Scientific Achievement Registration: Fully Automatic Cap-Closing Rotary Sealing Blind-Tube Mold

The Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology, as the highest administrative authority for S&T work in the province, is responsible for organizing and implementing S&T achievement registration. S&T achievement registration is an important part of S&T achievement management, implemented in accordance with the “Measures for S&T Achievement Registration” (Guo Ke Fa Ji Zi [2000] No. 542). All research projects that have passed appraisal, acceptance inspection, or have obtained patents may apply for registration. Registered S&T achievements are uniformly numbered by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology and, after public announcement, are issued an S&T Achievement Registration Certificate. This certificate is a required attachment for applying for the Zhejiang Province S&T Award and is also an important basis for enterprises to qualify for High-Tech Enterprise, Technology-Based Enterprise, High-Tech Enterprise R&D Center, and other qualifications. This achievement is an innovative result in the field of automated injection molds, requiring technical appraisal and novelty search to confirm that its automation level and technical indicators have reached a domestically leading level. Zhejiang SINOMOULD Co., Ltd.’s independently developed “Fully Automatic Cap-Closing Rotary Unscrewing Toothpaste Injection Mold” was registered as an S&T achievement by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology. This technological achievement integrates the traditional manual or semi-automatic cap-closing and sealing process into the mold injection process, achieving single-step molding and significantly reducing post-processing steps, signifying that SINOMOULD’s technological breakthrough in the field of automated injection molds has received provincial-level authoritative certification.

Coordinated Integration of Rotary Unscrewing and In-Mold Automatic Cap Closing

The technical difficulties of toothpaste cap injection molds are mainly manifested in two aspects: first, the product has an internal thread structure and cannot be demolded by conventional ejection methods, requiring a rotary mechanism to rotate the threaded core out to avoid thread damage; second, flip-cap products require the cap to be closed after injection molding, and traditional processes rely on manual or semi-automatic equipment, resulting in low efficiency and high defect rates. Through structural innovation, SINOMOULD’s R&D team integrated the rotary unscrewing mechanism and the in-mold automatic cap-closing mechanism into a single mold, synchronously completing both the thread unscrewing and cap closing operations within the injection molding cycle.

In mold design, the core innovation of this technological achievement lies in the sequential coordinated control of the rotary unscrewing mechanism and the in-mold cap-closing mechanism. The rotary unscrewing mechanism is driven by a hydraulic motor or servo motor driving a gear and sprocket system, causing the threaded core to rotate, enabling the product to be smoothly ejected after the threads are fully unscrewed. This mechanism requires extremely high precision, ensuring that the number of rotations of the threaded core precisely matches the demolding stroke to avoid damage to the last thread pitch. The in-mold automatic cap-closing mechanism uses a micro cylinder or servo mechanism in coordination with the control system to complete the cap-closing action during the mold opening process. The sequential coordination of these two actions ensures that the entire process from injection to cap closing is automatically completed within the mold.

In injection molding, this technological achievement effectively shortens the overall transfer cycle from injection to packaging by integrating the post-processing cap-closing step into the mold interior. The mold adopts a full hot runner needle valve system, ensuring simultaneous arrival of melt at each cavity and producing no gate waste, further improving production efficiency. SINOMOULD has over twenty years of R&D and manufacturing experience in the field of cap molds, with flip-cap molds reaching a maximum of 144 cavities.

Fully Automated Solution: Dual Drive of Labor Cost Savings and Capacity Improvement

SINOMOULD’s “Fully Automatic Cap-Closing Rotary Unscrewing Toothpaste Injection Mold” technological achievement integrates the traditional manual or semi-automatic cap-closing and sealing process into the mold injection process, achieving single-step molding and significantly reducing post-processing steps. In traditional flip-cap product injection molding, after molding, workers must manually close the cap onto the cap base before the product enters the packaging stage. The force and angle of manual cap closing are difficult to maintain consistency, with a defect rate of approximately eight per thousand, of which about sixty percent stem from incomplete cap closing. After adopting in-mold automatic cap-closing technology, the cap-closing defect rate can be substantially reduced, and the number of production line operators significantly decreased.

In mold manufacturing, the rotary unscrewing mechanism and the in-mold cap-closing mechanism place extremely high demands on the machining precision and fitting accuracy of mold components. SINOMOULD relies on high-precision CNC processing equipment and a systematic precision manufacturing process system to ensure the machining precision and surface quality of key components such as threaded cores, gear transmission systems, and cap-closing mechanisms, providing manufacturing assurance for the stability and reliability of multi-action sequencing. In quality control systems, SINOMOULD has passed ISO9001 Quality Management System certification and IATF 16949 Automotive Industry Quality Management System certification, establishing a full-process quality control system covering mold design review, processing process monitoring, and assembly, commissioning, and inspection. Each fully automatic cap-closing rotary unscrewing mold undergoes strict trial mold verification and action sequencing inspection before delivery, ensuring the coordinated reliability of rotary unscrewing and cap-closing actions.

Customer Value: Triple Assurance of Labor Savings, Capacity Improvement, and Product Consistency

For daily chemical packaging production enterprises, flip-cap product output is enormous, and the post-processing cap-closing step has long relied on labor, resulting in high labor costs and significant quality fluctuations. SINOMOULD’s “Fully Automatic Cap-Closing Rotary Unscrewing Toothpaste Injection Mold” technological achievement completes two post-processing steps within the mold. Customers can directly obtain cap-closed finished products from the mold cavity, eliminating the post-processing cap-closing step, reducing operators, and significantly improving yield rates. This fully automated solution is particularly suitable for high-volume tubular product production scenarios, bringing customers significant labor cost savings, capacity improvement, and product consistency assurance. The technological maturity assurance certified by provincial-level S&T achievement registration provides reliable technical support for customers’ high-volume flip-cap product production.

According to the management requirements of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the S&T Achievement Registration Certificate is a required attachment for applying for the Zhejiang Province S&T Award, and registered achievements are incorporated into the provincial S&T achievement database for unified management. SINOMOULD will continue to advance in-depth R&D and industrialization of automated injection mold technology, consolidating its technological leadership position in the field of daily chemical packaging flip-cap molds.