2013
| news Arburg sets sights on a 3D future
Arburg certainly created a stir at K2013 with the introduction of its Freeformer 3D printing system, a novelty not only in that it is a development from an injection moulding machinery maker but also that it allows parts to be ‘printed’ using standard polymer granules. “There is an increasing
tendency to the production of small batches and one-off parts,” said Arburg technology director Herbert Kraibühler. “We have been considering these demands for some time. This is our answer.” The Freeformer machine
uses layer-build additive manufacturing techniques similar to other 3D printing technologies. However, Kraibühler said Arburg decided to develop its own implementa- tion to cover what it sees as a big limitation of existing 3D printers – the limited and costly raw material options. Work on the development began in 2004, with patents filed in 2009 covering what the company calls the Arburg Plastic Freeforming system
Right: A plastic part being ‘printed’ in Arburg’s new Free- former
Left: Arburg’s Freeformer
can ‘print’ two component parts
(AKF). The AKF system uses a conventional plasticising screw to prepare the plastic before delivering it to a piezoelectric printing system with a 200 micron diameter nozzle. As a result, it can accept standard thermoplastic granules rather than the powder or rod materials used in current equipment. “The price difference is a factor of 100,” Kraibühler said. The Freeformer system is
also able to support two printing systems, allowing production of parts in two
Kortec delivers for dairy
materials or colours; the system running at K was producing a bracket with a flexible TPE element. Arburg has already carried out a lot of work with materials such as ABS and PC as well as a number of TPEs and the process has been found to achieve material strengths of around 70-80% of conventional injection moulded components. Arburg’s engineers have
decided to use static print heads and a moveable compo- nent carrier. The standard version uses a three-axis
movement system. A five- axis system will be offered as an option. Moving the component
rather than the print head also allows a fairly large build envelope to realised – 130mm by 130mm by 250mm high. However, with a 0.3mm diameter droplet size and an operating frequency of 100Hz, build rates are relatively slow. Arburg says a part measuring 50mm by 50mm by 2mm will take around 11 minutes to complete. ❙
www.arburg.com
Coinjection moulding technology provider Kortec showed the result of a new all-PET preform design developed together with French blowmoulding machinery specialist Sidel for production of dairy bottles with an integrated 100% light barrier. The new Kortec LB technology takes the weight of a preform
for a typical 500ml light-barrier dairy bottle from around 28-30g to 25g, says Kortec VP sales and marketing Russell Bennett. The company believes it can take this down further to around 22g. “We have worked with Sidel to offer the optimum light barrier with the minimum amount of material,” says Bennett. A key element in achieving low weight is tight control of the
core black layer, he says. This required integration of the gate- closing technology originally developed for Kortec’s coinjected food container applications into its preform moulding system.
www.kortec.com
12 INJECTION WORLD | November/December 2013
www.injectionworld.com
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