DECORATION | INNOVATION
Also emphasizing IML at NPE was StackTeck
Systems, based in Brampton, Canada, which specialises in multi-cavity, high-volume production moulds for thin-wall packaging, closures, medical, and mould bases. The system was running at the booth of Ilsemann Automation, labelling lids produced on StackTeck’s first injection-compression mould in an Arburg machine. Once again, it had four cavities. The labels came from Verstraete IML. “This injection compression lid mould has been built to demonstrate light-weighting potential for a known thin-wall IML lid,” says StackTeck. “Com- pared to the conventional injection moulding process, the lid panel thickness was 37% thinner, resulting in a part weight reduction from 6.35 g to 4.67 g (26% lighter).”
IMD applications IML can be seen as a sub-set of in-mould decora- tion (IMD), which embraces various ways of putting films onto packaging and non-packaging products in the mould, using not only pre-cut films but also reel-fed film. But coating specialist Leonhard Kurz says that IMD with multi-cavity moulds using reel-fed material has historically been applicable only to the processing of continuous designs or the manufacture of small, flat components. “Complex shaped or larger sized plastic parts
requiring an entire IMD foil web width to decorate could only be provided with single image designs in a single cavity,” the company says. But that may be about to change. Kurz has just unveiled a patent-pending IMD foil feeding unit that can be used for single-image decoration of these kinds of components in a twin-cavity mould. The IMD SI Duo device, which is integrated into the injection moulding machine, controls the feeding of two independently positionable foil webs in a double or multi-cavity mould. It allows two different IMD foil designs to be used, and single-image or continuous designs to be com- bined arbitrarily; furthermore, the cavities can have identical, mirrored or different geometries. High precision foil positioning is ensured in every case, even with different feed distances for the two foil tracks or with dissimilar plastic components. The precise alignment of the single-image designs is achieved with sensors that read the registration marks on the IMD foils. Mounted on the outer sides of each of the two foil tracks are a pair of sensor blocks for the X and Y directions that enable a positioning accuracy of a few hundredths of a millimetre in both directions. For longer components, an additional sensor can be installed to ensure precise positioning in the Y direction.
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Helmut Högl, Sales Engineer
Special Application at Kurz, says: “The demand for positioned designs [for multi-cavity moulds] is growing rapidly. Not only single images, but also tactile surfaces, human machine interface and backlighting solutions require the designs to be transferred with a well-defined, very tight tolerance. “The IMD SI Duo enables plastic components to be decorated with high efficiency and with extremely precise positioning of the design. With this foil feeding unit we are making the IMD process even more attractive and economical.” The device can be adapted to suit the structural and technical requirements of existing injection moulding machines or constructed to precisely fit into new machines. If required, it can be reconfigured from dual to single cavity decoration by centrally arranging one of the foil tracks. It was seen in action for the first time at the KraussMaffei Competence Forum in Munich in early June. Ten-inch HMI displays were IMD moulded in a twin-cavity mould on a KraussMaffei PX 320-2000 unit.
Also active in the IMD arena is Proell. Its core business is the development of custom-made chemical products for coating and decorating plastics (and other materials), as well as innovative ink systems for IMD and film insert moulding (FIM) technology, and screen and pad printing inks. Among various IMD-related products the com- pany showed at Fakuma last year was Norilux DC, a formable, abrasion-resistant dual-cure screen printing lacquer, which can be used as a protec- tive lacquer or hard coat on PC, PMMA, ABS and PP films. Proell says Norilux DC, available in gloss and
matt versions, is ideally suited for first-surface coating/protection of products manufactured in IMD/FIM technology. Proell also showed NoriPress PP, an adhesion
promoter for IMD technology that makes back moulding of second surface screen printed PP films with polypropylene injection moulding material possible. Up to now, back moulding was possible only with PP film laminates, the company says. Automotive decorative parts and panels as well
as motorcycle fairings and tool housings can be produced in durable quality by using the PP IMD process.
� June 2018 | INJECTION WORLD 39
Above: The IMD SI Duo foil feeding unit from Kurz with two precisely positionable foil tracks enables
single-image designs to be processed in twin-cavity moulds
PHOTO: KURZ
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