Blow Molding & Hollow Plastic Products worked example

Bottle Cycle Time at 14% cycle-time allowance: a worked example

Push cycle-time allowance up to 14% and the picture changes. This example computes every intermediate figure at that operating point. a blow molding line needs to schedule bottles, jars, containers, or hollow parts against real machine output

The inputs for this scenario

  • Good bottles required: 48,000 bottles (unchanged)
  • Good bottle production rate: 3,600 bottles / hr (unchanged)
  • Cycle-time allowance: 14 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 12)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Base bottle cycle time = good bottles required รท good bottle production rate) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 15.2 hr for required bottle run time, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 13.33 hr for base bottle cycle time.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 14 % for cycle-time allowance.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 3,600 bottles / hr for good bottle production rate.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where cycle-time allowance sits at 12% and the headline result is 14.93 hr, this scenario comes in 1.79% above the baseline at 15.2 hr.
  • It divides the required good-bottle quantity by the good-bottle production rate to get a base run time, then inflates it by a percentage allowance for real-world losses. The value of this scenario is the size of the gap it exposes: that gap, priced out over a year, is the budget you can justify spending to close it.

Results at a glance

  • Required bottle run time: 15.2 hr (headline result)
  • Base bottle cycle time: 13.33 hr
  • Cycle-time allowance: 14 %
  • Good bottle production rate: 3,600 bottles / hr

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Bottle Cycle Time calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.