Wittmann Battenfeld Shows Two New Machines in Work Cells for Medical, Packaging, and Automotive
The U.S. market is getting its first look at Wittmann Battenfeld’s high-speed, all-electric EcoPower Xpress for packaging, and its MicroPower two-shot micromolder.
Among six work cells that Wittmann Battenfeld is running at NPE2018, two present new machines for the first time at a U.S. show. The EcoPower Xpress is the company’s newest, high-speed, all-electric machine, aimed at packaging and other thin-wall products (photo). It offers injection speeds up to 600 mm/sec, injection acceleration up to 15,000 mm/sec2, and injection pressure to 36,275 psi. Shown in prototype form at K 2016, it became commercial as of Fakuma 2015 last fall. At NPE, a 440-ton model is running a 96-cavity mold for HDPE still-water caps in an expected cycle time of 2.56 sec.
Also new is a two-shot model of the MicroPower 15-ton micromolding press, first shown in Europe in 2016. It has two parallel injection units and a rotary disk, molding a plug that goes inside the recording head of a vinyl record player. The parts are made of PC and electro-conductive PC. Parts removal is handled by a Wittmann S8VS4 SCARA robot specially designed for this machine.
Among other exhibits, Wittmann Battenfeld is molding PP medical pipettes in eight cavities on a 110-ton EcoPower all-electric cleanroom machine with a tray-filling conveyor system.
Another electric EcoPower machine (180 m.t.) is molding a PP shampoo flip top in a four-cavity mold.
For automotive, a MacroPower 850-m.t. two-platen press is producing a spoiler using an HRSflow valve-gate system with five gates and several cavity-pressure sensors.
A servo-hydraulic SmartPower 110-ton machine is molding wood-plastic composite building blocks in eight cavities.
Three of the cells above are using Wittmann’s Flowcon Plus electronic water-flow controller for consistent mold cooling, and three are using the Wittmann Tempro Plus D TCU with new SpeedDrive option—a variable-frequency-controlled pump that can increase process reliability and save energy by delivering the precise coolant flow required by the process.
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