TECHNOLOGY | THIN-WALL MOULDING
Above left: Arburg’s hybrid Allrounder 820 H in the “Packaging” version debuted at Fakuma 2018. Above right: At the event, Arburg’s hybrid Allrounder 820 H produced thin-walled IML containers in a four-cavity mould in a cycle time of around 3.8 s
innovation in the market. Certainly the trend among injection moulding machine makers to facilitate the production of high-quality thin-walled packaging continues apace. At last year’s Fakuma plastics processing show in
Friedrichshafen, Germany, for example, Arburg premiered its hybrid Allrounder 820 H in its “Packaging” guise, producing thin-wall containers with IML decoration. The electric machine had a 3,700 kN clamp paired with a revised Euromap 2100 injection unit. New valve technology provides improved dynamics and reproducibility at injection speeds of up to 500 mm/s. The machine was equipped with a four-cavity mould to produce thin-walled 500 mL PP contain- ers (each weighing 15.7 g) with IML decoration using a product handling system from Müller. Cycle time was around 3.8 s. “Arburg is facing up to the social challenge and
Below: PP lids with IML label were produced by Wittmann Battenfeld at Fakuma
recognises the importance of the circular econo- my,” says Dr Christoph Schumacher, Department Manager Marketing and Corporate Communica- tions. “Our activities in terms of production efficien- cy help with the conservation of resources during production. Almost any material can be pro- cessed on Allrounder injection mould- ing machines, including bioplastics and recyclates. In the case of recyclates, the main problem currently lies in maintaining consistent quality.” Netstal showed off its high-speed Elios 4500 at
Fakuma 2018. Thin-walled plant pots with flow path/wall thickness ratios of 331:1 were
28 INJECTION WORLD | January/February 2019
produced using a six-cavity mould from Glaroform. “Despite the high speed, the cycle time of around 2.8 s, and the powerful injection performance, the machine ran effortlessly and smoothly,” says CEO Renzo Davatz. “One of our employees placed a Swiss five-franc coin on a flat surface of the injec- tion unit. The coin remained still for hours. A small unplanned detail, but one that many observers were very enthusiastic about. They checked to see that the coin wasn’t stuck on.” The Elios 4500 is the model with the smallest clamping force in Netstal’s series built for top performance. The unit at Fakuma had a Euromap 2900 injection unit. Netstal says the Elios series has a unique drive system for the clamping unit, with electrical movement and the hydraulically sup- ported generation of the complete clamping force. For the show model, this gives a 1.5 s dry cycle time with a clamping force of 4,500 kN. Energy consumption is around 0.59 kWh per kg of material, or 9 W per pot. Wittmann Battenfeld has also been upgrading
its range of high-speed machines. At Fakuma it unveiled a 1,600 kN member of its EcoPower Xpress all-electric family, which is dedicated to thin-wall packaging. The family was launched at K 2016, and now has five members going all the way up to 5,000 kN.
All main movements of these machines are driven by water-cooled servo motors. For the secondary movements such as the ejector, nozzle stroke or core pulls, a servo-hydraulic aggregate is used in the standard version. A highly dynamic servo-electric ejector is available as an option. At Fakuma, an EcoPower Xpress 160/1100+ was making PP lids, using a four-cavity mould and a
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