Introduction to History of blow molding

The process of using air to blow hot material was first used by the Syrians. The method is attributed to Syrian glass workers in the first century BC,

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who realized that a glass bulb on the end of a blow pipe could be shaped into many useful hollow forms, with handles and feet and decorated adjuncts added at will. This involved placing a long tube, into a receptacle, which is located in a blast furnace containing liquid glass, and removing a blob of white hot liquid glass and spinning it and then blowing into a mouthpiece on the other end of the tube.

This process was refined in Europe during the Middle Ages because of the demand for bottles to contain and ship products such as wine. Reliefs on the walls of Egyptian royal tombs record the art of glass blow molding. Egyptians further developed the art of blow molding in 1700-1600 B.C.Enoch Ferngren and William Kopitke were the first verified people who used the Blow Molding Process.

In 1851, S.T. Armstrong, U.S. patent reference to blow molding a plastic material other than glass. In the mid 1930s, ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) developed low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which was commercialized in 1939 and perfected in 1945 for squeeze bottles. In 1938, Ferngren and Kopitke produced a blow molding machine and sold it to Hartford Empire Company. This was the beginning of the commercial blow molding process. During the 1940s the variety and amount of products were still very limited and therefore blow molding did not take off until later.

Once the variety and production rates went up the amount of products created followed soon thereafter. In 1950, Kautex Werke (Reinhold Hagen, Germany) developed and soon offered the first commercially available blow molding equipment. The design uses a rising mold technique with continuously extruded open ended parison.

In 1953, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was discovered by both Paul Hogan of the Phillips Petroleum Company in the United States and Professor Zieglar in Germany. Later, Professor Natta from Italy went further and polymerized both propylene and butylenes. With the appearance of HDPE in the marketplace, a virtual explosion of blow molded products occurred in both Europe and North America. In 1970, Coca-Cola test markets the world’s first plastic carbonated beverage bottle, a methacrylonitrile/styrene bottle by Monsant.

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In 1970s, biaxial oriented polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was developed with introduction of the two-step process in which the preform and the bottles are produced on separate machines by Cincinnati Milacron, USA. In 1977 Nisser, ASB Company (Japan), began to offer biaxial orientation of PET using blow molding equipment based on a one-step process. In the United States soft drink industry, the amount of plastic containers went from zero in 1977 to ten Billion in 1999.

With the introduction and application of microprocessor resins, a wide range of material properties became available. Also the availability of larger, more robust, equipment and microprocessor technology led to the production of a range of industrial products such as automotive fuel tanks, armrests, and air conditioners. Then from Japan and Germany complex shapes and irregular contours were possible with the introduction of 3-D blow molding. Today, an even greater amount of products are blow molded, and it is expected to keep increasing.

A blow molding renaissance is occurring in which engineers and designers are discovering and promoting blow molding for a wide variety of industrial or technical application. Toy wheels, automobile seat back, ductwork, surf boards, bellows, fuel tanks, flower pots, automobile bumpers, double- walled tool cases, and cabinet panels are just a few examples of the many creative design being developed.

They are known by various names. Light-ups, Lawn Art, plastic kitsch, illuminated figures, or simply blow molds.

Blow molding is a plastic manufacturing process. In 1881, the first U.S. Patent was given to Celluloid Novelty Co. of New York for extruding a polymer (cellulose nitrate) into a parison. In a nutshell, a hollow tube, the parison, is filled with melted plastic, placed into a steel mold, inflated with air, forcing the plastic to the interior surface of a metal mold, the metal mold is opened when cooled, the item is removed and appropriately painted. Cellulose acetate was later used in the 1930’s, Low Density Polyethylene (LDP) came in the 1940s, causing the blow molding industry to explode when Monsanto started making plastic squeeze bottles.

Thereafter, many other manufacturers started using the process to produce plastic containers in substitution for glass. In the 1950’s High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polypropylene (PP) were used to produce containers for water, oil, and most importantly, the lowly milk jug. Early in the 1960s, enterprising manufacturers started producing blow molded Christmas decorations*. Bernard Edward Co., of Chicago, IL, later renamed Beco, Poloron Products of New Rochelle, NY, Union Products of Leominster, MA and NOMA/Tico were some of the first to produce blow molded Christmas decorations. They were later followed by Dapol, Lidco, Hamilton Skotch Corp., Sunhill, Bayshore, Bel-Air Plastics, Empire, General Foam and many others.

*Note: Blow molding is a distinct form of plastic molding as opposed to injection molding which is the older of the two processes; producing hard plastic, even walled pieces that are glued or bonded together.

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