Hot runners | technology
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Hot runner technology can hold the key to more efficient injection moulding and higher quality moulded components. Mark Holmes rounds up some recent developments
High volume plastics manufacturing covers a multitude of industries but all face the same demands - produce more parts, more quickly, using less material and, ultimately, at a lower price. Melt delivery technology can help meet all those demands. As a consequence, hot runner system developers have been directing their efforts at developing equipment that enables part weight savings and shorter moulding cycles, supports higher cavitation and closer pitch, and can handle ever more challenging materials. This article takes a look at some of the latest developments. Italian hot runner maker Thermoplay - which
together with Männer Group, Priamus System Tech- nologies, Synventive Molding Solutions and most recently Foboha sits within the growing Molding Solutions division of US-based Barnes Group - special- ises in high performance hot runner systems with a strong place in high cavitation systems for applications such as packaging. Business development manager Chris Whitlam says it is a sector where every fraction of a second counts. That means analysing every detail of the moulding process to exploit all opportunities to improve performance. The company’s R&D team, for example, is always testing new polymers for injection
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moulding projects. Other priority areas of development include reducing the distance between injection points, and optimising heating and cooling of the system to produce parts at the highest levels of quality on the minimum cycle time. Thermoplay’s expanded small nozzle series includes
the F Ø11. Designed for special applications in the packaging, medical, cosmetics and electronics sectors, the mini nozzle feature a small 13mm pitch and are now available in valve gate as well as thermal gate versions. The company says that the nozzles are ideal for use in applications such as cosmetic packaging where they allow injection on the ‘inside’ surface of parts with challenging access. The nozzle and tip arrangement is designed for low thermal dispersion, which gives the mould designer maximum flexibility in cooling system design, while uniform distribution of heat along the entire length of the nozzle means a low energy con- sumption (100W maximum per nozzle). Valve gate actuation can be pneumatic or hydraulic, individual or plate actuated. Whitlam says the valve pin also offers 0.05mm increments of adjustment, allowing the gate vestige to be finely tuned. The pin itself is available in a cylindrical or conical option and is
Main image:
Ewikon’s micro manifolds use a modular
construction
well suited to high cavitiation mould designs
November/December 2016 | INJECTION WORLD 39
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