press | release
Hall A5 (A5-5204) and the East Foyer
Welcome to the ENGEL stand at Fakuma 2014
Schwertberg, Austria – August 2014.
Barrier-free mould area, compact manufacturing cells and a high capacity for innovation: ENGEL will be celebrating 25 years of tie-bar-less technology at Fakuma 2014, which takes place in Friedrichshafen October 14 - 18. With numerous innovative applications on show, the injection moulding machine manufacturer will use the event to demonstrate how tie-bar-less machines can continue in future to meet the highest demands in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
The new tie-bar-less, all-electric ENGEL e-motion 50 TL will also be making its world premiere in Friedrichshafen. Other innovations on show at the ENGEL stands will include double technology integration and the ENGEL e-flomo closed loop temperature-control water distribution system.
25 years of ENGEL tie-bar-less technology
'The clamping unit of an injection moulding machine has four tie-bars.' Since the first single-screw injection moulding machine was developed in 1956, this design principle was regarded as inviolable – but when ENGEL unveiled a tie-bar-less machine at the K 1989 plastics trade show in Düsseldorf, the innovation by the Upper Austrian company was greeted with astonishment and even ridicule; there were plenty of arguments against it. Twenty-five years on, tie-bar-less injection moulding machines represent one of ENGEL's biggest revenue sources. Underlining the outstanding success of the new design principle, more than 60,000 tie-bar-less machines have been delivered around the world. Machines offering large platen faces and free access to the mould area meet the need for high efficiency and cost-effectiveness in injection moulding production more closely than any other design. Now ENGEL is set to celebrate this success story with a special presentation in the East Foyer at Fakuma 2014.
An ENGEL victory 330/80 tech injection moulding machine fitted with energy efficient ecodrive drive technology and the new CC300 control unit will produce fittings for drainage systems – an application designed to showcase the advantages of tie-bar-less technology to best effect. Although the mould provided by ifw-Kunststofftechnik (Micheldorf, Austria) is of substantial size with its large core-pulls, it can still be attached to the 80-ton machine quickly and conveniently. “When you used a traditional machine with tie-bars, a large machine with minimum clamping force of 150 tons would be needed to fit the bulky mould. You would also need to remove a tie-bar or disassemble the core-pulls to set up the mould, which took a lot of time,” says Franz Pressl, Product Manager for tie-bar-less ENGEL victory injection moulding machines. With no tie-bars to interfere with the mould in the ENGEL victory, mould mounting platens can be used up to their edges and very large moulds can be mounted on relatively small injection moulding machines. “This enhances overall efficiency,” says Pressl. “Smaller machines require less energy, and most importantly take up less space.”
Machines with no tie-bars offer particular benefits in the production of large components with complex, three-dimensional structures as well as multi-component applications; they are also advantageous in the case of multi-cavity moulds. “Because of the pressure of costs in many sectors, the number of cavities is rising and moulds are getting bigger. Compared to mould size, though, the actual clamping force requirement has remained relatively low in the production of technical parts,” underlines Franz Pressl. “Tie-bar-less technology has enabled us to turn the tide of spiralling costs and make plastics processing firms more competitive by installing smaller machines. Even in its 25th year, tie-bar-less technology has its finger on the pulse.”
Teletronics: Higher productivity per square metre of production space
At the Teletronics section of the ENGEL stand, a new tie-bar-less and all-electric ENGEL emotion 50 TL will produce 15-pin plug housings from fibreglass-reinforced PBT/ASA using a two-cavity mould. “The trend towards ever higher productivity per square metre of factory space is continuing,” emphasises Heinz Rasinger, Vice President of ENGEL's Teletronics business unit. “The electronics industry also has extremely high demands as regards precision.” The 15 contact pins in the finished connector, for example, are very close together, and the moulded grid structure is equally fine with wall thicknesses and edge lengths in the region of micrometres. In this market segment, all-electric machines are the standard. To offer highly compact manufacturing cells, ENGEL combines all-electric drive technology with a tie-bar-less clamping unit in its ENGEL e-motion TL small machine range.
Having unveiled the ENGEL e-motion TL with an initial clamping force of 30 tons at K 2013, ENGEL will be upgrading the new series to include a 50-ton version at Fakuma 2014. As with the smaller variant, the new ENGEL e-motion 50 TL features a one-piece machine frame that makes the injection moulding machine lighter and more compact than comparable all-electric machines of other types. The design also guarantees very high platen parallelism and even distribution of clamping force.
“The small, all-electric ENGEL e-motion TL machines are concrete proof that even after a quarter of a century, the concept of tie-bar-less injection moulding machines has room for innovation,” says Heinz Rasinger. “We believe there is a great deal of potential for tie-bar-less injection moulding machines in the electronics industry.” Many electronic components such as plug housings are parts with complex, three dimensional structures requiring bulky moulds with slide units and core-pulls but relatively low clamping force because of the somewhat small part surfaces projected. In many applications, the fact that the mould mounting platens on a tie-bar-less machine can be used up to the edges means that a smaller machine can be used than the mould size would normally dictate – and this drives up productivity per square metre of factory space.
Automotive: Technology integration opens new vistas of quality
The trend of process integration as a path to greater efficiency, safety and quality is well established. Now it is necessary to adopt a more diversified stance. The object is no longer simply to integrate process steps upstream or downstream of injection moulding, but also to combine different process technologies with one another. To produce centre console components in PC-ABS at its trade show stand, ENGEL will be using an ENGEL duo 2550/550 injection moulding machine with integrated ENGEL viper 20 robot to combine two technologies: ENGEL foammelt, the MuCell foam injection moulding process developed by Trexel of Wilmington in the USA, and ENGEL variomelt, a variothermal injection moulding process. “For the first time, this will enable us to produce thin-walled parts with very high quality surfaces and excellent fine structure reproduction at the same time in a single injection moulding step,” promises Franz Füreder, Vice President of the Automotive business unit at ENGEL.
To demonstrate the versatility of this amalgamation of processes, the sample part will have varying wall thicknesses and surface structures. The mould for the variothermal process demonstration will be supplied by ENGEL's partner Roctool (Le Bourget du Lac, France). Thanks to ENGEL foammelt the cavity, including the undercuts, is completely filled, and the component has no sink marks after cooling; meanwhile variothermal temperature control provides a high gloss finish. Away from applications aimed at car interiors, integrating ENGEL foammelt and variomelt opens up new vistas of efficiency and quality for white goods and household products.
The new design of the ENGEL duo injection moulding machine will be unveiled at Fakuma 2014. Users will benefit in particular from improved ergonomics thanks to a lower operating height and easier access to the mould and nozzle area. Other features of the new machine generation include roller rail systems for the moving platen, energy-efficient mould movement and a much cleaner mould area thanks to the discontinuation of central lubrication.
The ENGEL viper linear robot has also had a technical makeover for Fakuma, whereby it was adapted to the new CC300 control unit for ENGEL injection moulding machines. Thanks to the update, the speed, flexibility, compactness, energy efficiency and ease of use of the robots have all improved; even the standard version is fitted with a multidynamic drive package, which draws together the former load, regular and speed packages. Meanwhile the new C70 seven-inch hand-held touch terminal replaces the old C35 and C100 terminals; weighing in at 950grams, the C70 is one of the lightest hand-held control devices of its size on the market. The sides of the robots have been adapted to the new design of the ENGEL machine control unit, ensuring a consistent operating system and uniform presentation. All robot settings can be performed using the hand-held unit or the injection moulding machine's operating panel; key setting parameters for the machine can also be displayed on the C70.
Packaging: All-electric for maximum performance
ENGEL's Packaging business unit will be presenting an all-electric injection moulding machine in Friedrichshafen. 500 ml food containers will be produced on an ENGEL e-motion 440/160 featuring a 2-cavity mould by Glaroform (Näfels, Switzerland). In-mould labelling (IML) will be used to decorate the packaging; to do this, ENGEL will collaborate with partner company BECK automation (Oberengstringen, Switzerland).
“The steady enhancement of the ENGEL e-motion series is serving to establish the machines in the field of high performance applications for the packaging industry,” says Kurt Hell, Sales Manager at ENGEL Packaging. The newest machine generation is able to achieve cycle times of well under three seconds and injection speeds of more than 500 mm per second, thereby combining maximum performance with maximum energy efficiency. The closed system for toggle lever and spindle always guarantees optimal, clean lubrication of all moving machine components. This makes the ENGEL e-motion the preferred machine type even in regulated areas such as food packaging production.
Medical: Process integration for safety
In the Medical section of its stand at Fakuma 2014, ENGEL will be producing drip chambers with integrated filter for blood transfusions. An ENGEL e-victory 310H/80W/50V 160 combi tri-component injection moulding machine with ecodrive and a clean room design will be used in this highly integrated production process. Each drip chamber will comprise one ABS and one PP component; in a single workstep, they will be injection moulded, fitted with the filter and joined by means of overmoulding with additional polypropylene. This high degree of integration significantly boosts efficiency in the manufacturing of multi-component hollow bodies with inlays. Conventionally, the two hollow body components are individually injection moulded; the inlay is then fitted and bonded in subsequent process steps. “Drip chambers are mass-market products that need to be manufactured economically despite the stringent demands on product safety and hygiene,” says Christoph Lhota, Vice President of ENGEL's Medical business unit, underlining the importance of the innovation. “We believe there is potential for this innovative one-shot process in other sectors too, such as the production of fuel filters in the automotive field.”
One key prerequisite in realising the integrated process is servoelectric drive technology for all movements of the index plate mould; this facilitates the synchronous control of mutually independent movements. For this application, the mould manufacturing partner is Hack Formenbau (Kirchheim, Germany).
An ENGEL easix multi-axis robot is also integrated in the manufacturing cell along with a system for total quality control. The drip chambers are inspected for seal tightness directly after injection moulding.
Technical Moulding: Efficient use of LIM multi-component processes
The main demands as regards the processing of liquid silicone (LSR) are that it must be fully automatic, waste-free, low in burrs and require no reworking. An ENGEL e-victory 200H/80W/120 combi injection moulding machine – automated with an ENGEL viper 20 linear robot – will impressively show that ENGEL system solutions not only meet these requirements fully, but also handle LIM multi-component processes securely and efficiently. A mould provided by ACH solution (Fischlham, Austria) will be used to produce sensor housings for flow measurement with integrated seals. “We can guarantee maximum precision by using servo-powered injection units,” says Leopold Praher, head of sales for elast/LIM machines at ENGEL AUSTRIA. “Normally the LSR field requires special solutions where very small injection unit volumes are involved. In this case we meet that need with a standard unit.” Developed and patented by ENGEL, iQ weight control software applied in the system recognises and automatically compensates for fluctuations in melt quantity during the actual injection process.
The tie-bar-less technology of the ENGEL e-victory machine also makes a decisive contribution to high process stability in this application, while the patented force divider evenly introduces force to the mould across the platen face. Both outer and inner cavities are thereby kept closed with precisely identical force, significantly reducing mould wear and raising product quality. On top of this, free access to the tie-bar-less machine's mould area facilitates the most effective automation concepts.
ENGEL plus: Controlled conditions
At the Fakuma event, ENGEL will devote a special presentation area to ENGEL plus, the name for its service products and optimisation tools. The main theme of the display will be intelligent mould temperature control. “Although mould temperature control has a major influence on the productivity of the manufacturing process as well as component quality, we tend to pay too little attention to this aspect,” emphasises Wolfgang Degwerth, head of the Customer Service division at ENGEL AUSTRIA. ENGEL prompted a rethink when it developed ENGEL flomo in 2010. The compact temperature-control water distribution system has manual settings and can be integrated into a machine; electronic monitoring has increased process reliability and simplified process optimisation in more than a thousand new machines to date. For Fakuma 2014, ENGEL will be taking the next step from process monitoring to process control. The newly developed ENGEL e-flomo has electric control valves that make it possible to adjust and control flow rates fully automatically; ENGEL will demonstrate this live at the trade fair. “ENGEL e-flomo keeps the temperature in the mould constant throughout the production period, even where water pressure varies,” says Degwerth. “This results in greater efficiency, process reliability and consistently high product quality.”
ENGEL and partners: lean and environmentally friendly
ENGEL's green machines and system solutions will not only be displayed at the machine manufacturer's own stands at Fakuma 2014: seven partner companies will be using ENGEL systems to showcase their own innovations, including the Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid, EHLEBRACHT Kunststoff-Technik and ROS.