Wittmann Battenfeld with sustainable technologies at the Equiplast
From 30th May to 2nd June, Wittmann Battenfeld Spain will present energy-efficient injection moulding and process technology to trade visitors at the Equiplast 2023 in Barcelona, in hall 3, booth No. 49.
The Equiplast in Spain is a platform for manufacturers from across Europe and the American continent to showcase their products and exchange views and information. Wittmann Battenfeld Spain will use this platform to present the technologies of the Wittmann Group to a broad professional audience.
At this year’s Equiplast, the main focus of the four exhibits from their range of machinery will be on the energy efficiency of this equipment and the opportunities to manufacture sustainable products by using ultra-modern process technology.
Injection compression moulding with the high-speed EcoPower Xpress
Wittmann Battenfeld will present the ICM (injection compression moulding) process on a high-speed EcoPower Xpress 160/1100+. With a 4-cavity mould supplied by GLAROFORM, Switzerland, a 230 ml cup made of polypropylene from SABIC, the Netherlands, with a wall thickness of 0.28 mm will be produced within a short cycle time. Due to the drive technology of the high-speed EcoPower Xpress, especially the short injection times required for the ICM process can be realised. The machine is equipped with a 4-fold IML system supplied by BECK Automation, Switzerland. One of its functions is automatic positioning of all four labels. Regardless of its position inside the magazine, every label is invariably placed into exactly the same position on the IML core. This reduces both reject rates and operating effort, since manual adjustment of the label magazines is no longer necessary.
Another "specialty" in this application are the IML labels supplied by MCC Verstraete, Belgium. These labels running under the name of NextCycle IML at MCC Verstraete detach themselves automatically from the PP carrier material during regrinding. In the subsequent washing and drying process, the lighter components, i.e., the NextCycle IML label flakes, are separated from the heavier carrier material, so that only the pure PP container flakes are extruded. Since NextCycle IML packaging products consist of mono PP material, no material losses during the sorting process nor any pollution of other material waste streams occur.
Quality assurance with HiQ software
On an EcoPower 110/350 equipped with the new B8X control system, a bio building block made of Fasal will be produced using an 8-cavity mould supplied by Bioblo, Austria. This raw material is a compound made by Fasal Wood, Austria, from wood flour and post-industrial polypropylene supplied by Borealis, Austria. The equipment is designed as an Insider cell, which has a W918 robot and an S-Max 3 screenless granulator from Wittmann, a conveyor belt and also the protective housing all integrated in the production system. The moulded parts and the sprue are removed by the W918 robot, and the sprue is passed on directly to the granulator, where it is ground and then returned to the process. The finished parts are deposited on the integrated conveyor belt, transported to a flow wrapping machine and packaged. The tubular packaging bags are made of the BornewablesTM FB4370 material from Borealis.
To ensure top quality for the parts, the software packages HiQ Metering for active closing of the check valve and HiQ Melt for measuring the MFI are used in addition to HiQ Flow. The resulting MFR (melt flow rate) is an indicator of the material’s flow attributes.
Liquid silicone processing
Wittmann Battenfeld will demonstrate its expertise in liquid silicone processing on a machine from the servo-hydraulic SmartPower series. The open design of the SmartPower’s injection unit enables easy integration of the LSR metering unit. Die Nexus X200 metering unit comes with a new Servomix dosing system and is connected with the machine’s B8 control system via Euromap 82.3 OPC-UA integration. In the mould, latest cold-runner technology with FLOWSET needle shut-off regulation is used. The parts are removed by a Wittmann W918 robot and packaged by a flow wrapping machine.
Automation and auxiliaries
In addition to the robots and auxiliary appliances connected to the machines on display, numerous robots and auxiliaries from Wittmann will also be shown as stand-alone solutions at the Equiplast in Barcelona.
In the area of automation, Wittmann Battenfeld Spain will showcase a range of new robot models with R9 control systems plus robots from the WX series, the ultra-high-speed Sonic robot, as well as several models from the low-cost Primus series and the WP 80 high-precision sprue picker.
The function of the high-speed Sonic robot will be demonstrated by playing chess with a Sonic 143. This robot comes with an A/C-Servo-combination axis and an L-shaped gripper equipped with two separate magnetic gripping units to handle the chess pieces. The second of these grippers is used whenever a chess piece is captured, that is, must be replaced by another on a certain field. The chess pieces themselves are produced on a 3D printer and have a metal core, so that they can be handled by a magnetic gripper. The robot, gripper system and chess software are all controlled by the latest Wittmann R9 robot control system. Due to its open programme interface, this system allows the integration of an open-source chess software. The Sonic 143 has the option of playing either against itself or against a challenger from among the trade fair visitors. At the Wittmann booth, all visitors are offered the opportunity to compete against the Sonic 143 in a fast chess game with 3 min playing time, where they can enter their moves via a virtual chess board shown on the display of the Wittmann R9 TeachBox.
In addition, Wittmann Battenfeld Spain will present to visitors to the Equiplast a wide range of Wittmann auxiliary appliances. These will include a Wittmann central material loading system with Feedmax plus, material loaders featuring an automatic 2-step filtering system, material dryers from the Primus series, several Gravimax 14 gravimetric blenders and the volumetric blender models Dosimax basic, Dosimax balance and Dosimax MC 12. The range of exhibits will be completed with temperature controllers from the Tempro plus and Tempro basic series, as well as granulators from the G-Max series and screenless granulators from the S-Max series.