Injection Molding: Machine Upgrades for LSR

Wittmann Battenfeld has made several enhancements to its liquid silicone rubber molding equipment. The most important changes are a revised screw design and integration of the LSR dosing pump into the machine’s control system via OPC-UA communication, the emerging standard for Industry 4.0. Any commonly available LSR dosing and pumping system can now be connected to a Wittmann Battenfeld press controller via an OPC-UA interface, the company says.

The revised injection screw has an optimized shaft seal at the end of the shaft in front of the screw coupling to reduce the risk of silicone leaking out toward the screw drive. Another improvement is to the check valve, combining a larger flow cross-section with a faster and more precise closing mechanism. This has led to a significant improvement in shot-weight precision compared with the predecessor version, the company reports.

Further, at the Fakuma 2018 show last fall in Germany, an upgraded LSR injection system based on a 90-ton SmartPower servohydraulic machine was shown in an unusually space-saving arrangement. The cold runner from German moldmaker Emde Mouldtec was fastened directly onto the machine’s nozzle and then guided through the machine’s platen. Besides making the mold more compact, this arrangement minimizes thermal contact between the cold runner and hot mold.

For more news and tips on best practices in LSR molding, attend the session on this topic at the Molding 2019 Conference in Indianapolis, March 19-21.