Replacement of Uniloy UIB 180 Injection Blow Molding Machine – ZQ135

For UK pharmaceutical, personal care, and healthcare packaging manufacturers currently running Uniloy UIB 180 lines, the ZQ135 injection blow molding machine delivers a factory-fit alternative with enhanced clamping geometry, a more compact footprint, and lower total energy draw — all without retooling your mold investment. Produced under the Ever-Power brand and engineered to handle containers from 1 ml to 2,000 ml across HDPE, PP, PET, and medical-grade resins, it is designed from the ground up to slot into existing production environments where the UIB 180 format was established.

The machine follows a full European-style structural layout — a design philosophy that prioritises rigidity, precision, and longevity over lightweight cost-reduction. Its clamping force of 1,350 kN (135T) sits 20–30% above the class average for machines in this output bracket, which directly translates to tighter parting-line consistency and reduced flash rates on high-cavitation tooling. If your current UIB 180 setup is due for a capital refresh, the ZQ135 is engineered to step in with minimal process recalibration.

The injection blow moulding process combines polymer injection and container blow moulding into a single, thermally efficient machine cycle — which is the core reason it remains the process of choice for pharmaceutical packaging, cosmetic flacons, and precision small-to-medium containers where neck-finish accuracy is non-negotiable. In the ZQ135, raw resin pellets enter the barrel where they are plasticised by a 70 mm screw running at a 22:1 L/D ratio with 6+N heating zones, giving excellent melt homogeneity across the full 650 g shot weight.

The melt is injected around a core rod under a clamping force of 1,350 kN, forming a precision parison with an already-finished neck thread — no secondary trimming or reaming is needed. The rotary table then indexes the parison to the blow station, where 0.7–1.2 MPa compressed air expands it against the blow mould cavity in approximately 4 seconds dry cycle. The finished container is then stripped at the ejection station, and the core rod returns to the injection position. All three stations operate simultaneously, which is what gives IBM its throughput efficiency at very low scrap rates compared to extrusion blow alternatives.

The ZQ135’s pressurised clamping structure keeps the booster cylinder isolated from the open/close cycle, which is both a precision benefit — cycle-to-cycle positional variation is reduced — and an energy benefit, since the booster does no parasitic work during the majority of the machine’s operating time. Hydraulic pressure runs at 14 MPa with dual 37 kW motors, and total installed power is 95 kW, operating typically between 52% and 70% load in steady-state production.

Representative container samples producible on the ZQ135 across standard commercial volumes

Case Study: Pharmaceutical Packaging Manufacturer, East Midlands, UK

Industry: Pharmaceutical — oral liquid bottles and supplement containers

A mid-sized UK pharmaceutical contract packaging firm based in Nottinghamshire had operated two Uniloy UIB 180 machines since 2014. As both units approached the end of their serviceable lifecycles, the production manager began evaluating alternatives, with the primary constraints being a fixed 140 m2 floor area in the clean-room blister and bottle hall, a single-shift budget for installation, and the need to retain existing 100 ml and 250 ml oral liquid bottle tooling.

The ZQ135’s platen dimensions of 1,300 x 500 mm accepted the company’s existing mould sets with no modification. The 5.5 m machine length freed 0.5 m of floor space per unit compared to the previous layout, which was reallocated to an inline quality-inspection conveyor. After commissioning — completed over two weekends to minimise downtime — the site reported a reduction in flash reject rates of approximately 12% and a measured decrease in electrical consumption of around 18% per 1,000 containers at equivalent output rates.

The production manager noted that the synchronised angle divider on the ZQ135 eliminated a recurring neck-finish alignment issue that had required manual die-head adjustment on the old UIB 180 units roughly once per week. The site subsequently placed an order for a third ZQ135 to expand capacity in a new line.

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Our UK technical sales team can prepare a machine comparison summary, floor layout drawing, or ROI estimate based on your current UIB 180 setup within 3 working days.

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