LSR INNOVATIONS | EVENT PREVIEW
customers to solve their needs for high performing, rubber materials with our comprehensive portfolio of SILASTIC brand products, including high consistency rubber (HCR), liquid silicone rubber (LSR), fluorosili- cone rubber (FSR) and mouldable optical silicones. Our LSRs will contribute to sustainability by increas- ing the lifetime of products made from them, minimizing emissions and releases from LSR products during production, providing optimal insulating performance following green trends in power grid assembly, and by having fulfilled all requirements for registration and certification.
What is your outlook for the LSR market five years from now? The market for LSR has seen consistent growth throughout the last decade, and this is expected to continue with a forecasted grow rate of 8% per year through 2023. The key markets for LSR today are transportation, consumer, electrical, industrial and medical markets.
Cordula Wieland, Product Manager, KraussMaffei Technologies
What are the key trends shaping the future of LSR? KraussMaffei is well known as a
worldwide leading manufacturer of injection moulding machines. In our opinion, there will be tremendous changes in the field of processing LSR within the next years. Simplification and transparency are the key
words. We have big potential in making these complex processes controllable thanks to digital manufacturing solutions. Intelligent machine controls today already guide the operators through the production processes. This will also help to overcome the skill shortages in some areas and to establish LSR in more facilities. Another trend, triggered by the material manufacturers, are low volatile LSR formulations. This mainly eliminates the disruptive and costly post-curing process and opens the doors towards a fully-automatic production without intermediate steps. Parts can be produced continuously from raw material, part moulding and inline part control to finally packaging in one production cell. But there is more: With the KraussMaffei
DataXplorer, we are already able to track more than 500 machine signals every 0.5 sec as dynamic values – so we are able to dive deeper into produc- tion processes than ever before. These insights and gains from big data will
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ensure a holistic picture on the entire production. But it will also be a relief: we need to support our customers and partners with the fitting software tools to draw the right conclusions from the charac- teristic values. More automated analysis tools but also forensic experts will be needed and will follow.
Which innovations in LSR production technolo- gies would you highlight and why? When it comes to LSR the top requirement of our customers is still high production quality in combi- nation with good part yield – that never changes! Our latest innovations have an extreme impact on that matter. If you have a look at the membrane application we had at our K2019 booth: multi-cavity parts with a wall thickness of 0.05 mm that were micro-slitted by the end-of-arm-tool in the mould in a cleanroom surrounding, optically quality con- trolled and finally packed in the same production cell. Without smart machine functions – like our APC plus (Adaptive Process Control), that measures the specific LSR viscosity and corrects inline the perfect shot volume – this would not work. Another goal is the communication between all
production components. The complete transpar- ency on the production chain is feasible – all in one data set. And thanks to traceability tools this can be done without any limitations in interfaces or data export protocols. This enables our customers to record all crucial quality criteria for their customers on a new level of detail for upmost security with less risks for their customers and themselves. I will tell more about this issue at the LSR Innovations Conference next March.
What is your outlook for the LSR market five years from now? We do have a clear focus on LSR. This is one of the drivers for our innovations. Our market outlook is totally positive and we will have a continuing robust growth within the next years. When I talk to my customers, I realise that more
and more classical thermoplastic part producers are pushing in the field of liquid silicones. And more and more of these see the potentials. The new generation of silicones are able to
unleash: new filigrees parts for medical but also electronic applications. Just think of the potential of LSR optics made from non-yellowing silicones, new part functions of solid-and-soft material combinations as well as heat stable connectors for quick charge function with the E-Mobility.
n To learn more about LSR Innovations 2020 please visit the conference website.
November/December 2019 | INJECTION WORLD 45
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