Production efficiency was the
focus of this year's technology days event in March organised by injection
moulding machinery producer Arburg. European Plastics News reports from the
company's Lossburg headquarters,This page is an introduction to 35 pages of
material on mathematical magiccubes.
in Germany.
Arburg defines production efficiency as an overarching "meta theme" determined by eight key elements; injection moulding machine technology, mould technology, ancillary equipment (peripherals), equipment configuration, process integration, process control, production planning and product design.
The company's four-day open house in March attracted over 5,200 visitors, 43% of whom were from abroad, with 200 from Switzerland, around 160 each from France, Poland and Czech Republic and 140 from the US.
Some 2,700 visitors attended presentations by Arburg (on production planning), Leoben university from Austria (on injection moulds),Bathroom floortiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. BASF (on its easy flow Ultramid B High Speed grade of PA6, and FPT Robotik (on inline printing).Find rubberhose companies from India.
The inline InkBOT process presented by automation specialist FPT Robotik was also shown running live,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and porcelaintiles. producing two-part, individually printed polystyrene name badges with 20s cycle time for two badges in a 2+2-cavity mould.
A 60-tonne Arburg Allrounder 370E 600-170 electric drive injection moulding machine, which was equipped with a Kuka 6-axis articulated "industry" robot integrated with Arburg's Selogica control system, were key elements of the production cell, as was the integrated inline printing system.
FPT Robotik developed InkBOT in 2010 and previously showed a similar version running at Fakuma 2011.
Arburg says: "The integrated finishing process for the plastic parts means injection moulders can increase added value and respond quickly to new demands in relation to changes of motif, thus giving them a competitive edge."
In the presentation by FPT, sales and project manager Karl-Heinz Msder described the InkBOT process as giving "naked" plastic parts not only an individual "face", but also a more pleasant tactile feel.
InkBOT uses the Cyconjet UV curing combined primer, four-colour (yellow, magenta, cyan and black) ink and topcoat developed for industrial inkjet processes by Mankiewicz in Hamburg, as used, for example, in Konica Minolta KM512MH print heads. The margin-free 600dpi resolution printing can be applied as four available drop sizes in 4-14 pica litre sizes, with height difference up to 6mm, as with the curved name badge.Rubiks cubepuzzle.
Print motif selection can be made up to 500 milliseconds before printing and up to 250MB of digital data can be transferred to the print heads within 500 milliseconds. Overall capacity is 1.8GB for a maximum 1.5m2 image.
With printing speed of up to 0.8m/s, the inline system at Arburg ran at 50m/min inline with capacity of 250m parts/year. But InkBOT inline systems can work up to 100m/min and can be dynamically adjusted. FPT Robotik says that InkBOT production cells may also integrate labelling, assembly, packaging and quality assurance processes.
In the presentation of Prof Clemens Holzer of Leoben university on waste minimisation, he said this is only really possible with sensors. But expensive pressure and temperature measurement sensors need to be further developed to reduce costs and encourage greater use for closer tolerance control.
New sensor types should also monitor other process variables. These could include sensors for viscosity and shear stress such as the PolySens sensor developed with project support under the Research Studio Austria scheme.
Holzer described a concept for installing ultrasonic acoustic sensors in existing mould tools to send melt-front data by wireless. He also recommended actuators close to the mould, such as the Priamus-Fill actuator, to reduce waste and obtain more consistent part quality. This is achieved through compensation of filling differences, maximum pressure limitation, targeted valve gate nozzle opening and simultaneous volumetric filling.
Such "intelligent mould" techniques should enable processors to cope better with the tendency of biopolymers to have more widely fluctuating characteristics than conventional polymers, Holzer suggested.
He said improved demoulding of microstructure mouldings can be obtained with mould coatings chosen depending on the polymer used, as well as by use of variotherm dynamic temperature control. Aside from other known advantages of variotherm moulding, such as higher gloss surfaces, hiding weld lines and reinforcement fibres on surfaces, Holzer referred to other benefits, such as reduced shrinkage and warpage, faster cycle time for thick-wall parts, higher strength and easier moulding of thin-walled components.
In particular, a peripheral wall of up to 250μm becomes a problem in microstructure surface replication, due to high temperature differences between the melt and mould wall, and this can be solved by variotherm processing, said Holzer.
Showing examples moulded by Arburg, Holzer advocated core back moulds for multi-component moulding. Polymers are overmoulded without opening the mould by simply using hydraulic sliders to open and close part of the mould cavity. Greater energy efficiency is obtained this way by eliminating mould opening for the secondary components.
Arburg defines production efficiency as an overarching "meta theme" determined by eight key elements; injection moulding machine technology, mould technology, ancillary equipment (peripherals), equipment configuration, process integration, process control, production planning and product design.
The company's four-day open house in March attracted over 5,200 visitors, 43% of whom were from abroad, with 200 from Switzerland, around 160 each from France, Poland and Czech Republic and 140 from the US.
Some 2,700 visitors attended presentations by Arburg (on production planning), Leoben university from Austria (on injection moulds),Bathroom floortiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. BASF (on its easy flow Ultramid B High Speed grade of PA6, and FPT Robotik (on inline printing).Find rubberhose companies from India.
The inline InkBOT process presented by automation specialist FPT Robotik was also shown running live,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and porcelaintiles. producing two-part, individually printed polystyrene name badges with 20s cycle time for two badges in a 2+2-cavity mould.
A 60-tonne Arburg Allrounder 370E 600-170 electric drive injection moulding machine, which was equipped with a Kuka 6-axis articulated "industry" robot integrated with Arburg's Selogica control system, were key elements of the production cell, as was the integrated inline printing system.
FPT Robotik developed InkBOT in 2010 and previously showed a similar version running at Fakuma 2011.
Arburg says: "The integrated finishing process for the plastic parts means injection moulders can increase added value and respond quickly to new demands in relation to changes of motif, thus giving them a competitive edge."
In the presentation by FPT, sales and project manager Karl-Heinz Msder described the InkBOT process as giving "naked" plastic parts not only an individual "face", but also a more pleasant tactile feel.
InkBOT uses the Cyconjet UV curing combined primer, four-colour (yellow, magenta, cyan and black) ink and topcoat developed for industrial inkjet processes by Mankiewicz in Hamburg, as used, for example, in Konica Minolta KM512MH print heads. The margin-free 600dpi resolution printing can be applied as four available drop sizes in 4-14 pica litre sizes, with height difference up to 6mm, as with the curved name badge.Rubiks cubepuzzle.
Print motif selection can be made up to 500 milliseconds before printing and up to 250MB of digital data can be transferred to the print heads within 500 milliseconds. Overall capacity is 1.8GB for a maximum 1.5m2 image.
With printing speed of up to 0.8m/s, the inline system at Arburg ran at 50m/min inline with capacity of 250m parts/year. But InkBOT inline systems can work up to 100m/min and can be dynamically adjusted. FPT Robotik says that InkBOT production cells may also integrate labelling, assembly, packaging and quality assurance processes.
In the presentation of Prof Clemens Holzer of Leoben university on waste minimisation, he said this is only really possible with sensors. But expensive pressure and temperature measurement sensors need to be further developed to reduce costs and encourage greater use for closer tolerance control.
New sensor types should also monitor other process variables. These could include sensors for viscosity and shear stress such as the PolySens sensor developed with project support under the Research Studio Austria scheme.
Holzer described a concept for installing ultrasonic acoustic sensors in existing mould tools to send melt-front data by wireless. He also recommended actuators close to the mould, such as the Priamus-Fill actuator, to reduce waste and obtain more consistent part quality. This is achieved through compensation of filling differences, maximum pressure limitation, targeted valve gate nozzle opening and simultaneous volumetric filling.
Such "intelligent mould" techniques should enable processors to cope better with the tendency of biopolymers to have more widely fluctuating characteristics than conventional polymers, Holzer suggested.
He said improved demoulding of microstructure mouldings can be obtained with mould coatings chosen depending on the polymer used, as well as by use of variotherm dynamic temperature control. Aside from other known advantages of variotherm moulding, such as higher gloss surfaces, hiding weld lines and reinforcement fibres on surfaces, Holzer referred to other benefits, such as reduced shrinkage and warpage, faster cycle time for thick-wall parts, higher strength and easier moulding of thin-walled components.
In particular, a peripheral wall of up to 250μm becomes a problem in microstructure surface replication, due to high temperature differences between the melt and mould wall, and this can be solved by variotherm processing, said Holzer.
Showing examples moulded by Arburg, Holzer advocated core back moulds for multi-component moulding. Polymers are overmoulded without opening the mould by simply using hydraulic sliders to open and close part of the mould cavity. Greater energy efficiency is obtained this way by eliminating mould opening for the secondary components.
没有评论:
发表评论