Experience ENGEL’s answer to the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution – inject 4.0 – at the upcoming Plastec West 2018 show. ENGEL will demonstrate how these new opportunities, tailored to the requirements of the respective industry, can be optimally utilized.
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ENGEL smart machine technology, exhibited on an all-electric ENGEL e-motion 170/85 TL US injection molding machine, compensates for fluctuations before rejects are produced. |
ENGEL North America, member of the ENGEL group, a world leader in the design and manufacture of injection molding machines and parts-handling automation, will exhibit a high precision, high performance ENGEL e-motion 170/85 TL US, February 6-9, 2018 at the Plastec West 2018 show in Anaheim, CA. The machine will be utilizing an array of ENGEL iQ software products, which continually analyze critical process parameters in order to identify and automatically adjust for any process fluctuations or deviations before defective parts are produced.
inject 4.0
By networking production systems, the systematic use of machine, process and production data, and the use of intelligent assistance systems, the manufacturing processes in a smart factory can continuously optimize themselves. As a result, the productivity and quality of production increase, and at the same time processors can react with great flexibility to rapidly changing requirements.
ENGEL committed to this trend early on, and today, under the name inject 4.0, offers numerous sophisticated products and services for all areas of the smart factory – smart machine, smart service and smart production. All of the products provide a tremendous benefit, individually as well as in the context of a high-level digitalization strategy. With this modular approach, ENGEL is making the entry into digitalization and networking especially easy.
Self-optimizing machine
As production cells become more and more complex due to increasing process integration and automation, steering and controlling them must become that much simpler and intuitive. Self-adapting assistance systems play a decisive role in this. They increase process consistency and quality without requiring the machine operator to have special expertise, and ultimately reaching autonomous operations.
At Plastec West 2018, show visitors are invited to get to know ENGEL’s smart factory products and see for themselves what huge impact even small individual solutions can have. While in the booth, visitors can take control at ENGEL’s CC300 machine controller panel and choose from five available demonstrations:
• constant filling shot by shot
• detect and avoid rejects
• cavity information without cavity sensors
• automatic clamp force optimization
• saving energy with smart mold temperature control
The CC300 machine control will simulate process fluctuations, and the automatic readjustments by the intelligent assistance systems can then be viewed live on the machine display. These demonstrations will utilize the wide variety of ENGEL iQ software products which have been developed for the smart machine:
• iQ weight control keeps the injected melt volume and viscosity constant: fluctuations in raw materials and changes in ambient conditions can impair the quality of a molded part. ENGEL’s iQ weight control software adapts the switchover point and holding pressure profile to match the current conditions, automatically compensating for external influences.
• iQ clamp control determines the mold breathing to continually adjust the clamping force: producing perfect parts while making economical use of resources. In-mold breathing – the reduction of clamp pressure when the melted material is being injected into the mold – can cause quality issues with the part, producing burn marks or flash. ENGEL iQ clamp control software quickly determines the optimum clamping force and automatically keeps mold breathing within the ideal range, thus reducing rejects.
• ENGEL e-flomo is an intelligent water manifold system that significantly improves part quality, process reliability and energy efficiency. The system controls flow rate, pressure, temperature and temperature difference to provide constant process conditions and achieve higher reproducibility. The compact unit is fully integrated into the machine’s control unit for perfect visualization, monitoring and controlling of process parameters.
• iQ flow control optimizes temperature control processes based on the measurements provided by the e-flomo electronic water distribution system: it independently regulates temperature differences and pump capacity, together with the temperature control unit, for each distribution circuit, thereby ensuring consistent conditions and higher energy efficiency. Together with its partner HB-Therm, ENGEL has developed its own line of temperature control units called e-temp
The system
The sophisticated and flexible design of the all-electric ENGEL e-motion provides greater output, more speed, higher precision and extreme cleanliness. Thanks to the tie-bar-less design of this 85 US ton machine, the system’s fully-integrated ENGEL e-pic Z linear pick & place robot has full and easy access to the mold. The compact, flexible, high performance e-pic Z has a weight-optimized design and new kinematics. It provides optimum efficiency at a low cost for machines up to 220 tons.
The system will be running a single cavity ENGEL inject 4.0 logo mold supplied by HAIDLMAIR.
