SHOW REVIEW | INJECTION MOLDING AND DESIGN EXPO
Right: Mark Gomulka (left), CEO of Westfall Technik, talking to
David Eldridge, Editor of Injection World
Plastics, said the biggest challenge for his company is recruitment for entry-level vacancies; some newcomers only stay for a few days before leaving, he said. Jeff Ignatowski, Director of Sales and Marketing at Champion Plastics, said there are concerns for the future in skilled jobs such as toolmaking as it is not attracting young people. There is an increasing trend towards automation
at injection moulders, the panellists agreed. Carrel indicated that investment in automation is becom- ing a necessity, as the skills shortage is not a short-term problem. “I think [the skills shortage] will stay at this level or maybe get worse as Baby Boomers retire,” he said.
Exhibiting companies also discussed increased
automation as the way ahead. Sam Rajkovich, VP Sales and Marketing at Conair, said there was a customer need behind the company’s development of a common control platform, which gives users the same control experience across all its auxiliary equipment lines. “The idea was about how to lessen the pain of labour shortages for customers,” he said. During development, Conair had a central goal
of reducing training time for operators of its equipment. A Thermolator temperature-control unit, Model dX mobile dryer and SmartFLX conveying system will all feature the common control, which presents menu structure and navigation, set-point entry, alarm notification, icons, colours, communication protocols and back-end hardware that are essentially the same as on other Conair equipment. Automation is a growth area for StackTeck
Systems, said executives at the Canadian mould systems company’s booth. In 2020, it set up an automation business for in-mould labelling applica- tions, offering own brand IML robots for all moulds built within its FastTrack program. The executives reported the business is “going great”. They estimated only 50% of the North American injec- tion moulded packaging market is served by IML, indicating good growth potential. Another mould-related exhibitor, Mantle, showed its 3Dprint technology for production of sintered metal mould components. Combining both additive extrusion and subtractive machining techniques prior to final sintering, the TrueShape technology automatically converts digital part files and achieves a high quality final surface finish and level of detail similar to spark erosion, almost eliminating post-processing. According to Dana McCallum, Mantle VP of Sales, Tessy Plastics has already achieved more than 1m shots running its tooling with PP. She says Mantle expects to deliver its first beta machines shortly; one to US mould-
28 INJECTION WORLD | June 2022
maker Westminster Tool and a second to a medical device OEM. These will offer a build envelope of 200mm by 200mm by 150mm. Gene Altonen, CTO at Imflux, provided an
update about the company, whose injection moulding control technology uses melt pressure sensing at the machine nozzle together with custom software to provide closed loop pressure- based control of the flow front as it moves through the mould. Imflux technology was developed by (and the company is part of) P&G, which remains its major customer accounting for more than 80% of its supplied systems to date. However, Altonen says the company has “hundreds of systems out there at dozens of customers”. It now uses a simple pur- chase model (rather than the licensing model it launched with a decade ago) and he says the company is talking to more than 20 machinery OEMs about integration into their control systems. Polykemi updated on progress with construction
of its first US compounding operation at Gastonia in North Carolina. Post-pandemic freight problems have pushed back the original Q2 2022 start-up but construction of the 4,600 m2
facility is now
underway and some production may commence by the end of the year. Two lines are to be installed in the first phase — based on 75mm and 92mm twin screw compound- ers — providing a capacity of around 6,500 tonnes, according to Adam Hokkanen, Technical KAM North America. He says the plant will initially take over manufacturing of existing European OEM approvals that it currently supplies to the US automotive market from Sweden or from its North American toll compounding partner.
See and hear highlights of the Injection Molding and Design Expo 2022 in two LinkedIn videos here and here
www.injectionworld.com
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