Get connected – this is ENGEL’s claim bringing together experts with machine solutions and the technologies to match at Fakuma from 17 to 21 October. Among other exhibits, the ENGEL stand is presenting an automotive application and a medical application which have one thing in common: with complexity reduced to the bare essentials, these applications show what a close-to-standard solution with proven ENGEL technology can look like.
Being a partner for every injection moulder – this is the aspiration on which ENGEL is focusing at the heart of this year’s Fakuma. Decades of experience in developing and building injection moulding solutions have led to a deep understanding of the injection moulding process and its special character. At Fakuma, ENGEL is presenting solutions deliberately reduced to the essentials that impress in terms of performance and efficiency at the same time.
In the dual-platen machine area, ENGEL is exhibiting a standard application that supports a variety of use cases, manufacturing automotive trims for the vehicle interior made of a PP compound by Borealis in a 4-cavity mould on a duo 1480/500. Using 30% recycled material, this application clearly shows that processing recovered plastics is a worry-free process on standard machines. The application does justice to an EU directive currently under discussion which envisages a 25% share of PCR (post consumer recyclate) in cars by 2030. A viper20 from the ENGEL linear robot family is removing the parts from the 4-cavity mould by Simoldes and placing them on a conveyor belt.
The servo-hydraulic drive featuring ENGEL ecodrive is available as standard for all sizes of the duo series. In combination with the digital assistance systems from the iQ family, such as iQ clamp control and iQ flow control, energy savings potentials of up to 40% can be achieved compared with conventional dual-platen machines. This close-to-standard design also offers the advantage of shorter lead times.
Featuring all the iQ solutions available on the market right now, ENGEL is showing how the potential of the standard-based duo 500 can be leveraged to the max. While iQ weight control and other systems ensure process quality, iQ process observer ensures that – wherever changes occur in the injection moulding process – the machine operator is alerted to these in real time. Immediate action can be taken to avoid rejects and keep machine availability high.
In the medical sector, ENGEL is showcasing a high-precision and, above all, space-saving all-electric application: needle protection caps are being produced on an e-mac 265/130 – equipped with the ENGEL cleanroom package – in a premiere at Fakuma. This means that the compact e-mac series is now also available for space-saving production of medical parts in cleanroom applications. The 96-cavity mould comes from KEBO AG and was developed specifically for secondary packaging. Secondary packaging does not directly touch the active ingredient and is mainly used to protect and identify the medical device. Moulds with a large number of cavities, like the mould by Kebo, require high precision and dynamics in the injection process – and this is exactly what the new injection unit 265 ensures. The cycle time is a fast 6.2 seconds.
The box transfer system is a further innovation that supports optimum use of the production cell in partially to fully automated production. The injection-moulded needle protection caps drop out of the KEBO mould into a delivery chute and are transported from there by a Z conveyor belt to a box waiting on another conveyor belt. This box has a capacity of 30,000 units. Once full capacity is reached, the box is cycled forward on the conveyor belt. All told, there is space for four boxes of this type on the belt. The box transfer system can be connected to an automated guided vehicle (AGV) system – independently of the manufacturer. Besides the digital interface, all that is needed is preparations in logistics to allow the AGV to dock with the box transfer system and accept the boxes.
Both the duo 500 and the e-mac 130 show how smart temperature control works. The two production cells combine e-flomo plus with eco-flomo plus to manage the various aspects of temperature control in the best possible way: while e-flomo plus takes care of mould temperature control, eco-flomo plus is used for hot runner cooling, and more specifically for flow rate monitoring. All manifolds are clearly displayed by the iQ flow control smart assistant.
Solutions deliberately reduced to the essential that enable high-performance, efficient injection moulding production – these are the requirements that ENGEL is squaring up to for its customers at Fakuma 2023.