Engel: Integrative solutions for exacting requirements

"More colours. More Integration." – These two statements stand for maximum process integration, multiple-component technology and for insert-placing methods or surface decoration in the company’s trade-fair exhibits.

"More energy efficiency": from hydraulic machines with energy-saving servohydraulics, through hybrid machines, to fully electric high-performance machines, ENGEL will be presenting different drive concepts, each of which is tailored to meet the specific needs of the automotive, teletronics, medical, technical moulding, and packaging industries.

A cockpit without buttons and switches
The vision of a vehicle interior without buttons and switches is becoming increasingly tangible. At the Engel stand visitors can take a seat in such an automotive cockpit of the future. Various control functions can be activated via the centre console in the simulation cell. All that is needed is to lightly touch one of the functional elements below the completely closed surface. Thanks to clearmelt technology and the integration of a capacitive foil via in-mould labelling, vehicle controls will be just as elegant as smartphone controls in the future.

Premiere at Fakuma for the duo 350

At the same time, the clearmelt technology opens up a totally new degree of freedom to interior stylists. At Fakuma, a duo 350 injection moulding machine equipped with the servohydraulic ecodrive will be producing piano black centre consoles. This is the first showing of this new machine size. Thanks to reversing plate technology, the thermoplastic centre console top carrier made of ABS-PC is injected while the pre-moulded part created in the previous cycle is overmoulded with polyurethane in the second half of the mould. This process is based on the combi M method, but with a polyurethane system connected to the mould instead of a second injection unit. The capacitive foil is insert-placed into the mould before injecting the first component. Two viper linear robots take care of the handling.

In the clearmelt process, the polyurethane layer fulfils multiple functions at the same time. The primary task is that of protecting the part's class A surface against chemical and mechanical exposure. The coating's excellent degree of glossiness and the 3-D effect that it creates, thus adding value to the part's appearance, are important side effects.

Engel is presenting this exhibit in cooperation with system partners. The mould maker is Schöfer from Schwertberg/Austria; Hennecke from Sankt Augustin/Germany is the exclusive project partner for polyurethane technology; the function foils are supplied by plastic electronic in Linz/Austria, with Magna Exterior & Interior Systems from Munich/Germany supporting the processing technology side of the project.

Fully-integrated multiple axis robot
For injection moulders in the telecommunications and electronics industries, Engel will be exhibiting an e-insert machine, the electrified variant of the vertical insert machine with a servoelectric rotary table and fully electric injection unit. The clamping process and ejection both rely on the servohydraulic ecodrive.

Sensor housings for control electronics made of fibreglass reinforced polyamide with metal insert-place parts will be produced on an e-insert 310V/100 using a 4-cavity mould, an application that requires a lot of precision. The requirement is fulfilled on the one hand by the electrical injection unit, which guarantees an extremely high level of precision in insert-place part overmoulding, while the servo-electrically driven rotary table at the same time ensures very good positioning accuracy and ultra-short rotation times.

The e-insert machine was presented for the first time at K 2010. Since then, two new software tools have been introduced to reduce the cycle time.

Automation is another highlight of this production cell. The sensor housings are taken off by a Stäubli six-axis robot whose control unit is fully integrated into the injection moulding machine's CC 200 control unit without needing a Euromap 67 interface.

Saving process steps and raw materials in the production of medical parts
The Business Unit medical exhibit is also equipped with an integrated Stäubli type TX 90 six-axis robot. Disposable hollow needles for insulin pens are produced on a fully electric e-motion 200/100 T injection moulding machine in a highly-automated process. The single-step manufacturing process is an innovation compared with legacy multiple step methods, which first manufacture the needle holder in an injection moulding step and then glue in the hollow needles. To save a complete step, as well as adhesive, the Engel solution uses a multiple-axis robot to remove the needles from the magazine and insert them into the 3-cavity pilot mould by Zahoransky, where they are overmoulded with PP, before being taken off again by the multiple-axis robot.

The fully electric e-motion injection moulding machine series is predestined for applications in clean rooms with encapsulated drives, sealed toggle, smooth surfaces and an encapsulated barrel.

Space-saving automation
An exhibit by the technical moulding business demonstrates that a high degree of automation does not necessarily requires more space. A victory 330H/200V/120 combi will be producing bottle openers in two-component injection moulding with in-mould labelling and insert technology. A viper robot places both the metal part and the decorative foil into the mould, manufactured by FKT. The basic body of the bottle opener is first injected in polycarbonate. In a second step, the edge is reinforced with TPE to achieve a better grip.

Thanks to the tie-bar-less design of the victory machines, the robot can reach into the mould cavity from both sides, thus supporting automation on a very tight footprint. Both the robot and the magazine for the metal inserts and foils are inside the machine's safety guarding.

The tie-bar-less machine design enables smaller injection moulding machines to be deployed than the mould size would normally dictate, which also cuts back on the space requirement. Moulds are relatively large in multi-component applications in particular, and comparatively low clamping force is required on account of the rather small part surfaces projected. Where a clamping unit operates without tie-bars, the mould can project beyond the edges of the mould fixing platens.

Maximum precision and shortest cycle times for packaging applications
The packaging exhibit is a fully electric e-motion 740H310W/180 T combi that is used to produce a lid for a newly-developed ice cream container in two-component injection moulding with in-mould labelling and thin-wall technology.

The system partners for this exhibit are H. Müller in Conthey/Switzerland, a manufacturer of moulds and automation solutions for IML applications, and the Weidenhammer Packaging Group from Hockenheim/Germany, the manufacturer of the ice-cream container.

Besides the five production cells at the Engel stand, five additional machines will be at work at partner stands:

• Lenzkes Spanntechnik will be producing stackable boxes on a fully electric e-max 100 at stand 2309 in hall A2.
• At stand 2104 in hall B2, the Fraunhofer Institut will be demonstrating the production of ice-scrapers on an e-victory 440/120 type hybrid machine.
• At the Ewikon stand 2203 in hall A2 a production of polycarbonate salt and pepper shakers is dmeonstrated on a victory 200/80 tech.
• At the Kunststoffinstitut Lüdenscheid stand 5312, hall A5, beer glasses are produced on a victory 330/120 tech.
• RocTool in hall B2, stand 221, demonstrates the influence of vario-thermal temperature control on surface quality. The sample application are PDA housings made of PC/ABS. Another victory 330/120 tech will be used for this.