Ultra-modern injection molding technology

From April 23 to 26, WITTMANN BATTENFELD China will present to trade visitors latest machinery and process technology as well as automation and auxiliary equipment for plastics injection molding at booth No. D41 in hall 4.1 at the Chinaplas in Shanghai, the leading plastics trade fair in the Asian region.

Asia is one of the most important markets for the WITTMANN Group. In China, the WITTMANN Group is now present with two separate sales subsidiaries as well as a local production plant. The majority of the products manufactured at the facility in Kunshan – robots, temperature controllers, material conveyors, dryers and granulators – are destined for the Asian market. This is why the Chinaplas is an important platform for the WITTMANN Group to present its range of products and services to plastics processors in the Asian region.

In the area of injection molding machinery, WITTMANN BATTENFELD CHINA will show a selection from its product portfolio, including an all-electric EcoPower, a multi-component model from the servo-hydraulic SmartPower series, and a MicroPower specially designed for injection-molding extremely small micro parts.

On an EcoPower 110/350, a syringe sheath will be manufactured from COP (cylo olefin polymer) using a 4-cavity mold with a hot runner. The machine is equipped with a W818TS robot. A Tempro plus D140 temperature controller and an Aton 70-100-M segmented wheel dryer will take care of tempering and material drying.

With a multi-component machine from the servo-hydraulic SmartPower series, a SmartPower 120/130H/130S COMBIMOULD LSR, a mobile phone holder will be manufactured from PC and LSR, using a 1+1 transfer mold with a needle shut-off cold runner supplied by Elmet, Austria. The machine comes with a W918 robot from WITTMANN and auxiliary equipment from the plus series, such as a Tempro plus D 2-circuit temperature controller, a Tempro plus D L120 model with high heating capacity, an Aton plus dryer and a Feedmax plus material conveyor. The dosing pump model is a Top 5000P supplied by Elmet. The material loading system for the thermoplastic component is geared to handling extremely small quantities, to avoid remoisturizing after transport.

On a MicroPower 15/10, a machine which was specially designed for the production of small and micro parts, venous clamps made of POM with a part weight of 0.003 g will be manufactured with a 4-cavity mold supplied by Microsystems UK within a cycle time of only 6.5 seconds. The parts are removed by a W8VS2 WITTMANN robot and passed on to a camera integrated in the production cell and in the machine’s control system for quality inspection. The parts are subsequently separated according to cavities and stacked in a stacking module. The machine is equipped with an air filter and laminar flow unit, which enables class 7 production according to the 14644-1 standard. This means that the parts are molded, quality-checked and deposited in a clean room.

Automation and auxiliaries

In addition to the robots and auxiliaries connected with the machines on display, several stand-alone appliances from this product range will be exhibited at the Chinaplas as well.

From the portfolio of servo-driven linear robots, WITTMANN BATTENFELD will show various models from local production, ranging from a W908S with 3 kg load capacity to the W938T with 15 kg load capacity. The W908S model is fitted with a servo-driven sub-arm and thus designed for flexible use, also on 3-plate tooling. This type of robot configuration is used very frequently in China and available for many robot models manufactured in China by WITTMANN BATTENFELD. Most of the robots on display are equipped with the new R9 control system, which from now on will also be available for the models made in China and presented at the Chinaplas for the first time this year.

From the range of temperature controllers, the Tempro basic C90, Tempro basic C120 and Tempro basic C140 models will be shown. These appliances are inexpensive temperature controllers with a comprehensive standard equipment package for all applications where precise temperature control is required.

The flow regulators on display include the Flowcon plus and WFC 120 models. The WFC is a monitoring device for flow quantity and temperature. It is equipped with a maintenance-free flow measuring unit.

Furthermore, some Feedmax conveyors will be shown, one of which is a Feedmax S3 net. The Feedmax S3 net, made of sturdy stainless steel, is recommended for small quantities of material up to 80 kg/h in continuous operation.

With a volumetric Dosimax and a G34 Gravimax gravimetric blender, WITTMANN will demonstrate its expertise in the area of metering technology. By their extreme precision and controlled real-time dosing, Gravimax blenders effectively counteract overdosing of expensive materials, which optimizes the products in terms of both quality standards and unit costs.

The granulator models G-Max 23, S-Max 2 and MAS 2A on display will stand for a cross-section of the WITTMANN Group’s range of granulators. The G-Max is a beside-the-press granulator specially developed for inline recycling of sprue coming from injection molding machines with clamping forces of up to 400 tons. G-Max granulators combine energy saving, a compact footprint and a unique damped cutting chamber for significant noise reduction, ensuring a quiet and efficient operation. The S-Max granulators are fitted with low-speed toothed rollers (27 rev/min with 50 Hz) for efficient, low-cost grinding of engineering plastics as well as styrene, acrylic and fiberglass-filled materials. The MAS 2A models, equipped with a worm feed, are specially designed for use underneath the injection molding machine.