Arburg at Plastec West 2016: Freeformer and LSR injection moulding
- Complete range: individual and high-volume manufacturing of plastic parts
- Freeformer: additive manufacturing of functional parts from standard granulate
- Injection moulding highlight: production of LSR magnifying glasses on an electric Allrounder 470 A
Lossburg. Arburg will present its production range from one-off parts to high-volume production at Plastec West in Anaheim, California/USA from 9 to 11 February 2016. At exhibition stand 3965 in hall B, a Freeformer will demonstrate the industrial additive manufacturing of one-off parts and multi-variant small-volume batches, while an electric high-end Allrounder will produce magnifying glasses from liquid silicone in large unit volumes.
"At Plastec West 2016, we will be demonstrating how an electric injection moulding machine from the high-performance Alldrive series can manufacture a flexible magnifying glass from a highly transparent LSR", explains Friedrich Kanz, Managing Director of Arburg USA. "After launching the Freeformer on the American market in spring 2015, in Anaheim we will be presenting the current state of Arburg Plastic Freeforming for the cost-effective additive manufacturing of additive one-off parts and small-volume batches".
Optics: magnifying glasses made from highly transparent LSR
ARBURG will be demonstrating an automated application for the optical industry at Plastec West 2016 on an electric Allrounder 470 A with 1,000 kN of clamping force and a size 290 injection unit. The machine from the high-performance Alldrive series manufactures four flexible LSR magnifying glasses in a cycle time of around 65 seconds. The highly transparent material has a hardness of 70 Shore A. A 4-cavity mould from Shin Etsu with cold runner technology and an ejector system is used. This positions the magnifying glasses, each of which weighs 8.4 grams, in the mould so that they can be gripped by a Multilift Select robotic system. The magnifying glasses are separated from the runner system in the gripper and placed on a conveyor belt.
Special LSR technology for injection moulding machines
Arburg has been developing injection moulding solutions specially adapted to the processing of liquid silicone rubbers (LSRs) for over 35 years. Special machine technology with an injection unit with liquid temperature control is used for processing a wide variety of conventional LSR types. This is because unlike thermoplastics, LSR materials need a combination of a cold cylinder module (so that the reactive material mixture does not undergo premature cross-linking) and a hot mould. Exact temperature control in the cylinder module and mould is therefore crucial for reliable processing.
Special injection moulding machines for LSR processing have a compression-free screw, needle-type shut-off nozzles and a purpose-designed non-return valve. Mould heaters, demoulding devices and vacuum technology are also available. Arburg offers an LSR package as well as numerous LSR-specific options as standard. The result is precisely tailored system solutions through to complete turnkey systems.
Multi-component Freeformer as standard
At Plastec West 2016, a Freeformer will demonstrate the additive manufacturing of functional parts on the basis of 3D CAD data. Freeformers process inexpensive, qualified standard granulates and are equipped with two stationary discharge units as standard. This enables the Freeformer to process an additional component in order, for example, to manufacture a part in different colours, with special tactile qualities or as a hard/soft combination. Alternatively, it can be used to build structures from a water-soluble support material, enabling complex part geometries to be realised.
On the one hand, the Freeformer can very quickly manufacture prototypes and design samples for functional and assembly tests in the original material. This means that expensive aluminium moulds are not needed and a new product can reach series maturity much faster. On the other hand, it is also possible to manufacture functional components and spare parts at short notice in small batches or – when combined with injection moulding – to individualise mass-produced parts.
Photos
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Industrial additive manufacturing: with the Freeformer, functional parts can be produced efficiently from qualified standard granulates without requiring a mould.
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Arburg Plastic Freeforming (APF) is based on liquid plastic droplets. The base material used here is qualified standard granulate, which is melted in an injection unit.
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Arburg will be demonstrating how to manufacture optical products from LSR using the example of a magnifying glass on an electric Allrounder 470 A at Plastec West 2016.
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Optical application: at Plastec West 2016, an electric Allrounder 470 A with a 4-cavity mould from Shin Etsu will manufacture flexible magnifying glasses from highly transparent LSR.
All photos: ARBURG
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