WITTMANN BATTENFELD at the Fakuma 2015
SmartPower 350 completes the PowerSeries
WITTMANN BATTENFELD is presenting to interested trade visitors sophisticated application and process technologies on state-of-the-art servo-hydraulic and all-electric machines from the PowerSeries in hall B1, booth 1204 at this year’s Fakuma in Friedrichshafen from 13 to 17 October.
Our exhibition highlight: the new SmartPower 350
With the market launch of the new SmartPower 350/2250, the innovative product range of the PowerSeries will be complete. The PowerSeries comprises the EcoPower, MicroPower, MacroPower and SmartPower. WITTMANN BATTENFELD developed the PowerSeries with the aim of optimizing customer benefit. Energy efficiency, precision, compactness and user-friendliness are the outstanding features of this product series.
The SmartPower with up to 120 t clamping force was presented for the first time at the Fakuma 2014 and is now being completed by adding the sizes 180, 240 and 350. The SmartPower is equipped with a highly efficient servo-hydraulic drive as standard and utilizes the available deceleration energy via KERS for barrel heating, as is already familiar from the EcoPower. In this way, the machine’s energy efficiency is optimized.
The SmartPower 350 comes with generous mold fixing dimensions of 800 x 720 mm distance between tie-bars, with a simultaneously extremely compact overall machine footprint.
On the SmartPower 350/2250 being exhibited at the WITTMANN BATTENFELD booth, an “organic sheet” component will be produced with a single-cavity mold from Georg Kaufmann, CH. This is a demonstrator part to illustrate the potential of this technology. The mold is equipped with a hot runner with needle shut-off, an edge folding slider for in-mold forming of the organic sheet and a punching die to punch out an aperture in it. The automation system developed by WITTMANN Robot Systeme in Nuremberg is custom-made for this application and comes with a station to feed the organic sheets cut to size, a heating station to heat the organic sheets with heating elements supplied by Krelus, CH, and a multi-functional gripper with a needle gripper to pick up the heated organic sheet, and a suction unit for finished parts removal.
On the smallest SmartPower model, a SmartPower 25/130 equipped with a FLOWCON plus flow controller from WITTMANN integrated in the machine’s UNILOG B6P control system and fitted with a microprocessor control system of its own, a ball filter will be manufactured from PA using a 4-cavity mold supplied by Zimmermanntechnik (HK) Ltd. Hong Kong, which operates a production plant in Shenzen, China and maintains service subsidiaries in Germany, Austria and Mexico. The FLOWCON takes care of closed-loop flow control as well as mold temperature control, which contributes substantially to improved product quality and production stability. Furthermore, the FLOWCON’s extensive parameter settings are saved together with the respective mold data sets. This allows for extremely easy and faultless operation of the appliance.
WITTMANN BATTENFELD demonstrates medical technology competence
A further highlight at this year’s Fakuma is the EcoPower 110/350 equipped for clean room applications by WITTMANN BATTENFELD with a special medical technology package. In the design of this model, special attention has been paid to the cleanness of the mold space, and to keeping the machine’s emissions to the environment – that is to a clean room – as low as possible. For this purpose, the machine comes with the EcoPower “clean package”. This package includes among other things a water cooling system for the entire machine with a closed cooling circuit, nickel-plated mold fixing plates, use of food-grade lubricants and a special detergent- and disinfectant-resistant coat of paint. The machine also comes with a laminar flow box, a reject separator and an encapsulated clean-room conveyor belt installed below the clamping unit, supplied by Max Petek Reinraumtechnik, Germany.
The functionality of the EcoPower clean-room model will be demonstrated by manufacturing a tray for contact lenses from PP. The parts drop freely onto the encapsulated clean-room conveyor belt from Max Petek Reinraumtechnik which subsequently transports them to a Petek laminar flow workstation.
Medical technology micro injection molding
The second exhibit on the theme of medical technology at this year’s Fakuma will be the medical technology version of a MicroPower 15/10.
On this machine, a PEEK micro catheter is produced with a single-cavity mold supplied by Ernst Wittner GmbH, Austria, which is used for taking samples from peripheral tissue. In practice, this micro catheter, made by the Austrian company Biegler GmbH, is used by JOANNEUM Research HEALTH to take measurements for drug development. The parts weigh about 20 mg and are 3 x 3 x 2 mm in size.
The machine on display comes as a full-fledged clean-room production cell, equipped with a rotary disk, parts removal handling device, integrated quality inspection by image processing, as well as a clean-room module, which produces class 6 clean air according to the ISO 14644-1 standard. The parts are all injected, quality-inspected and deposited inside the clean room.
Multi-component technology – on an EcoPower with insider
The compact design of the EcoPower injection units favors the use of the all-electric machines from WITTMANN BATTENFELD for 2C injection molding. In combination with an insider automation system, a highly compact and user-friendly production cell is created. The robot installed on the machine can be pushed aside for mold change in just a few easy steps.
On an EcoPower 180/350H/350V, a flange made of HDPE and PA will be produced using a 1+1-cavity mold supplied by Polar-Form Werkzeugbau GmbH, Germany. The insider cell incorporates a W821 robot from WITTMANN for parts removal and depositing, as well as a WITTMANN temperature control system and a conveyor belt.
Optimal service by using latest technologies
The exhibition program of WITTMANN BATTENFELD is rounded off by a presentation of its Web-Service 24/7 also at the Fakuma 2014. Web-Service 24/7 stands for the online service from WITTMANN BATTENFELD, which is available round the clock on 7 days a week. Visitors to the Fakuma show will have an opportunity to experience the operation of Web-Service 24/7 via a live connection at the service center specially installed for this purpose. This service center provides information to visitors about the other services offered by WITTMANN BATTENFELD as well, such as customer support, application technology, training and the new, process data acquisition software SmartMonitoring.
SmartMonitoring is a process data acquisition software which provides access to a universal database. With SmartMonitoring, WITTMANN BATTENFELD uses the monitoring module of authentig with an integrated online overview of the corporate machinery visualized on the UNILOG B6P machine control system. Through this simple integration into the system of the MES software market leader, WITTMANN BATTENFELD offers its customers the option of a plant overview via the machine’s control system, too.
On the way to Industrie 4.0, WITTMANN 4.0 constitutes an important component for integration, and this will be demonstrated at the Fakuma. Via the machine’s B6P control system, several machines as well as robots and peripherals connected to them can be linked together and operated via the uniform Windows user interface, which enables interaction between the individual appliances. In this way, the entire manufacturing process, including material feeding and blending, temperature control, automation and injection-molding can be optimally coordinated and tracked. Another important point is having all parameter settings, automation processes and formulations centrally recorded in a mold catalog and distributed from there to the correct appliances when a mold change takes place. Just as important is the central recording of error signals and machine statuses of all appliances linked together under WITTMANN 4.0.
With the help of the WiBa QuickLook app, it is possible to check the status of injection molding machines and robots simply and comfortably with a Smartphone. The new app links up with the most recent software versions of WITTMANN R8.3 robots and WITTMANN BATTENFELD Unilog B6P control systems. In this way, WiBa QuickLook enables quick and easy viewing of the process data and the status of the most important appliances operating in a production cell.
The WITTMANN Group
The WITTMANN Group is a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of injection molding machines, robots and peripheral equipment for the plastics industry. Headquartered in Vienna/Austria, the WITTMANN Group consists of two main divisions, WITTMANN BATTENFELD and WITTMANN, which operate 10 production facilities in 7 countries, including 30 direct subsidiary offices located in all major plastics markets around the world.
WITTMANN BATTENFELD focuses on independent market growth in the manufacturing of state-of-the art injection molding machines and process technology, providing a modern and comprehensive range of machinery in a modular design that meets the actual and future requirements of the plastic injection molding market.
WITTMANN’s product range includes robots and automation systems, material handling systems, dryers, gravimetric and volumetric blenders, granulators, mold temperature controllers and chillers. With this comprehensive range of peripheral equipment, WITTMANN can provide plastics processors with solutions that cover all production requirements, ranging from autonomous work cells to integrated plant-wide systems.
The syndication of the WITTMANN Group has led to connectivity between all product lines, providing the advantage plastics processors have been looking for in terms of a seamless integration of injection molding machines, automation and auxiliary equipment – all occurring at a progressive rate.
Contact:
WITTMANN BATTENFELD GmbH & Co.KG
Werner-Battenfeld-Strasse 1
D-58540 Meinerzhagen
Tel.: +49 2354 72-0
Fax: +49 2354 72-485
WITTMANN BATTENFELD GmbH
Wiener Neustädter Strasse 81
A-2542 Kottingbrunn
Tel.: +43 2252 404-1400
Fax: +43 2252 404-991400
gabriele.hopf@wittmann-group.com