Smart Molding International 1-2025

16 smart_molding international 1/2025 machinery High-grade cosmetics packaging produced sustainably and efficiently At Thomriss in Brazil, injection molding technology from WITTMANN meets stringent precision requirements. D esign is his passion, and the products show it. Tomaz dos Santos is the owner and CEO of Thomriss, a major Brazilian manufacturer of make-up packaging focusing on eyelash and eyebrow mascaras. His daily challenge: pro - ducing high-grade surfaces sustainably at competitive costs. Injection molding system supplier WITTMANN supports this effort with machines, automation, auxiliaries and extensive application technology expertise. Tomaz dos Santos is particularly proud of the large clean- room area at the corporate headquarters newly constructed ten years ago in Lençóis Paulista, just under 280 kilometers north- west of the São Paulo city. “Quality is our top criterion”, the CEO explains to us during our visit to the production plant. On the table inside the large, bright conference room, a great variety of packaging items are displayed, such as lipstick cases, eyelash and eyebrow mascaras, make-up jars and dropper bottles for liquid preparations. The company’s product range includes more than 50 different types of packaging. For injectionmolding production, this is an enormous figure. For it must be remembered that one lipstick and facial stick alone requires more than five different molds, and every product can be ordered in innumerable variants. All products are available in a very broad range of different colors, and with color gradients as well. Many packaging parts are printed on, metallized or painted. Themain eye-catchers are the anodized lip gloss and eyeliner packs with their particularly elegant glamor. “This can only be achieved by highly accurate and perfectly clean production”, explains dos Santos. Even the tiniest dust particle or slightest unevenness would be-come clearly visible after metallizing and thus cause scrap. The prerequisite for perfect surfaces is high precision in injectionmolding. 44 injection molding machines with clamping forces ranging from 120 to 240 tons are installed in the injection molding hall. Nearly all of these are SmartPower machines from the WITTMANN Group. With 65 per cent of all parts produced, injection molding processing takes up the lion’s share of manufacturing activities at the facility. “The SmartPower injection molding machines offer extremely precise machine movements together with strong dynamism and high efficiency” says Cássio Luis Saltori, Managing Director of WITTMANN BATTENFELD do Brasil. “With these attributes, the series is predestined for use in the particularly price-sensitive production of upmarket cosmetics packaging.” Their drive-on-demand technology combines fast-responding servo motors with powerful constant displacement pumps to enable extremely fast and simultaneously precise machine movements with minimal energy consumption. The KERS energy recovery system produces an additional energy-saving effect by transforming the kinetic energy from deceleration processes into electrical energy. The power derived from this can then be used for functions within the machine such as barrel heating. A total of 44 injection molding machines are up and running and the lion’s share is taken up by servo-hydraulic SmartPower machines from WITTMANN (all photos: WITTMANN) Everything from a single source: granulate feeding is handled exclusively by WITTMANN auxiliaries