Advantages Of Leak Testing Bottles In Blow Molding Manufacturing

The blow molding manufacturing of plastic bottles is a widely preferred process for the mass production of plastic bottles. The process itself is highly reliable and there are almost zero chances of any potential hazard in the way of the blow molding process. The products that are obtained through the blow molding process are highly durable and perfectly compatible with the world. However, where blow molding has simplified plastic bottle manufacturing for us there are still possibilities of technical problems which is why certain check and balance has to conduct. To ensure that the product is 100% according to the customer’s demand. One major problem that arises with plastic bottles is the leakage issue. Often when bulks and bulks of bottles are being manufactured there isn’t much time to check each and every bottle to ensure that there is no leakage. However, it is very much necessary to check for leakage in every single bottle. Otherwise, if your customer will fill up a leaking bottle and pile it up with other bottles, the damage that it would cause would be enough to lose him as your customer. You don’t want that, nobody does, therefore what you need to do is to test your bottles for any leak. 

How Are Leaks Formed in Bottles in Blow Molding Manufacturing? 

•While testing bottles for leakage, these are the defects that you have to look for:

•Bottom blowouts are formed at the base of the bottle due to gross plastic leak; this type of plastic bottle will surely have a leak in it.

•When you do not use enough parison for manufacturing your plastic bottle it results in short shots which look like the neck or threads of your bottle are not fully formed, this type of bottle won’t be sealed properly with a cap thereby it will surely leak.

•Sometimes some problems come up in the blow molding process due to which the neck of the plastic bottles are not normal but stretched necks. 

•If your mold has been accumulated by impurities or oil from the hydraulic system, anything that has contaminated your mold will contaminate your plastic bottle and will form a leak in it. 

•Due to some problems in the blow molding process, you might get nicks and cocked necks in your plastic bottles and these will result in sealing issues.

•Some other problems in plastic bottles can be gate leaks, gate cracks, and misformed bottles which will result in leakage. 

How Can You Test Bottles for Leakage in Blow Molding Manufacturing? 

The leak testing is done to make sure that none of the product has any defect in it, you can avoid leaks forming your bottles by making sure that nothing goes wrong in the process of blow molding and everything is according to the requirements. The other way is to test for leaks and discard the leaking bottles to be melted again and reused in making bottles. Some ways by which you can leak test bottles are:

•When the final product is obtained, check its quality. This will tell you if the bottle is impenetrable or not and can hold pressure or not. A quality plastic bottle doesn’t allow penetration and holds any type of pressure either of the product inside it or of the transportation, it will handle it. 

•Check for any of the visible defects like cocked necks, gate cracks, misformed bottles, etc. if you find any such bottle which has even the slightest defect discard it. 

•Have a full inspection process of the plastic bottles.

•Keep monitoring the entire blow-molding process constantly so that if any drawbacks occur in the middle of the manufacturing, you can correct them immediately before the full production is done. 

•After the production is done do the pressure test on each bottle by filling air into the bottle and sealing it. If the pressure of the sealed bottle drops then it has a leak.

•The other way of leak testing bottles is by doing a vacuum decay test. If the sidewall of the bottle collapses when it is tested under a fixed amount of vacuum then there is a leak in the bottle. 

Final Word 

The role of leak testing bottles in blow molding manufacturing is much needed. This fast mass production of bottles can not only be monitored for leaks but properly tested for any potential leakage. The testing not only helps in shipping quality products to the customers but also helps in avoiding future problems that might occur in the process. All these plastic bottles are used for storing different liquids of different consistency therefore even if a micro-hole that is not visible to the naked eye is present in the bottle it will leak and no one wants that.