PACKAGING | TECHNOLOGY


to maintain good parts.” ImFlux can be used in production of all sorts of


Above: Short shots created during


moulding of container lids show how ImFlux (parts on left) packs as it fills


Canada for Haitian International), and JSW, providing customers with the option of having ImFlux installed and enabled on their machines. Ethan Stiefel is Senior Plastics Engineering Manager in the company’s R&D Group. He calls ImFlux a “paradigm shift. It changes the way a machine makes a part.” Whereas traditional injection moulding cycles can be divided into two stages, the first under velocity control of the screw and the second controlling packing and holding pressure (see “blue curve” graph), ImFlux fills at constant pressure (see “green curve” graph), based on signals coming at a rate of around 1,000s-1


from


a pressure sensor in the nozzle. Pressure sensors in the mould cavities themselves, sometimes used in conventional injection moulding, are not necessary. “Velocity becomes an output rather than an


input,” Stiefel says. “The geometry of the mould and the material dictate how the mould is filled. We can make adjustments automatically in real time according to changes in viscosity as the mould fills,


products for all sorts of markets, but it is particularly well-suited to packaging, where speeds are fast and cavitation often high. “In traditional moulding, the slightest viscosity change can lead to bad parts,” says Stiefel. “But we have customers who can run up to 100% regrind, or with wide-spec materials, and still produce good parts every shot. You can use a batch of material with an MFI changing from, say, 11 all the way up to 35 and above. This is not even remotely possible with conventional injection moulding.” Moulds with high cavitation put especially heavy


burdens on the injection moulding process, with the need to get perfect balance, shot after shot. “Con- ventional injection moulding systems are not built for multi-cavity tools,” Stiefel says, somewhat provoca- tively. With any imbalance, cavities will fill at different rates. If one cavity is blocked, intentionally or not, you normally have to adjust the process, otherwise you get flash. “But with ImFlux, even if the total injection volume changes, you can still keep running the machine and achieve the same quality of parts. You have a much larger processing window.” At virtual events held earlier this year, ImFlux technology was demonstrated on a 5,500 kN Haitian Jupiter III machine running a four-cavity housewares mould (two bowls, four spoons and a lid) made from recycled PP, to show the ability of the technology to facilitate processing family moulds and PCR. Stiefel says ImFlux is partnering with numerous companies producing equipment (auxiliaries as well as moulding machines) and materials which all have common goals, generally centred around sustainability. He points out that ImFlux not only improves the quality and consistency of the injection moulding process, but it also uses signifi- cantly less energy.


Conventional “blue curve” of injection and packing/holding (top graph) and “green curve” achieved using the InFlux technology (bottom graph) Source: ImFlux


20 INJECTION WORLD | July/August 2021


As ImFlux is wholly owned by P&G, it comes as no surprise that a lot of the work that ImFlux does is for P&G and its suppliers, many of them involved in packaging. At the moment, just about all of them prefer not to be named. One US company that is known to be using ImFlux is AGS Technology in Batavia, Illinois, which is running it on JSW machines to obtain what Stiefel says are “a slew of benefits” when processing up to 100% PCR. “With PCR, there can be lots of time and energy involved to improve its quality before you can process it,” he says. “AGS does little more than chop up the material before putting it back into the machine.” The technology also enables AGS to run moulds on smaller machines. It originally used a 7,000 kN ma-


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IMAGE: IMFLUX


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