Anyone seeking to replace a metal component by a plastic one, to reduce the number of component parts from eight to three and simultaneously cut both the weight and manufacturing costs needs to take great care to ensure that all specifications are met – especially if the component is used in a hot gearbox and is subject to high mechanical stress.

The shifter fork creates a positive lock between the gear wheel and the shaft so that the engine power can be transmitted to the wheels

Production-Ready Plastic Shifter Fork Offers a Maximum of Functional Integration

Spritzgießen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kohlenstofffasern / -matten

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Verstärkungsstoffe

Produktentwicklung (F+E)

Innovationsentwicklung

Wirtschaft

Innovationen und neue Technologie

Spritzgießwerkzeuge

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Inserttechnik

Verbundwerkstoffe / Werkstoffverbunde

Spritzgießsimulation

Software

Simulation

Hybrid-Spritzgießen (Metall / Kunststoff)

Replacing Metal in the Gearbox

Once again, the K 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany, lived up to its claim to be the leading trade show for plastics technology. At least in the field of injection molding, there were exciting global innovations to see – if you looked closely.

Fig. 1. Smart Operation – the machine is operated with only four buttons (© KraussMaffei)

Injection Molding Trends at K 2019

Schaumspritzgießen

Smart Factory

Energieeffizienz

Mikrospritzgießen

Mehrkomponenten-Spritzgießen

Spritzgießmaschinen, allgemein

Spritzgießmaschinen

Fließpressen

Handling, Handhabungstechnik für die spanende Fertigung

Automatisierungstechnik

Handling, Handhabungstechnik

Spritzgieß-Sonderverfahren

Elastomer-Spritzgießen

Linearroboter für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Industrieroboter

Montagetechnik

Industrie 4.0 für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Industrie 4.0

Montage-Spritzgießen

Knickarmroboter

Co-Injektion (Barriere-/Sandwich-Spritzgießen)

Ressourcenmanagement

Produktion

Technical Excellence thanks  to Digital Assistance

Internal pressure loads are typical for fiber-reinforced plastic components. To increase the burst strength of components, the fiber orientation can be modified in a targeted way during injection molding by means of a rotating mold core. A newly developed simulation method allows this modified fiber orientation to be taken into account at the design stage.

Practical implementation of a mold system with rotating core.

16:9

Mold System with Rotating Core Improves Mechanical Properties

Werkstoffprüfung, mechanisch

Messtechnik

Werkstoffprüfung

Faserverbundwerkstoffe

Andere Werkstoffe

Design Methodology for Parts Subject to Internal Pressure

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

Metall Werkstoffe

NE-Metalle

Laserbearbeitungen

Oberflächentechnik

Tiefziehen

Verfahren für die spanlose Fertigung

Simulation Stanzen / Umformen

Laserstrukturieren

Medizintechnik

Medizinprodukte

Process Chain for the Production of Hybrid Medical Products

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.

Messe K-Kunststoffmesse

kunststoffe-international.com

Nachhaltigkeit

Umweltmanagement

Kreislaufwirtschaft

Sustainability thanks to Digitalization

Injection molding cell combines high article variance with automated product changeover.

With the turnkey solution, 159 product variants can be manufactured.

Flexible Production Concept Combines High Article Variance with Automation

Automatisierungszellen

Automatisierungskomponenten

Multiaxialroboter für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

One System, 159 Variants

Current developments in lightweight construction intend to contribute to improving the structural integrity of hybrid components – without neglecting the energy and resource consumption this involves. A research consortium is concentrating on improving the production processes for integral form-fitting and cohesive material composites made from fiber-reinforced plastics and metals. Future applications in mass production intend to reduce CO₂ emissions in street traffic. 

New Mold and Processing Technologies Increase the Competitiveness of Eco-Efficient FRP-Metal Composite Hybrid Components  

Reliability Made Easy 

The chance of such a restart is probably not often. Following an insolvency, a classic injection molding company is rebuilt under new management into a high-tech manufacturing company and component manufacturer, which delivers its products just-in-sequence to its customers’ production lines. Some examples from the white goods world show how sophisticated process technology is today. As a strategic partner, EKT has brought the hot runner manufacturer Synventive on board. 

Eifler Kunststoff-Technik Specializes in the Functional Application of Proprietary Processes in Injection Molding Production 

Normalien und Heißkanaltechnik

Professional Bias towards Complexity 

Anyone looking around Fakuma could discover automation solutions to suit any budget and applications of any complexity. The forerunners of Industry 4.0 were also to be seen. 

Fakuma 2017 Offered a Wide Range of Solutions for Flexible Automated Production 

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

Handhabungsroboter

From Versatile to Highly Efficient 

The imminent paradigm shift in mobility makes it essential that the German automotive industry prepares itself to undergo a transformation, both now and in the future, the like of which has not been seen before. Resource-efficient lightweight system engineering in a multi-material design is a key differentiating feature here. In this connection, novel materials, highly automated, digitized manufacturing processes as well as functional integration for intelligent component structures and vehicle systems will form the basis for creating springboard innovations that will dominate the competition. 

Innovative Injection Molding Technologies for Hybrid Lightweight Applications 

Elektromobilität

Thermoplaste

Magnesium

Faserverarbeitung

Warmformen / Thermoformen

Beschichten von Metallen, allgemein

Verbindungstechnik, hybride

Plastic and Metal − an Inseparable Team 

The optimization of injection molding processes by using software to simulate mold filling and solidification is standard today. However, this has its limits, especially if the material properties or the flow behavior are not known with sufficient accuracy. The services offered by Beaumont, such as material testing, injection molding tests or the optimization of flow channel systems, can help here.  

MF Software Exclusively Distributes Beaumont Products in Europe 

Rheologie

Higher Productivity and Better  Process Control 

Users can now precisely simulate and design the mold temperature control already at the planning phase. 

Cooling Simulation with Temp-Flex Hoses 

Temperiertechnik

Precise Simulation of Thermal Behavior 

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

Dienstleistungen

Werkzeug-, Formen- und Modellbau

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

Starting with the systematic design of manufacturing processes and the precise simulation of part manufacture, through smart tooling technology and sophisticated melt guidance, to efficient mold temperature control, numerous exhibitors have many innovations in the field of tooling technology on offer at K 2019.The current debates concerning marine pollution as well as anthropogenic climate change and its consequences seem to be having an effect at this world-leading trade show for plastics processing in Düsseldorf, Germany. A number of companies are noting the growing customer interest in sustainable, carbon-neutral and resource-efficient modes of production, and offering products and services intended to satisfy this interest.

Resource-Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Products Are the Trend in  Tooling Technology

Werkzeuginnendrucksensoren

Sensoren / Messwertaufnehmer

Temperiergeräte

Gießanlagen

Normalien für die Kunststofffertigung

Normalien

Heißkanalsysteme

Komponenten für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Kaltkanalsysteme

Exhibitors See Green

With an Automated Process Chain  and a Digital Twin

From Simulation to Mass Production of Hybrid Parts

Hybrid designs of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) and metals are ideal for implementing high-strength and complex lightweight structures. Hybrid technology, in particular, offers attractive potential for producing such structures on a large scale with special injection molding processes. However, the combination of different materials makes particular demands on the manufacturing technology.

The interplay between the physical and virtual process chain permits the fully automatic production of FRP-metal hybrid parts every minute.

The decision of the EU to only allow emission-free vehicles to be newly registered from 2035 increases the requirements for resource conservation and material efficiency. Lightweight construction, in particular in the form of hybrid parts, for example FRP-metal hybrid parts, can play a key role here, since it combines ecological and economic advantages. A key challenge is the implementation of high-strength interfaces between the individual components. Due to the combination of different processing methods, numerous process parameters also occur, whose complex interaction has a significant influence on the part quality.

To make FRP-metal hybrid parts attractive for large series production, a comprehensive understanding of the process must be built up. For example the different semi-finished products must be pre-treated to ensure a highly loadable bonding between the individual components. For this, a variety of process parameters must be matched to one another along the process chain – a task that can lead to many uncertainties. It is precisely this gap that is addressed by the project “hypro – holistic implementation of hybrid design methods in series production” (Table 1), sponsored by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and headed by Brose Fahrzeugteile SE & Co. KG.

In the project, the ingenious interplay between the physical and virtual process chains brings a fully automated system into operation, which permits the production of FRP-metal hybrid parts in a cycle time of one minute, and, thanks to the part-specific process data acquisition and evaluation, creates the basis for efficient process design.

The project focuses on the holistic implementation of hybrid designs in series production. At the start of the joint project in May 2020, the partners set themselves the goal of overcoming the hurdles for using complex FRP-metal hybrid parts and bringing them competitively into industrial application. “For us, hybrid materials have long been particularly attractive for lightweight construction. However, their implementation in series production poses special requirements, for example suitable material combinations or pretreatment processes. These will now be processed in the hypro project,” says Dr. Christina Hack, head of technology and innovation at Brose Fahrzeugteile SE & Co. KG, Bamberg, Germany.

To ensure that the project is practically oriented, the project partners developed a complex sample part based on a metal insert from Brose’s series production. This is functionalized with a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic and a FRP patch (organic sheet) (Fig. 1). To gain more insight into the process as a whole and optimize it as far as possible at all points, this part is used to build up not only a physical process chain but also a virtual process chain.

The system for manufacturing the above-described part was developed by the consortium and built up in the National Validation Centre for Lightweight Engineering (LEIV) for short, of the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK) of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany (Fig. 2). The aim was to completely automate production, including the necessary pretreatment steps. “The merging of the individual systems into a fully automated manufacturing complex was a challenge for the entire hypro team. Thanks to the continuous data acquisition realized in the process, we hope to gain considerable insight into the design of future hybrid processes,” explains Dr. Robert Kupfer, head of neutral lightweight engineering at the ILK of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany.

To bond the metal insert to the thermoplastic in the injection molding process, it is cleaned, plasma coated, subsequently inductively heated and inserted into the injection mold. The transfer processes for cleaning and coating, as well as heating, are implemented with a six-axis robot. As a result, transfer paths can be optimized and the resulting temperature losses of the heated metal insert be limited. At the same time, a linear handling unit removes the organic sheet from a magazine, passes it to an infrared heating field and subsequently transfers it to the mold. Immediately after the two inserts have been placed in the cavity, the injection molding process starts, in which the hot plastic organic sheet is pressed onto the metal insert, three-dimensionally formed and finally overmolded together with the metal insert. In the end, the finished part is removed from the mold and transferred to a measurement station for quality control.

The respective process data of the entire cell are recorded continuously along the process chain and assigned to the individual parts. In combination with the data from the part measurement and additional mechanical tests on the functional samples, the influences of the process parameters on the part properties can be precisely quantified.

It is important to the project consortium that the process chain, consisting of development, manufacturing and part testing, is not only physically developed but also modeled as a digital twin. Virtualization helps to deepen the process understanding so that in the future, it will be possible to design hybrid parts in a manner that is efficient and appropriate to the process. In addition, the merging of the data from the simulation and the real process should permit virtual optimization of the real process and computer-aided non-destructive quality assurance of the hybrid parts.

At the heart of the virtual process chain is injection molding simulation. The software Cadmould from Simcon is used in the project. The software allows the complex injection mold to be efficiently modeled in the simulation model with the required depth of detail, and so rapidly provide precise results. Thanks to its cooperation with the development service provider GK Concept, Simcon became aware of the hypro project and was immediately enthusiastic about it. Simcon is attaching great importance to “hypro” for the future production of hybrid parts, and has therefore additionally supported the consortium with further software modules, which permit a more detailed simulation of the complex processes taking place in the injection mold.

The virtual injection molding process starts at the point when the organic sheet and steel insert have already been inserted into the mold and the mold is closed. It ends with the beginning of the mold opening (Fig. 3).

The injection molding simulation provides important findings throughout the development process in order to design the part, mold and process appropriate to the polymer and identify potential problems, such as deformations, at an early stage and avoid them. Due to the simulation-aided analysis of wall thicknesses and rib structures it was possible to identify and eliminate constrictions in the geometry that would have caused unnecessarily high injection pressures and an inadequate holding pressure effect.

Another point in the preliminary design was the flow in the region of the organic sheet. Here, it was important to avoid undesirable deformation as a result of the pressure of the plastic melt (Fig. 4). Philipp Hammer, simulation engineer at GK Concept, explains: “In the process simulation, this project posed three major challenges: first, the material combination of the different components with heterogeneous input parameters, second, different mold steels and, third, the disparate thermal loading of the surfaces of the organic sheet and the metal insert.” Special attention therefore had to be paid to the adequate simulation of the input parameters and the thermal situation in the mold (Fig. 5).

Factors Determining the Dimensional Accuracy of the Part

Besides fiber orientations and pressure differences, thermal imbalances in the mold can also cause local shrinkage differences. They are, therefore the determining factors for the part’s warpage behavior and dimensional stability of the part. The validation of the simulated part deformation by means of a CT scan shows very good agreement between simulation and practice (Fig. 6).

The bonding quality between the metal insert and organic sheet, on the one hand, and the thermoplastic injection molding matrix, on the other hand, is crucially influenced by the temperature and pressure at the contact surface [1]. The process simulation is very suitable for calculating these characteristic values resolved according to position and time and determining the sensitivity of the relevant process parameters via parameter variations. The correct simulation of the thermal situation in the injection mold is an elementary prerequisite. The results of the injection molding simulation are subsequently processed for the structural simulation in order to be able to check how the locally variable process boundary conditions affect the structural properties.

After the process chain has been built up and completely automated, and the data acquisition set up, production studies are to be performed in quantities up to 10,000 during the remaining project time. The process data recorded and the mechanical tests on the functional sample are intended to provide an extensive understanding of hybrid structures along the entire process chain. With the aid of this knowledge base, in addition to the functional samples, demonstrator parts are also produced as substructures of a vehicle seat. The aim is to show that the findings can be used across different parts.

[1] Koshukow, W.; Liebsch, A.; Wippermann, J.; Meschut, G.; Kupfer, R.; Troschitz, J.; Gude, M.: Influence of plasma coating pretreatment on the adhesion of thermoplastics on metals. Munich Symposium On Lightweight Design 2022

Brose Fahrzeugteile SE & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft 

https://www.brose.com

Simcon kunststofftechnische Software GmbH  

https://www.simcon.com

TU Dresden - Institut für Leichtbau u. Kunststofftechnik 

GK Concept GmbH  

Ausgabenartikel

Virtualization offers great potential for better understanding of complex manufacturing processes for hybrid parts and shortening development times. The digital twin, in combination with the recorded process parameters of the physical process chain, is intended as an efficient tool for virtual design and optimization for future hybrid processes.

Fig. 1. hypro concept for a functional sample (left) and actually implemented hybrid sample part (right).

Fig. 2. Automated hypro production line with a six-axis robot for pretreatment and transport of the metal insert and a portal system for handling the organic sheet.

Fig. 3. Filling analysis with Cadmould: Simulation model of the moving mold half with cooling channels, metal and FRP inserts and the partly filled cavity.

Fig. 4. In those regions in which the organic sheet is not pressed between the two mold halves, it can be deformed by the hot melt stream during the filling phase. This displacement can be computed by the simulation.

Fig. 5. For realistic reproduction of the temperature distribution (right), the mold geometry with all the relevant influences was built up in the simulation model.

Fig. 6. Deformation of the part. Left: simulation; center: measurement by CT scan; right: the comparison of simulation and measurement shows good agreement.

Table. The “hypro” project is coordinated by Brose and the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology at the Technical University of Dresden. Further project partners are listed in alphabetical order.

Hauptartikel

Gerald Erdmann has been a development engineer at Brose Fahrzeugteile SE & Co. KG and consortium manager for the “hypro” project since 2018; <a href="mailto:gerald.erdmann@brose.com">gerald.erdmann@brose.com</a>

Jana Horn is head of development at GK Concept GmbH in Dresden, Germany; <a href="mailto:j.horn@gkconcept.de">j.horn@gkconcept.de</a>

Alexander Liebsch is research assistant at the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK) at the Technical University of Dresden and also consortium head for the “hypro” project; <a href="mailto:alexander.liebsch@tu-dresden.de">alexander.liebsch@tu-dresden.de</a>

Ines Oud is managing director of Simcon kunststofftechnische Software GmbH; <a href="mailto:ines.oud@simcon.com">ines.oud@simcon.com</a>

The joint project hypro, sponsorship code 03XP0284A-J, is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Read the German version of the article in our magazine Kunststoffe or at <a href="https://www.kunststoffe.de/a/fachartikel/mit-automatisierter-prozesskette-und-dig-3531126" target="_blank">www.kunststoffe.de</a>