The consumables required for In-vitro diagnostics are manufactured in a production process that is subject to high requirements in terms of precision and quality, but also the complex cleanroom manufacturing environment. This has implications for the entire plant technology – especially toolmaking.

64-cavity tool for pipette tips. The hot runner system is balanced across all cavities

Strategic Approach through Classification according to Product Groups

Spritzgießen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Spritzgießwerkzeuge

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Werkzeug- und Formenbau

Dienstleistungen

Werkzeug-, Formen- und Modellbau

Medizinprodukte

Medizintechnik

Mold Platforms for IVD Consumables

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

Industrie 4.0 für die Qualitätssicherung

Industrie 4.0

Condition Monitoring / Prozessüberwachung

Instandhaltung

Paletten und Behälter

Logistik

Verpackungstechnik

Industrie 4.0 für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Heißkanalsysteme

Komponenten für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

With Broad Sword and Data Collector

Electrical components are made from conductive and nonconductive materials. Pressure of competition makes it necessary to reduce the number of components and work steps and to streamline assembly. The moldmaker Mühlbeyer uses a hybrid technology for manufacturing stators and rotors, in which the contact material and plastic are permanently bonded in one production step.

Various plastic-coated stators. During overmolding of the sheet components, not only insulation but also technical functions can be incorporated

Overmolding as a Prerequisite for Cost-Efficient, High-Quality Electric Motors

Elektromotoren

Antriebe

Hybrid-Spritzgießen (Metall / Kunststoff)

Injection Molds for Insulating  Stators and Rotors

Hybrid production chains have been increasingly in the spotlight in recent years. This also applies to the combination of conventional manufacturing and additive processes in tool construction. With the example of an injection molding tool, it is shown how mold inserts produced by additive manufacturing can greatly shorten cycle times, and thereby significantly reduce unit costs. The important thing is to find a suitable combination of processes from the variety available.

Tool insert for a spacer of a glass fiber-reinforced PA66. The example shows that hybrid manufacturing is suitable and provides added value, even with comparatively simple parts

Additive Manufacturing and Hybrid Molds in Combination with Conventional Machining

HSC- / HPC-Bearbeitung

Spanende Verfahren

Werkzeugkonstruktion

Additive Fertigung

Anlagen Additive Fertigung / 3D-Druck, Metall

Anlagen für die Additive Fertigung

The Potential of Redesign and  Part Consolidation

Plastics processors have a wide range of colors at their disposal to color their products. Choosing the right color can ultimately be the key to success. But colors are just as subject to trends as materials and designs. Kunststoffe asked manufacturers of pigments, masterbatches, and colorants which colors would be particularly popular in the coming year.

Colors inspired by nature will also be very much in demand in2021. They give products a more sustainable appearance

Trend Report on the Coloration of Plastics

Pigmente

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Additive

Pigmente, bunt

Masterbatches

Farbstoffe und Pigmente

Kunststoffe

Photonik

Optik

Streifinger, Florian

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Farbkonzentrate (Batches)

Farbstoffe

Effektpigmente

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Farben, flüssig

What Will Be the Color of 2021?

Susanne Schröder will become editor-in-chief of the magazines Kunststoffe and Kunststoffe international on December 1, 2020. The current editor-in-chief Dr. Karlhorst Klotz will leave the company by mutual agreement.

Susanne Schröder will become editor-in-chief of the magazines Kunststoffe and Kunststoffe international on December 1, 2020. Until now she has been editor-in-chief of the trade journal FORM+Werkzeug

16:9

Werkzeuge für Leichtbauwerkstoffe

Präzisionswerkzeuge

Tiefziehwerkzeug

Werkzeugüberwachung

Toolmanagement

Werkzeugwechselsysteme, Spritzgieß

Modulare Werkzeugsysteme

Absaugungen für Werkzeugmaschinen

Betriebsausrüstung / Betriebsmittel

Absaugvorrichtungen

Fluorkunststoffe

Thermoplaste

Werkzeugverwaltungssoftware

Prüfen von Kunststoffen

Messtechnik

Biokunststoffe

Presswerkzeuge, Kunststoff

Werkzeugreinigung, Kunststoffe

Standardkunststoffe

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Lohnfertigung

Technische Kunststoffe

Füllstoffe für Kunststoffe

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

Kunststoffhandel

Handel

Betriebstechnik für Kunststoffverarbeitung (Peripherie)

Kunststofffasern

Verstärkungsstoffe

Hochleistungskunststoffe

Qualitätssicherung Kunststoff

Qualitätssicherung

Change in the Chief Editorial Office of Kunststoffe

A tool logbook on paper is often not to hand just when you need it most. Or it is incomplete, since it is time consuming to keep the information up to date. A cloud-independent, electronic tool log, which is directly integrated into the tool could make all the relevant data available directly.

The installed ImPro module in use on a demonstrator tool under production conditions 

The Electronic Tool Logbook as a Combination of Operating Manual and Check List

Werkzeuginnendrucksensoren

Sensoren / Messwertaufnehmer

Messdatenerfassung und -verarbeitung

Software

Papierlose QM-Dokumentation

Qualitätsmanagement

Dokumentationsmanagement

Mobile Datenerfassung

Lagertechnik

Digitale Transformation

Wirtschaft

Innovationen und neue Technologie

Fernwartung / Ferndiagnose

Dokumentenmanagement, CAQ

Data Management at the Tool

The toolmaker Siebenwurst uses injection molding simulation to optimize part design and production processes in its routine workflows. Among other things, Simcon’s software ensures the quality and dimensional accuracy of the plastic frame for the first series-produced injection molded e-bike.

The frames give the e-bikes an extraordinary design, with robustness comparable to steel or aluminum

Controlling Complex Development and Manufacturing Processes, Using Simulation

Composite-Halbzeuge

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Verbundwerkstoffe / Werkstoffverbunde

Spritzgießsimulation

Simulation

A Bike Frame from an Injection  Molding Machine

At the 2019 K fair, Arburg and Simcon showcased a filling process proceeding in real-time, as a 3D animation, on the display of a machine control panel, for an example of sunglasses, made of PA12. All that was needed to prepare this, was to load the simulation model, as well as the geometry of the part, directly onto the machine controls. This sounds almost too easy to be true. Right?

The Interviewees Dr. Paul Filz (left) an Dr. Eberhard Duffner

Interview with Eberhard Duffner and Paul F. Filz by the Magazine Kunststoffe

Doriat, Clemens, Dr.

Interview

The toolmaking industry of the future is facing significant changes in its range of services and its value creation processes. It is difficult to predict exactly how the collaboration of German tool manufacturers with series production will be structured in the future. However, it can be assumed that digital networking and sustainability will play a key role.

What the Two Trend Topics Mean for Collaboration between Toolmaking and Series Production

Nachhaltigkeit

Energieeffizienz

Vorbeugende Instandhaltung für die Qualitätssicherung

Datenanalyse

Ressourcenmanagement

Produktion

Toolmaking of the Future –  Digitalized and Sustainable

HeiQ – Heitkamp Kunststofftechnik took over sales responsibility for injection molds from Rouxel Mold in Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands.

The French manufacturer of injection molds wants to expand into international markets thanks to HeiQ.

French Rouxel Mold Expands Market

SPS – Industrial Automation Fair (SIAF) Guangzhou and Asiamold, the first China fairs to be hosted by Messe Frankfurt in 2021, concluded on 5 March after three days, with the visit number increasing an impressive 27% to 63,968.

Sensorik für Werkzeugmaschinen

Industrie 4.0 für die spanende Fertigung

Verfahren für die additive Fertigung

SIAF Guangzhou and Asiamold Conclude Successfully

Pipette tips feature a challenging wall thickness/length ratio, an inner geometry that is key for analysis results, and a tip opening just a few tenths of a millimeter wide. They have been in extremely high demand during the coronavirus pandemic, which is why the mold construction and hot runner specialist Männer has developed a mold with an innovative cluster concept.

At the Männer test center in Bahlingen, Germany: an injection mold for manufacturing pipette tips, shown here in operation. Automation of the system is currently being set up

Pipette Tips: Männer Presents a Mold with Replaceable Clusters

Maintenance During (Nearly)  Uninterrupted Production

In the injection molding of engineering plastics, mold temperature control consumes more than one third of the total energy input. A novel technology offers the opportunity to reduce this continuous major cost factor – and eliminate hotspots.

Fig. 1. The temperature control units have the highest energy share in the injection molding process

Reduced Energy Consumption and Shorter Cycle Times due to Structurally Integrated  Heat Pipe Mold Cores

Temperiertechnik

Cooling with Heat Pipes

The spring clamping cylinder ESZS for a nominal clamping force range from 16k N to 350 kN enables hydromechanical clamping.

The ESZS spring clamping cylinder can be used wherever shiftable or movable machine parts have to be fixed or clamped

Werkzeugspanntechnik

Spanntechnik

Robust and Reliable Clamping

Exciting Design instead of  Exciting Manufacturing

A 3D-Printed Nozzle and Modified Dosing Method Deliver Reproducible Marbling  in a Robust Process

Marbling is often a real eye-catcher in plastic components. However, the effect is difficult to create and there are some pitfalls when it comes to reproducibility. Novel nozzles for injection molding machines in combination with a special dosing technology allow marbled molded parts to be produced far more easily in a much more robust process.

Marbled molded parts have been around since the early days of plastics when, for example, combs or buttons bearing a marbled pattern were produced. In some cases, the marbling happened unintentionally because homogenization in the plunger injection molding machine had still not been perfected.

With the advent of screw injection molding machines, not only plasticizing capacity has increased, but above all significantly better melt homogenization has become possible, paving the way for colored molded parts without any color streaks on their surfaces. In addition, mixing elements are sometimes deliberately installed in injection units in order that mixtures of uncolored pellets and masterbatches may be converted into streak-free molded parts.

Now, marbling effects are created either mechanically with the aid of special marbling screws or by means of two-component injection molding machines. In the latter, two molding compounds of different color are injected into one cavity, usually by sequentially opening and closing valves which are located either inside the mold or between the machine nozzle and the mold. However, the production of reproducibly marbled parts in two-component injection molding machines is relatively costly, as two injection units are required and have to be operated.

Since parts with marbled surfaces often look very attractive and unique, they are still in demand, even though the manufacturing process is complex. A process by which they might be produced reliably and reproducibly without major technical outlay would therefore appear desirable. An ability to specifically influence the marbling patterns would also give designers additional freedom over the visual design. BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany, has developed one such process that allows marbled molded parts to be produced with little outlay.

Marbled molded parts typically have patterned visible surfaces bearing such effects as color shading, color streaks, lines and texture. The formation of the effect varies with the proportions of the different colors and the base color of the part. Although marbled molded parts manufactured in a production run are not absolutely identical, they look essentially very similar. Some of the patterns achieved with this technology are reminiscent of the appearance of natural materials, such as marble or wood. For high-contrast, clearly defined marbling patterns to be achieved, the admixed color batch must not be completely homogenized. At the same time, though, all the pellets must be completely melted and homogenized in order that the finished molded parts may possess the specified properties.

Initial trials conducted by BASF on molded parts revealed that the patterns differed according to whether they were produced with a needle-valve or an open nozzle. The number of flights of a screw tip was even discernible on the parts’ surfaces. The patterns arise from the separating and merging of melt flows in the channels of the plasticizing unit. This insight prompted a decision to rethink the nozzle of the injection molding machine and to employ different melt channel geometries in the nozzle cap. For this purpose, a recess for accommodating interchangeable inserts was created in a standard nozzle cap. As a result, the channel geometry in the nozzle can be changed to create all manner of patterns (Fig. 1). A symmetrical arrangement of straight channels, for example, results in symmetrical patterns.

Marbling proves to be particularly effective in the case of flat molded parts. But it is also possible to create three-dimensional articles that possess highly attractive marbled surfaces (Fig. 2). The marbling pattern is determined by the nozzle design and the mold’s gating system and the subsequent spreading of the melt. Thus, it is also influenced by the location of the injection point and the filling behavior of the melt in the direction of flow during injection into the cavity. Figure 1 shows the many possibilities for symmetrical parts that are gated centrally. Attractive patterns may also be achieved by using molds equipped with hot runners and tunnel gates (Fig. 3). The resulting molded parts are not centrally gated and so the pattern of marbling streaks is completely different from those shown in Figure 1.

Additive manufacturing processes offer a very high degree of design freedom over the production of nozzle inserts. In particular, they can be used to create channel geometries that cause the melt to swirl as it flows into the mold (Fig. 4). This affords a way of producing mirror-image patterns and rotationally symmetrical patterns. The swirling of the melt is clearly visible in the pattern shown in the Title figure and Figure 1. Such patterns were previously not feasible with conventional processes.

The nozzles can be produced by additive processes such as laser welding and layer fusion processes, such as fused deposition modeling (FDM) and fused filament fabrication (FFF). Catamold pellets from BASF, for example, can be used to manufacture the nozzle and nozzle inserts. Here, a filament made of Ultraform, a polyoxymethylene (POM) from BASF that contains metal powder, is printed by the FFF method, followed by debinding and sintering. The final step of the process entails adjustment work such as fitting the printed insert into the nozzle cap.

The marbled parts can be produced on standard injection molding machines fitted with just one plasticizing unit. All that is necessary is to synchronize the dosing of the material with the injection molding cycle. The materials are fed as usual into the existing feed opening in the hopper area of the plasticizing barrel. Conventional, only slightly modified dosing devices fitted with two hoppers are used (supplied, e. g., by motan GmbH, Konstanz, Germany). The base material, which is usually mixed with a color batch, is supplied in the conventional way, while a further high-contrast color batch, e. g. black, is fed into the plasticizing unit separately with great precision.

As mentioned, the process can be carried out on commercial injection molding machines without the need for specialized equipment. Ideally, the sole requirement on the injection unit is that it meets certain specifications, e. g. a low ratio of shot volume to barrel size. The injection molding process itself is not different from usual, and the process parameters are normally the same. The various influencing factors on marbling are summarized in Table 1.

Correct dosing and the combination of “contrast” batches and coloring component are also important in the production of marbled molded parts. The choice of color combination is key to a successful marbling outcome. If the contrast batch is overdosed, the coloring component very soon loses its brilliance.

Ultimately, mold design, part geometry and the nozzle used in the machine and in the hot runner determine the resulting pattern. In the course of conducting its development work, BASF tested molds fitted with conventional sprues as well as with hot runners. In both cases, attractive patterns were obtained. The finish of the mold cavity’s surface has an additional influence on the patterns’ appearance. Whereas highly polished surfaces accentuate the contrasts intensely, textured surfaces lead to an unobtrusive, matt appearance (Fig. 5), as is also the case when glass fiber-reinforced materials are processed.

Marbled molded parts are chiefly used for decorative purposes in the consumer goods sector. They serve as household objects, e.  g. bowls, plates, cups, handles, and covers, as well as laptop lids and smartphone covers, as fashion accessories, e. g. buttons, as decorative elements in vehicle interiors, e. g. caps and covers, and as parts for toys. For many of these applications, the polymers should at least have a food contact (FC) classification, as is the case for Ultradur B4520 FC, a polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) supplied by BASF. In contrast, various polyamides (PA) such as the Ultramid Deep Gloss or Ultramid Vision family from BASF are suitable for automotive interiors.

With the aid of the process presented here, it is possible to reproducibly manufacture marbled molded parts in different patterns on standard injection molding machines fitted with novel nozzle inserts and special dosing technology. Aside from PBT and PA, the process lends itself to other thermoplastics that are currently undergoing testing. BASF offers its customers not only suitability tests on existing molds and machines, but also support with nozzle design and 3D printing of pilot series, with the selection of materials and colorants and process control, as well as assistance with implementation into mass production. Mold provings can be carried out on the converter’s premises or at any time in BASF SE’s pilot plant on the customer’s own molds.

BASF Aktiengesellschaft Kommunikation Kunststoffe 

https://www.basf.de

Ausgabenartikel

Marbling leads to attractively designed molded plastic parts, but is not so easy to implement in production

Table 1. Influencing factors on the marbling