Wittmann Battenfeld Shows Two New Machines in Work Cells for Medical, Packaging, and Automotive

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.