By Ron Shinn
Arburg unveiled a new injection compression molding performance package for its electric Allrounder press at K 2022. The innovation is aimed at making parts previously considered best-suited for thermoforming, including thin-wall cups.
The Ultimate turnkey package brings high injection volume flows and injection speeds to packaging products. An Allrounder equipped with the Ultimate package has injection speeds of up to 400mm per second. The higher speed is the result of high-precision servo motors, Arburg said.
Arburg used an Allrounder 720 A with a clamping force of about 325 tons and its new 1,300mm injection unit to produce thin-wall, round cups with in-mold labels (IML) in a cycle time of 3.95 seconds at K 2022. The IML function is integrated into the Ultimate package — one of three available packages.
The flow path-to-wall thickness ratio was 380:1. A four-cavity mold was fitted with four compression path sensors for process monitoring.
Dry cycle time is up to 25 percent shorter with the Ultimate package, Arburg said.
Arburg integrated a side-mounted robot into the production cell to insert the labels, remove finished cups and stack them on a conveyor belt.
Unlike with thermoforming, Arburg said that injection compression molding does not require pre-production foils and does not generate punching waste.
The Ultimate performance package joins two other Arburg performance options — the Comfort and Premium packages.
The Comfort variation features reproducible injection with the aXw Control ScrewPilot and servo hydraulics for simultaneous movement of a secondary axis and the servo-electric main axis. Maximum injection speed is 200mm per second. The Comfort package offers performance comparable to hydraulic machines.
The Premium performance package features additional equipment such as virtual machine control, machine layout wizard and guided troubleshooting — all designed to increase machine availability, accommodate special processes and provide up to 15 percent shorter dry cycle times. Maximum injection speed is 260mm per second.
At a press conference the day before K 2022 opened, Jürgen Boll, Arburg’s managing director for finance, said the company expects $750 million in sales in 2022, slightly above its record sales year of 2018.
Ron Shinn, editor
Contact:
Arburg Inc., Rocky Hill, Conn., 860-667-6500, www.arburg.com
