs and tighter sustainability reporting. PET packaging debates often centre on resin, recycled content, and bottle weight, but the energy used to make and fill the bottle is part of the same cost and carbon equation. IMI’s Tech-Long solution shows how targeted pneumatic engineering can produce measurable gains within established PET bottling systems.
