Method For Producing Hollow Articles In The Blow Molding Process With Reduced Cycle Time

A method for producing hollow articles in the blow molding process with reduced cycle time and using a nucleation agent that foams a thermoplastic plastic with homogeneously distributed gas bubbles prior to blow forming, wherein the method has the following steps:

• providing the nucleation agent, the nucleation agent having substances that emit gas bubbles when a decomposition temperature is exceeded;
• and
• heating a mixture consisting of thermoplastic plastic and nucleation agent to a temperature exceeding the decomposition temperature of the nucleation agent;
• characterized in that
• a supercritical fluid state of the gas bubbles that have formed is maintained by means of supercritical pressure values elevated relative to ambient pressure while heating of the mixture is continued and a blow molding into a hollow article is carried out in a blow molding apparatus at the supercritical pressure values of the thermoplastic plastic that has been foamed with homogeneously distributed gas bubbles, at an ambient temperature of the thermoplastic plastic that is reduced to below a plastic-specific softening or melting temperature of the thermoplastic plastic.