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For the healthcare market segment at NPE2018, Engel (Schwertberg, Austria) will demonstrate the production of interdental brushes marketed by Pheneo (Bremen, Germany) under the name, scrub! The demo will take place in booth W3303 on a cleanroom version of Engel’s all-electric e-motion 170/110-T injection molding machine. Up to 500 bristles can be formed in a single-component injection mold.
Extremely delicate in the bristle area, the high-performance precision B-cavity mold comes from Hack Formenbau (Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany), with Hekuma (Eching, Germany) providing the automation. The highly integrated, automated production cell is built in the modular Hekuflex design by Hekuma. Immediately after injection molding, the parts are inspected by a vision system and packed in retail bags, 16 parts to each. A bag leaves the production cell every four seconds.
“With our highly-integrated manufacturing process and the single-component construction, we exponentially surpass the efficiency of established products and processes in the market,” said Jon Kelm, Manager of Medical and Packaging Business Units for Engel North America. “As a rule, interdental brushes consist of three components—the grip surface, a wire mesh and the filaments—which are usually produced in independent processes. By contrast, our solution does away with the entire work steps, and reduces the logistical effort.”
With a total shot weight of only 1.93 grams, completely filling eight cavities with filigree structures places very high demands on the mold as well as on the precision and consistency of the injection molding machine. Engel has two answers for this: The e-motion injection molding machine and inject 4.0.
Under the inject 4.0 umbrella, Engel bundles software products for the digitization and networking of production processes: For example, the intelligent assistance systems of the iQ product family detect fluctuations in environmental conditions and raw materials and automatically compensate for them before rejects occur. In the CC300 control of the e-motion, NPE visitors can observe how iQ weight control analyzes the pressure curve over the screw position during injection and adapts the switchover-point, injection speed profile and holding pressure to current conditions.
Simultaneously, iQ clamp control determines and automatically sets the optimal clamping force for the process, taking into account the level of mold breathing.
The third system, iQ flow control regulates the temperature-control devices, ensuring constant temperature conditions while reducing power consumption.
“With the intelligent assistance systems, the injection molding machine is continuously self-optimizing,” explained Kelm. “This allows all levels of machine operators to achieve optimal results.”
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