iQ process observer, the new process monitoring platform from Engel monitors hundreds of parameters from the injection molding cell in the background.

The injection molder is truly not a friend of changes – if they occur in the running process. The iQ process observer helps him to keep an eye on the process and thus keep a handle on the quality

A Process Monitoring Platform Monitors Several Hundred Parameters Simultaneously

Spritzgießen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Steuerungen (Hardware und Software)

Automatisierungstechnik

Industrie 4.0 für die Qualitätssicherung

Industrie 4.0

Prozessvisualisierung

Spritzgießmaschinen, allgemein

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Spritzgießmaschinen

Condition Monitoring / Prozessüberwachung

Instandhaltung

Spritzgießsimulation

Software

Simulation

Industrie 4.0 für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

IoT-Plattformen für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

An Eye on the Process –  a Handle on Quality

ARBURG is one of the world‘s leading manufacturers of plastic processing machines. The product portfolio encompasses ALLROUNDER injection moulding machines with clamping forces of between 125 and 6,500 kN, the freeformer for industrial additive manufacturing, plus robotic systems, customer and industry-specific turnkey solutions, and further peripheral equipment.

ARBURG GmbH + Co KG  

https://www.arburg.com

Abkantmaschinen, -pressen, -bänke

Blechbearbeitungsmaschinen

Maschinen für die spanlose Fertigung

Additive Fertigung

Anlagen für die Additive Fertigung

Antriebselemente

Lineartechnik

Maschinenelemente

Ceramic-Injection-Moulding, CIM

Condition Monitoring für die Qualitätssicherung

Energieeffizienz

Handling, Handhabungstechnik

Kennzahlen

Qualitätsmanagement

Kennzahlen, Q-Leitstand, Q-Monitor

Qualitätssicherung

Kühlelemente, aktive

Kühlkörper

Elektromechanik

Management-Informationssysteme

Medizintechnik

Mehrfarben-Spritzgießmaschinen

Mikrobauteile

Montage

Montagetechnik

Mikrospritzgießen

Mischer

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

NE-Metalle

Metall Werkstoffe

PUR-Schäummaschinen

Schäumen / Reaktive Verarbeitung

Partikelschäumen

Produktionssystem

Rapid Manufacturing

Rapid Prototyping

Reinraumsysteme / -technik

Reinraumtechnik

Betriebsausrüstung / Betriebsmittel

Reporting-Tools

Rückverfolgbarkeit, Traceability

Schnecken und Plastifiziersysteme

Schnecken und Zylinder

Spanneinrichtungen

Systemperipherie

Spritzgieß-Zubehör und Einzelteile

Stetigförderer

Fördertechnik

Logistik

Trockner

Vorbeugende Instandhaltung für die spanende Fertigung

Industrie 4.0 für die spanende Fertigung

In plastics processing, efficient production methods are required, especially for articles with high volumes and exacting quality requirements, and these must be constantly optimized. The container specialist Walther Faltsysteme has been successfully working together with the Austrian moldmaker Haidlmair for many years.

Left: products which are manufactured using the technologies of the Haidlmair Group companies. Right: an application example with folding boxes

Walther Faltsysteme Combines Three Mold Technologies from the Haidlmair Group

Spritzgießwerkzeuge

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Paletten und Behälter

Verpackungstechnik

Dienstleistungen

Werkzeug-, Formen- und Modellbau

Heißkanalsysteme

Komponenten für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

With Broad Sword and Data Collector

With the increasing digitalization of injection molding, new process parameters are coming under the spotlight. Engel, together with the Polymer Competence Center Leoben and Montan University Leoben, Austria, is using machine-learning methods to explore the potential of mold breathing for quality assurance in rubber injection molding. This research project was supported by the partner company SKF Sealing Solutions Austria.

The collection and interpretation of process data supports producers of safety-relevant rubber products in ensuring a constant high quality

Automatic Process Monitoring with iQ Clamp Control and Machine Learning

Kautschuk / Elastomere

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Mess-, Steuer- und Regelgeräte

Qualitätssicherung Kunststoff

Elastomer-Spritzgießen

Machine Learning für die Qualitätssicherung

Rubber Injection Molding with  Quality Recognition

Unforeseen downtimes in serial production are always accompanied by high costs, making it essential for machines to be serviced in time. Because sensor, transmission and data storage technology have taken a big leap forward in recent years, predictive maintenance has already been realized in some industries, demonstrating a tangible benefit of Industry 4.0. The WZL and the WBA have developed a guideline for this.

Fig. 1. The guideline for the development of predictive maintenance solutions is divided into three phases: analysis, design and implementation

Guideline to the Development of Predictive Maintenance Systems for Serial Producers and Toolmaking Companies

Werkzeug- und Formenbau

Sensoren verschiedener Messverfahren

Fertigungsautomation

Sensorik / Aktorik

Fernwartung / Ferndiagnose

Machine Learning

Datenanalyse

Dienstleistungsqualität

Instandhaltungsmanagement (TPM)

Vorbeugende Instandhaltung für die Qualitätssicherung

Werkzeugbau

Symbiosis of Toolmaking and  Serial Production

In an online survey, representatives of the plastics industry formulated their expectations toward the Plastics Innovation Center 4.0 (PIC 4.0).

Wordcloud generated from the answers to the open question concerning the most important use cases for PIC 4.0

Part 5 of the Series: Practical Demonstrators for the Plastics Innovation Center 4.0

Messdatenerfassung und -verarbeitung

Steuern, Regeln

Digitale Transformation

Wirtschaft

Innovationen und neue Technologie

Prozessoptimierung

Prozessmanagement

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Focus on the User Benefit

iQ motion control from Engel now allows reliable early start combined with fully automatically optimized motion planning. The assistance system has been part of the standard kit of all new Engel viper-type linear robots since October 2021.

If the robot travels into the mold area already during the mold opening movement, this can shorten the cycle time. The effect is particularly large in the case of parts with long cores, such as boxes

16:9

iQ Motion Control Brings the Injection-Molding Machine and Robot Closer together

Linearroboter für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

A Production Cell with Fluid Movements

Engel’s new “Parameter Limits” feature provides a remedy. It supports injection molders in keeping the parameters constant within a process window.

With the new Parameter Limits feature, tolerance ranges for up to 150 process parameters can be fixed directly in the machine control system for up to 150 process parameters. A change of the selected setpoint values is then only possible within the defined process window.

Simple Determination of Process Windows and Quality beyond Parameter Limits

Keeping Setting Parameters  under Control

In the production of plastic parts for the medical and pharmaceutical industry, the requirements for cleanroom environments are becoming increasingly stringent. In this area, not only the demand for all-electric injection molding machines is increasing. There is also an increasing use of electric drives for the implementation of mold movements, which meet the high requirements for cleanliness and reliability.

Fig. 1. Solutions for electrical mold movements, for example a 72+72 cavity stack mold for the closing cone production

Electrical Drives in Injection Molds

Elektrische Antriebe

Antriebe

Mess- / Regel- und Prozessleittechnik

Prozessautomation

Medizinprodukte

Mold Technology

RKT has been manufacturing plastic products for medical and industrial technology for 45 years. Discs for the rapid analysis of multi-resistant hospital germs are a lighthouse project within the sophisticated product portfolio.

 A six-axis robot picks the molded parts out of the mold under an inert gas atmosphere and conveys them into the cleanroom for further processing and packaging

High-Tech Production of Life-Saving Disks for Fast Analysis of Dangerous Germs

An All-Round Winner

Kebo has developed a new needle valve system called MultiValve to specifically address the needs of medical customers.

Kebo will be showing its MultiValve valve gate system in its maximum configuration of eight cavities in Friedrichshafen

Messe Fakuma

kunststoffe-international.com

Miniaturization is a Megatrend

Pharmaceutical crimp caps generally consist of a thin aluminum sheet and a plastic component, and are used to seal medical vials, for example for vaccines. Through a combined deep-drawing and backmolding process with previous inline laser treatment of the thin aluminum sheet, the process can be significantly shortened. The media-proof joining together of the two materials is carried out through a mechanically interlocking connection.

A crimp cap for injection vials is manufactured in a two-step process.

Combined Deep-Drawing and Backmolding Process with Mechanically Interlocking Joint

Hybridtechnik

Aluminiumlegierungen

Laserbearbeitungen

Oberflächentechnik

Tiefziehen

Verfahren für die spanlose Fertigung

Spritzgieß-Sonderverfahren

Simulation Stanzen / Umformen

Laserstrukturieren

Hybrid-Spritzgießen (Metall / Kunststoff)

Process Chain for the Production of Hybrid Medical Products

HiQ Flow is Wittmann Battenfeld’s answer to the challenge of fluctuating shot weights in injection-molded parts. The assistant system modifies the process parameters in the course of the same shot to counteract viscosity fluctuations caused by batch fluctuations in the material or by the use of regrind.

The HiQ Flow software corrects viscosity deviations during the injection and holding pressure phases within the same shot, based on the measurement values taken from the injection molding machine

Dynamic Adjustment of Switchover Pressure and Holding Pressure to Achieve a Constant Part Weight

No More Weight Problems

Part 2 of the series on the Plastics Innovation Center 4.0 (PIC 4.0) at RWTH Aachen describes the procedure by which industrial use cases of a Smart Factory are identified and converted into real testbeds within the PIC 4.0.

The PIC 4.0 extends the infrastructure of the Institute for Plastics Processing in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University

PIC 4.0 Elaborates Holistic Solutions for Industrial Demands

Use Cases of Digitized Plastics Processing

Maintaining competitiveness while producing in Germany requires not only cost-efficient production, but also high-quality products. Vorwerk Elektrowerke is accepting this challenge. In collaboration with the Institute of Product Engineering at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, the company is testing a 100 % inline quality monitoring system as well as a quality prediction using machine learning.

Customers who choose the Kobold VK 200 vacuum cleaner expect top quality. To ensure this, efforts for the introduction of Industry 4.0 measures are taken in the production plant in Wuppertal, Germany

Successfully Managing Digital Transformation with Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Künstliche Intelligenz für die Qualitätssicherung

Mehrkomponenten-Spritzgießen

Kameras, intelligente

Bildverarbeitung

Machine Learning / Künstliche Intelligenz für die spanende Fertigung

Inline- / Online-Messsysteme

Inline Quality Monitoring and  Data-Based Quality Prediction

The Arburg Host Computer System as a Basis of Higher Productivity and Product Quality

How do you bring 65 injection molding machines and various assembly lines – most of the manufacturing cells in the cleanroom – as well as, soon, a large number of ancillary equipment under one digital roof? A field report.

How do you bring 65 injection molding machines and various assembly lines – most of the manufacturing cells in the cleanroom – as well as, soon, a large number of ancillary equipment under one digital roof? A field report about the highly complex project for introducing a host computer system, which was performed in a very grounded way and has helped Röchling Medical boost its performance on several levels.

We are one of the few customers in medical technology who use the ALS host computer system.” Daniel Tobin, Head of Production at Röchling Medical Waldachtal AG establishes the benchmark at the very beginning of the discussion, which Kunststoffe holds with him via a video link. When, in the course of the following hour, we hear from him that they have succeeded in not only increasing the company’s own plastics processing productivity, but also patient safety, this finding may seem astonishing at first.

ALS is the German abbreviation for the Arburg host computer system, the production management tool of the injection molding machine manufacturer from the Black Forest, Germany, which, with its modular design, can be adapted to the manufacturing plant’s needs and can grow along with the production size and its requirements. ALS can be used to manage the entire production – to achieve a high product quality and as little machine downtime as possible. Indicators that are available at all times, about current orders, processes or the overall production effectiveness put users in a position to identify weaknesses and achieve lasting improvements in processes and work flows.

High Requirements, Strict Documentation Obligations

The medical branch, with sales of EUR 164 million, is the smallest of the Röchling Group’s three divisions, whose overall revenue, with the two strong pillars of automotive and industrial, was just over EUR 2 billion in 2020. Medical products are produced at a total of six sites in Germany, the USA and China. In 2018, the site in Waldachtal, Germany, was added, which Röchling took over from Frank plastic AG and where Daniel Tobien coordinated all phases of the ALS roll-out.

It is well known that the requirements and documentation obligations for manufacturing medical products are particularly high and strict. Why that is – or better said, must be – the case becomes immediately clear if we look at Röchling Medical’s product range. The company acts predominantly in three market segments (medical technology, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals), the arc stretches from crystal-clear parts for oxygenators, which filter and oxygenate the patient’s blood outside the body during heart operations, through Petri dishes for diagnostics, as well as different pharmaceutical primary packaging and administration systems, to ophthalmological instruments for eye surgery or endoscopic solutions for minimally invasive surgery.

“Some 85 percent of the parts that we manufacture in Waldachtal are highly complex applications,” says Tobien. This requires a precision that is often not apparent at first sight, if at all. The trained mechanical engineer refers to geometrical and dimensional requirements on one hand and dimensional requirements, for example in 0.2 mm diameter needle guides or in blood-carrying components, which must be flash-free with their edges and orifices rounded, so as not to damage the blood corpuscles as they pass through. On the other hand, he mentions the high optical requirements: “How are doctors and nurses expected to distinguish whether the black specks in crystal-clear parts are uncritical inclusions in the material or loose foreign matter? “In addition, the proportion of assemblies and ready-assembled, packaged and sterilized single-use products has been growing for years.

Cleanroom with 43 Injection  Molding Machines

The Waldachtal site has resources such as product development, an own mold making shop (including design), an automation department, as well as product validation specialists, and mainly produces in a 2500 m2, class ISO 8 cleanroom. It contains 43 injection-molding machines, 22 are outside the cleanroom and are partly equipped with laminar flow boxes – these machines are to be primarily connected to the ALS.

The machines process all conventional thermoplastics, including high-performance polymers such as PEEK or PEI with shot weights from 0.1 to 1800 g and processes such as insert and multicomponent technology, micro and endless injection molding. “In the cleanroom, we produce quantities from 10,000 to 24 million units per year, from customized components and assemblies to complete OEM products,” says Tobien. One of the best sellers is a Luer Lock cone for prefilled syringes with injection port. All injection-molding machines are connected to a computer-aided, fully automated pellet drying and feed system.

When you realize that production also includes ten assembly units and four assembly lines, which are also to be connected to the ALS without exception, and such different processes as laser marking, pad and screen printing, hot embossing and various welding techniques, such as ultrasonic welding, you get at least an idea of the complexity of the project. But the question remains, why use a host computer system at all?