Time to take stock: in what condition and with what agenda is the industry presenting itself after two-and-a-half years of a difficult climate? We have conducted a survey: insights into the dominant themes of the age.

Preview of K 2022: Kunststoffe Questionnaire on the Situation in Injection Molding Machine Construction

Spritzgießen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Steuerungen (Hardware und Software)

Automatisierungstechnik

Doriat, Clemens, Dr.

Messe K-Kunststoffmesse

kunststoffe-international.com

Steuern, Regeln

Software

Digitale Transformation

Wirtschaft

Innovationen und neue Technologie

Nachhaltigkeit

Umweltmanagement

Mess-, Steuer- und Regelgeräte

Qualitätssicherung

Qualitätssicherung Kunststoff

Energieeffizienz

Spritzgießmaschinen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Kreislaufwirtschaft

Harsh Realities

Over past months, many in-house workflows and development processes have slowed down and also changed. Nevertheless, time has not stood still, also not in injection molding technology. The debate and development have been shaped by two themes: digitalization and the circular economy. Below are some examples of developments and projects that underpin this trend.

Two displays are seamlessly integrated into the continuously 3D-formed instrument panel

Innovative Injection Molding in Times of Pandemic

Schaumspritzgießen

Künstliche Intelligenz für die Qualitätssicherung

Industrie 4.0

Industrie 4.0 für die Qualitätssicherung

Mehrkomponenten-Spritzgießen

Folientechnik (IMD, IML, FIM, u.a.)

Spritzgießwerkzeuge

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Biokunststoffe

Spritzgieß-Sonderverfahren

Spritzgießsimulation

Simulation

Schnecken und Plastifiziersysteme

Industrie 4.0 für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Machine Learning / Künstliche Intelligenz für die spanende Fertigung

Industrie 4.0 für die spanende Fertigung

Lasermarkieren

Oberflächentechnik

Laserbearbeitungen

Inline- / Online-Messsysteme

There Is More beyond the Horizon

With its Industry 4.0 solution portfolio, the Wittmann Group is receiving a positive echo in the market. This virtually extends the injection-molding machine into a smart workcell. For the near future, the company is tooling up for the demands of a circular economy – and declining demand.

Finger on the pulse with Industry 4.0 solutions: Michael Wittmann, Managing Director of the eponymous corporate group

Wittmann Continues to See Itself Well Placed as a One-Stop Supplier

Ressourcenmanagement

Produktion

Immediately Ready for Use

Thin wall packaging manufacturers think in terms of efficiency gains in tenths of a second. Every cycle time reduction leads to increased productivity. Another factor influencing part costs is the energy efficiency of the production equipment. In these two key dimensions, Netstal was able to optimize the smallest model in the Elios series with 4500 kN clamping force.

The optimized Elios 4500 with electrically operated toggle levers enables users to achieve cycle time reductions and savings in power consumption (the photo shows the previous variant).

16:9

Higher Output and Reduced Energy Consumption

Elektrische Antriebe für Spritzgießmaschinen

Antriebe

Elektrische Antriebe

Clamping Unit of the Elios 4500 with Fully Electric Drive Concept

The iQ product family from Engel will gain a new member at K 2022. iQ hold control automatically determines the optimum holding pressure time for the particular mold with no input from the operator.

 The optimum holding pressure time is often lower than that established at the beginning. In these cases, the cycle time is shortened.

iQ hold control Determines the Optimum Holding Pressure Time

Smart Factory

Energiedatenmanagement

Holding out for Higher Quality

Arburg has adopted a clear message for its trade fair appearance at the K 2022 in Düsseldorf: „There is only a Plan A“.

In the arburgGreenworld pavilion of the VDMA Circular Economy Forum, an Allrounder 370 A with recyclate package is manufacturing “Greenline” wall plugs from Fischer.

Sustainability thanks to Digitalization

 At KraussMaffei’s booth, automotive door modules are produced from former caps of insulin pens. The system supplier is presenting not only the machine hardware necessary for this but also new digital solutions.

Digital solutions are an essential component of the material loop from the insulin pen cap to the car door module.

kunststoffe.de

Medizinprodukte

Medizintechnik

From the Insulin Pen Cap to the Automotive Door Module

At the introductory press conference for K 2022, Dr Thorsten Thümen, Senior Director Technology, outlined the company’s evolving strategic focus.

Senior Director for Technology Dr. Thorsten Thümen announces several premieres at K 2022.

New High-Speed Machine for the Packaging Market

Dr. Boy is picking up on the main themes of K 2022 with two trade show premieres and other specific applications. One of these themes, which Boy has espoused, is the digitalization or increasing networking of the plastics industry.

The diverse elements of the Boy digitalization package.

Hybridtechnik

Handling, Handhabungstechnik

New Control System before the Premiere

At K 2022, Engel, with its partners Alpla Group, Brink and IPB Printing, is presenting a quantum leap for the packaging industry. Thin-wall containers can for the first time be produced from PET directly by injection molding in only one process step.

Fig. 1. The thin-walled containers are injection molded from rPET.

Schmelzefilter

Polyethylenterephthalat

Thermoplaste

Processing rPET by Thin-Wall  Injection Molding

Under the motto “It‘s all Wittmann”, Wittmann Battenfeld is presenting its machines and systems in the new Wittmann design for the first time.

Automation cell with SmartPlus 90 for manufacturing a spirit level.

Spritzprägen

Naturmaterialien

Verstärkungsstoffe

Green DC Current for the Injection Molding Machine

This year, the world’s leading trade show K has succeeded in presenting practical solutions for greater resource efficiency on a broad front. A first foray through the trade show grounds.

K 2022 gave numerous practical examples showing visitors how recyclates can be reliably processed with digital aids.

State-of-the-Art Injection Molding Solutions for Greater Resource Efficiency.

State-of-the-Art Injection Molding Solutions at K 2022

Solar / PV

Energieerzeugung

Erneuerbare Energie

Temperiertechnik

Condition Monitoring / Prozessüberwachung

Instandhaltung

Elastomer-Spritzgießen

Digitalisierung

Silikonkautschuk

Kautschuk / Elastomere

Compoundieren

It Can Be Done!

Paint bucket or A-pillar finisher? In our thoughts and attribution of value, packaging items and high-tech components often represent opposites. Yet the two can complement one another – when you look at used packaging as a valuable raw material. At the fair, KraussMaffei will be showing the concept for a closed material cycle and is making plastics processing sustainable through this.

First a bucket or another plastic product, then raw material for further processing: the shredded post-industrial material

At the K, KraussMaffei Will Be Showing the Cycle from Product to Upcycling  to a New Product

Laserbeschriftung

Rückverfolgbarkeit, Traceability

Qualitätsmanagement

Zerkleinerungsmaschinen

Greifer für die Kunststofftechnik

Today Packaging,  Tomorrow Raw Material

A year to forget is nearing its completion. To brighten up this dreary fall season without a major event like Fakuma, injection molding machine builders have concocted various strategies.

Fig. 1. Ingrinder system solution: the sprue picker guides the removed sprue via vacuum conveyance to the integrated granulator

Injection Molding Machine Builders Are Discovering New Ways to Reach Their Customers

Spritzgießmaschinen, allgemein

Vernetzung / Cloudlösung für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Schneidmühlen

What Can You Do at Fall Fairtime,  When There Aren’t Any?

The increasing volume of plastic waste and the growing pollution of the oceans by such waste have brought the sustainable handling of plastic products into the focus of society and politics. Both recycling and bioplastics can be a part of a strategy for greater sustainability, but they are not free of side effects. In order to avoid irrational decisions, it is important to assess their effects comprehensively.

If a film is used in the packaging sector, it should be made of at least a recycled material – leading to the common opinion that assumes that materials in circulation are automatically more sustainable. However, a detailed life cycle analysis, which considers all relevant energy and material flows on the basis of a generally valid calculation method, shows that it is not that simple

3D View of Sustainability

Verpackungsmaterial

Logistik

Recycling

Flachfolienanlagen

Extrusionsanlagen

Blasfolienextrusion

Flachfolien- und Plattenextrusion

Extrusion

Folien

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Folienblasanlagen

Why Recycled Films Are Not Necessarily Sustainable

CO2 Footprint of Injection Molding Machines

Arburg Devises an Informative Product Carbon Footprint Calculation

Arburg has been dealing with the issue of sustainability and resource efficiency for a very long time. The machine supplier is being integrated more and more by its customers into evaluations of climate-change activities along the supply chain.

Arburg has been dealing with the issue of sustainability and resource efficiency for a very long time. The injection molding machine supplier is being integrated more and more by its customers into evaluations of climate-change activities along the supply chain. Drawing on ISO TS 14067:2015, which specifies how to quantify the carbon footprint of a product, Arburg studied ways to determine the product carbon footprint (PCF) and specific energy requirements of its injection molding machines.

Under the European Union’s “Green Deal”, companies are being actively encouraged to reduce the carbon emissions from their activities and products. In order to meet strict legal requirements and the goal of zero net emissions of greenhouse gases from production by 2050, companies will have to significantly increase their energy and resource efficiency in the future. Accordingly, sustainability is a major strategic issue for many European plastics converters at the moment.

The German Climate Change Act goes one step further in legislating for a 65 % reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 and for greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, an internationally recognized accounting standard for greenhouse gas emissions, classifies emissions into three areas called “Scopes”. Injection molding machines are considered Scope 3 assets, which cover indirect emissions from upstream and downstream business activities. As a machine manufacturer, Arburg actively engages in carbon accounting in order to obtain reliable and comparable indicators and help achieve the ambitious climate targets. Its commitment here is borne out by the above-average “B” grade which the company earned in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

In contrast to the annual corporate carbon footprint (CCF), the product carbon footprint (PCF) addresses the quantities of greenhouse gases emitted and removed over the entire service life of a product. Reported in units of CO2 equivalents, PCF is an important metric in life cycle assessment. The guidelines on quantifying and reporting it are set out in international standard ISO TS 14067:2018.

For injection molders, the first relevant question is the machine’s carbon footprint, from when it is being made to when it arrives at the plant. In its cradle-to-gate analysis, Arburg examined the period from extraction of raw materials to the manufacturing phase through to the machine leaving the factory gate. However, this period accounts for only 5 % of the machine’s CO2 emissions. On a cradle-to-grave basis, i.e. over the machine’s entire life, the bulk of PCF is generated during the use phase at the customer’s factory, plus emissions that arise during its distribution and disposal.

Arburg records the CO2 emitted in four process steps that lead to the finished machine:

<ul><li>painting or coating,</li><li>mechanical machining and processing,</li><li>electrical production, and</li><li> assembly.</li></ul>

The raw materials used and the requisite electric power can be apportioned to the various steps in this process sequence and the other phases in the product life cycle (Fig. 1).

The parts list for an injection molding machine could number up to 11,000 individual items if every screw were to be accounted for. To help it better manage this figure, Arburg divides the raw materials into eight materials groups. On this basis, an Allrounder injection molding machine consists of over 55 % plastic-coated cast iron and a further 35 % of steel and sheet metal (whether heat-treated, painted, plastic-coated or untreated). Plastic parts, drives and electronic components account for just 7 % of the total weight.

These materials groups differ substantially in terms of the CO2 emissions generated during their production. However, a weighted average value or emissions factor can be determined commensurate with the distribution. The emissions factor for an Allrounder is 1.83 [kg CO2 equivalent per kg product]. The CO2 equivalent for the complete injection molding machine therefore is obtained by multiplying the emissions factor by the product weight specified in the data sheet (Table 1).

This means that the manufacture of a hybrid Allrounder 570 H with a clamping force of 2000 kN and a net weight of 8300 kg generates raw materials-related emissions of around 15,190 kg CO2. The corresponding figure for a 3300-kg Allrounder 370 with a clamping force of 600 kN is around 6040 kg.

Electricity-Related Emissions  during Production

Electricity consumption during the production phase also contributes to the PCF. Standardized calculations are based on an electricity requirement of 878.94 kWh per 1000 kg of product and an emissions factor of 0.366 [kg CO2 equivalent per kWh] for the German electricity mix in 2020 (Table 2).

On that basis, the electricity requirement is 2900 kWh for the Allrounder 370 H, with a CO2 equivalent of about 1160 kg. The corresponding figures for the Allrounder 570 H would be an electricity requirement of 7295 kWh and emissions of 2670 kg CO2.

However, this calculation cannot be directly applied to Arburg. The reason is that the company manufactures around 60 % of its own machine components exclusively at its central production site in Lossburg, Germany, using a mix of carbon-neutral renewable energies such as photovoltaic, wind and geothermal energy as well as combined heat-and-power plants. Since 2016, the electricity purchased regionally has come entirely from sustainable sources. The emissions factor for Arburg’s electricity mix is just 0.17, instead of 0.366.

In concrete terms, this means that the electricity-related CO2 equivalent for the Allrounder 370 H is actually just 490 kg, instead of 1160 kg, and, similarly, 1240 kg, instead of 2670 kg, for the Allrounder 570. Thus, as a result of the company’s high degree of vertical integration and the sustainable electricity mix, the electricity-related emissions generated by an Arburg machine during its manufacturing phase are some 53 % lower than the German average.

Adding the raw materials- and electricity-related emissions together yields a total CO2 equivalent for a “cradle-to-gate” analysis of 6530 kg for the Allrounder 370 H and 16,430 kg for the Allrounder 570 H (Table 3). By comparison, each person in Germany generates an average CO2 footprint of around 12,000 kg per year, with this figure varying according to such factors as personal consumption, mobility, housing and nutrition.

Some 95 % of an injection molding machine’s PCF arises during its use phase. However, the level of emissions it actually generates in daily use depends on numerous factors. Crucial determining factors are the choice of polymer, the product design and the construction of the injection mold. A key parameter here is the specific energy requirement, which is the quotient of power consumption and material throughput and is expressed in units of kWh per kg. As a rule of thumb, the shorter the cycle time and the higher the shot weight, the lower is the specific energy requirement and the better is the CO2 equivalent.

The specific energy requirement is critically affected by the type of drive, i.e. whether electric, hybrid or hydraulic. Other contributory factors are whether single- or dual-circuit pump technology or hydraulic accumulators are used and whether options such as servo-electric metering or ejection are included.

Any feature which enables simultaneous, dynamic and fast movements and thus shortens cycle times benefits the carbon footprint in use. The same applies to the screw diameter and installed power: the greater the shot weight and the lower the power consumption, the better. In summary, machine equipment tailored specifically to the requirements and processes can substantially reduce the energy requirement. Arburg supports its customers in this area through its wealth of expertise in application technology and process engineering and by exploiting the advantages of modular machine technology.

Measuring the Energy Requirement under Euromap 60.2

The Euromap 60.2 Recommendation is used for determining the energy consumption of an injection molding machine in a customer-specific process. It facilitates objective comparisons of different machine designs by measuring and documenting the average power consumption under standard conditions for a defined accounting period. The readings depend both on the machine technology and on the utilization rate and the type of application. For example, the specific energy requirement for small production runs of technical molded parts is significantly greater per se than for the production of fast-moving packaging items (Fig. 2).

The results show that electric machines require around 50 % less energy than standard hydraulic machines. And the lower the material throughput, the more significant the differences are. But energy-optimized hydraulic machines, too, can significantly reduce the carbon footprint.

While working on a practical application, Arburg examined various scenarios involving hydraulic and electric machines from the S and Alldrive series in three sizes – 370, 570 and 820 – and clamping forces of 600, 2000 and 4000 kN. A distinction was made between an hydraulic drive featuring dual-circuit pump technology (T2) and an electric drive from the “Comfort” performance range.

Two items were produced, namely a PA66-GF30 technical item in a cycle time of 30 s at 50 % plasticizing capacity and a PP packaging item in a cycle time of 5 s at 100 % plasticizing capacity (Table 4). The CO2 emissions were calculated on the basis of the German electricity mix.

The electric Allrounder 820 A, operating at a throughput of 115.2 kg/h, emitted 1.07 kg CO2 per kg plastic when molding the packaging item. The 370 electric model emitted almost twice as much (2.13) when injection molding the technical item at a throughput of 4.2 kg/h. For the hydraulic Allrounder 370 S, this value was as high as 4.43.

These figures apply to the practical example. Other applications may yield different figures. The actual power consumption depends in each case on the duty cycle, capacity utilization and the efficiency of the connected consumers. These factors are influenced in turn by the injection molding process. In general, however, it may be said that the energy requirement for both types of drive decreases as material throughput increases. In any event, an electric machine generates around 50 % fewer CO2 emissions. The same result is obtained when the CO2 emissions are all calculated on the basis of material throughput.

Not included in this analysis are the CO2 emissions generated in the production of the plastic pellets or other consumers such as peripheral equipment for providing mold-temperature control or shop air-conditioning (waste heat and cooling). The energy requirements and thus the CO2 emissions from the peripheral equipment increase sharply, particularly for technical items, and even exceed those of the injection molding machine on a proportional basis. A further interesting parameter is the carbon footprint of a single molded part.

An informative “cradle-to-gate” carbon footprint can be calculated for injection molding machines. Raw materials have a roughly tenfold greater impact on the product carbon footprint during the manufacturing phase than does electricity consumption. Local supply chains, a high degree of vertical integration and the use of renewable energies can positively influence the footprint.

As the PCF during the use phase depends on many factors,individual case studies are required here. As a rule, the specific energy requirement of an injection molding machine decreases as its utilization rate increases. In addition, electric machines generate up to around 50 % fewer CO2 emissions than their hydraulic counterparts, the exact amount depending on the equipment and material throughput.

The goal for the future is to be able to determine a scientifically sound, holistic life cycle assessment for injection molding machines. This will require much greater effort. This is precisely what Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans-Josef Endres and his team at the Institute for Plastics and Circular Economy (IKK) at Leibniz University in Hanover, Germany, are working on, in collaboration with Arburg and others.

ARBURG GmbH + Co KG  

https://www.arburg.com

Ausgabenartikel

Raw materials extraction through to delivery account for just 5 % of the CO2 emitted by an injection molding machine over its entire life cycle.  

Table 3. The carbon footprint (PCF) of the machines up to delivery to the customer is the sum of the raw materials- and electricity-related CO2 equivalents (“cradle to gate”).

Table 4. Arburg studied the CO2 emissions from three sizes of injection molding machine and two types of drive during measurements conducted in accordance with Euromap 60.2. One technical part and one packaging item were produced.

Fig. 1. Arburg’s cradle-to-gate analysis determines the CO2 emissions associated with its injection molding machines, from the constituent raw materials and the manufacturing process right through to delivery.

Fig. 2. The specific energy requirement of an injection molding machine in the use phase  depends on the equipment, type of application and material throughput. In general, the better the machine is utilized, the better is the carbon footprint.

Table 1. The CO2 emissions of an injection molding machine in terms of raw materials are simply calculated by multiplying the net weight by the emissions factor 1.83 as determined by Arburg.

Table 2. Electricity-related CO2 emissions arising from the manufacture of an injection molding machine can be calculated on the basis of the German electricity mix (emissions factor 0.366 for the year 2020).