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The trend towards complete process monitoring has now reached mould temperature control. The typical, legacy water manifolds are therefore increasingly being replaced by state-of-art flow monitoring systems, such as ENGEL flomo. ENGEL e-flomo sees ENGEL take this one step further. The flow control system does not just monitor the relevant parameters, but keeps them constant throughout the production run.
Mould temperature control has a significant influence on productivity of the manufacturing process and on the quality of the moulded parts, but despite this, for a long time it did not attract a great deal of attention. ENGEL prompted a change in thinking when it developed ENGEL flomo in 2010. The injection moulding machine integrated, compact and manually adjustable water manifold system improves process reliability and facilitates process optimisation. For Fakuma 2014, ENGEL took the step from process monitoring to process control. The newly developed ENGEL e-flomo also features electrical control valves, which allow the flow rates to be adjusted and controlled in a fully-automated process.
Automatically compensating for fluctuations in the water quantity
The available volume of water can fluctuate during production, for example if filters clog, or system pressure changes are caused by different levels of load on the production equipment. In a production environment, these influences often go unnoticed for a long period of time, resulting – in the worst case – in the production of scrap. Even the manually adjustable ENGEL flomo water manifold can prevent this thanks to its monitoring feature. The new ENGEL e-flomo does not just monitor, it automatically adjusts the settings. If the system notices a flow rate dropping in one of the flow circuits, the corresponding control valve is automatically opened to a position where the desired target value is reached again.
Keeping the temperature under control
The temperature control device is responsible for keeping a constant media temperature. Since a certain amount of heat loss is typical between the temperature control unit and the mould, the ENGEL e-flomo also monitors the supply water temperature throughout the entire production run. At the same time, other parameters can be included for monitoring; for example, the return temperature or the temperature difference between the supply and return sides.
ENGEL e-flomo is designed for water temperatures up to 120 °C. Shut-off valves in the central supply and return lines allow for fast and easy activation and deactivation of the individual manifold units. Just like the ENGEL flomo, the new ENGEL e-flomo is characterized by its resistance to soiled water.
Thanks to its functionality, ENGEL e-flomo improves the economy of the production process through fast mould set-up, higher machine availability, and reducing scrap.
