Mold, Hot Runner, Digitization and Process Monitoring at K 2022

The companies of Barnes Group’s Molding Solutions division—männer, Foboha, Synventive, Thermoplay, Priamus and Gammaflux—can be found at its own K booth, as well as in molds, hot runners and controls at the booths of Arburg, Netstal, Yushin, Fanuc and KraussMaffei, exhibiting under the them of “Share and Bundle”.

At its own Hall 1 booth, Molding Solutions will show how digitization can simplify recycling via a digital watermark. Closures molded from a biobased resin are given a digital watermark that allows recyclers to automatically separate the caps. The digital watermark, which was laser engraved onto the mold cavity, is detected by a special camera. By scanning the product with a digital watermark app, consumers can access a digital product passport with recycling related information.

The company will also debut an intelligent monitoring system at the show. Barnes Connectia Cloud will give users access to data collected by the moldMIND program, which documents relevant process data and events for injection molds in real-time throughout their operating life.

Synventive, meanwhile, will showcase a new electric valve gate. The company says the compact eGate Sync will complement the legacy eGate system, offering plug-and-play installation and simple user interface.

Molding Solutions is also launching a new online hot runner configuration system: hotrunner.shop. With this program, 3D data of 2-, 4-, or 8-drop hot runner systems featuring nozzles from männer and Synventive can be created within minutes. The step-by-step configuration system draws on a material database of more than 12,000 resins and allows customers to generate customized 3D data through the application check. For applications outside the system’s guidelines, a follow up with an application engineer is set up. männer and Synventive’s configurators are currently available today, with the company noting that Thermoplay’s is expected to launch “soon”.

For multi-cavity applications, männer is expanding its Packaging and Slimline products with additional valve gate nozzles. männer says the Packaging range for high-speed molds is complemented by the MCN-EP featuring a small diameter and permanently centered valve-gate pin. The company says the nozzle tip’s patent-pending design facilitates high-precision gating, while also enabling the correction of tip protrusion without reworking.

Like the MCN 8 and MCN 6.5, the new MCN 5 valve-gate nozzle from the Slimline series targets tight installation conditions in high-cavity molds. Here, männer says the manifold has been optimized, applying artificial intelligence and a 3D-printed manifold to show how the design of the flow bore can help a non-symmetrical 6-drop hot runner system achieve “perfect” balancing.

Thermoplay has added two nozzles for larger shot sizes to its “TFS” open nozzle series for side gating. In addition, Thermoplay has created nozzles for a 45° gate to mold conical parts as well as multi-tip nozzles for small parts that are gated with several injection points. Thermoplay said it views 3D printing as a means to faster delivery times and is introducing a new multi-nozzle with a collar made via additive manufacturing.

Around the Show

Beyond its own booth, Molding Solutions companies will display an additional five molds and several hot runner systems, as well as temperature controllers and process control systems, at partner booths. At the KraussMaffei booth, medical consumables will be molded from PP in männer’s 96-cavity mold, after which the material is granulated for the production of automotive parts,

Another turnkey system from manner, built around a 64-cavity pipette tip mold and hot runner from männer will run at Netstal’s booth on an Elion 2800-870. At its booth in Hall 11, automation supplier Yushin will rely entirely on lateral demolding robots. Blister packs are produced in a 16-cavity männer mold and removed laterally, from a Netstal Elion 800. Thanks to the cycle time-optimized männer mold, the performance of the Netstal injection molding machine and the high-speed robot from Yushin, cycle time can be reduced by up to 3.5 seconds.

At Fanuc’s booth, Foboha’s 48-cavity mold will showcase cavity balance and energy efficiency. Each cavity has been equipped with a Priamus sensor for complete system monitoring and the application of Priamus’s process control. The 48 molded parts will be removed by a robot equipped with grippers from Gimatic, Molding Solutions’ affiliated business within Barnes.

At Arburg’s booth, Foboha will run its patented Cube Inclusive Turning Inserts (CITI) technology. Well suited for multicomponent parts where the second material is needed on both sides of a basic body, CITI will make a 3-component functional part from an 8+8+8 cavity cube mold at the K. A PP frame is first injected from the moving nozzle side, and after two 90° rotations of the cube, the component is sealed with TPE on both sides of the fixed nozzle side and a functional element made of POM is molded on the part.