Temperature control has a decisive effect on the quality and efficiency of the injection molding process. This is why electronic temperature monitoring and regulation is becoming more and more significant, since it ensures constancy and reliability of the tempering process. WITTMANN is now going a step further by adding its new Expert MouldTemp to the package of injection molding machine plus temperature control systems. This creates a new assistance concept to adjust temperatures precisely to the individual application, which improves part quality and saves energy as well.
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The stand-alone installation at the WITTMANN technical center clearly illustrates the functionality of Expert MouldTemp. The new assistance system has only been activated on the right-hand mold half. The thermographic image shows the completely homogeneous heat distribution and the considerably faster heating process. (Photo: WITTMANN) |
The basis for automatic optimization of the tempering process is the intelligent Flowcon plus flow controller. By way of wear-free flow measurement, it provides continuous flow monitoring of all cooling channels. The system recognizes disturbances such as blocked cooling channels or flow rate fluctuations and is able to compensate these automatically and accurately down to decimal figures during ongoing production, with the help of step motors and proportional valves. The individual cooling circuits are monitored and readjusted accordingly. The temperature is thus distributed evenly inside the mold. Users benefit from this in more ways than one. Firstly, the start-up time of the injection molding process is reduced, resulting in a significant increase in the injection molding machine’s productive time, especially with the use of very large molds or with frequent set-up. Secondly, the energy consumption is already lowered during the heat-up phase by more than 70 per cent. Thirdly, the extremely stable tempering process yields a maximum output of good parts.
With manual control, this optimization potential could never be exploited as effectively, since fluctuations in the process conditions seldom show their visible effects immediately. Without intelligent regulation systems, quite a number of rejects are normally produced before machine operators can pinpoint the problem and re-adjust the process parameters.
Easy to operate even without specialized staff
For its market launch, Expert MouldTemp will be offered in attractive packages together with MacroPower injection molding machines. Packages for three clamping force sizes are available – 500, 850 and 1100 tons. Moreover, Expert MouldTemp is also available as a stand-alone unit. This model can be combined flexibly with different types of existing injection molding machines.
To exploit the full optimization potential, WITTMANN temperature controllers from the Tempro plus D series are integrated into the production cell. On the basis of the measurement readings calculated by Flowcon plus, the pump output of the temperature controllers can be adjusted precisely to the requirements of the application via frequency control. As a result, the energy consumption is significantly reduced, and the pump’s service life is lengthened as well.
Central operation of the tempering process via the MacroPower injection molding machine’s Unilog B8 system makes the use of Expert MouldTemp particularly easy. The intuitive user interface ensures that consistently high product quality can be achieved even without specialized staff.
Thanks to WITTMANN 4.0 integration, the temperature control data can be saved and evaluated together with the machine parameters for seamless traceability and further process optimization.
CO2 footprint permanently reduced
Expert MouldTemp makes a substantial contribution to permanent reduction of the CO2 footprint. Scrap production is prevented pro-actively. This, in turn, lowers raw material and energy consumption. In addition, the demand-based regulation of the temperature controllers contributes significantly to increasing the temperature controllers’ energy efficiency. All of these factors taken together will bring about a noticeable reduction in unit costs.
By automatically calculating and setting the optimal regulation parameters on setpoint value basis, the system reduces the error risk and simultaneously accelerates start-up. This increases the availability of the injection molding machine.
Thorough practical testing of potential
At both German WITTMANN locations – in Nuremberg and Meinerzhagen – technical center facilities are kept available for demonstrations and testing by customers. At the Meinerzhagen facility, detailed testing of the assistance system can be carried out live on a MacroPower injection molding machine.
