Case Studies

Case study: 35 mL ROUND BOTTLE

Written by Aoki Technical Laboratory, Inc. | February 13,2024

35 mL ROUND BOTTLE

Container for combating pests that take more lives than any other

Refill container for plug-in liquid mosquito killer

Do you know what creature takes more human lives than any other creature on this planet? No, it's not other humans or venomous snakes or crocodiles. The fact is that mosquitoes take far more lives than any other creatures. As vectors of malaria, dengue fever, and other infectious diseases, mosquitoes are thought to be responsible for the deaths of at least 700,000 people per year, and this is the total only for regions in which statistics are available.

This case study concerns a customer producing containers used in the fight against mosquitoes in Brazil. The mosquito killer unit kills mosquitoes by heating a carbon rod to about 60°C with a ring heater to evaporate the insecticide that adheres to the surface of the rod. The original containers were being molded using a locally made mold, but owing to uneven wall thickness, they tended to thermally deform when used. Wanting to improve quality, the end user ordered a mold from Aoki for use by a local blow molder to which it would outsource container production.

The end user’s demands for this project were as follows:

1. Assured production: Outsourcing production to domestic blow molders is the mainstream model in Brazil.
2. Support for increase in production volume: From approximately 10,800,000 to 14,400,000 bottles per year
3. Priority on quality: Products with minimum uneven wall thickness and no thermal deformation

Project progress

We originally proposed using the AL-250LL-50S, the most popular of the models we ship to Brazil. Production volume varies with season, and so to avoid shortages, the end user was planning to purchase the machine with another company. We advised that using our technology, which enables the same container to be molded faster, would ensure sufficient production volume by shortening the molding cycle. We were asked to make a test mold and examine molding cycle and quality. Thanks to our high-speed mold release technology, we shaved 5 seconds off the molding cycle, fulfilling customer demands for production volume increase as well as higher quality. With the increase in production volume, the customer no longer needed to consider purchase from a second company, and bottle cost too was eventually reduced.