ORLANDO, FLA. (April 2, 8:50 p.m. ET) — Things have changed in the nine years since Synventive Molding Solutions (Booth 1973) last displayed its products at NPE —both for the company and for NPE.
With new products and a wider customer focus, the specialty hot runner maker had plenty to show this year. The move to Orlando helped tip the scale.
“It was a big decision for us to come back,” said Brian Bechard, president of North of America. “Really, it’s a combination that the market is stronger, that we’re putting a bigger emphasis on premium consumer electronics and that the new (Orlando) venue might bring a different group.”
Synventive traditionally has been seen as a producer of specialty hot runner systems for the auto industry. But, said Leo Devellian, business development manager, some of the same requirements its customers faced for car parts carries over to requirements on electronics.
That includes using engineered plastics with glass or other fillers like parts used under the hood, or tight tolerances for electronics.
Synventive created the hot runners used in the battery pack for General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt electric hybrid car, which required very precise, identical molds to hold the frames for 135 individual lithium-ion cells.
“Some of the expertise for those parts carry over,” Devellian said.
The company is not backing away from the auto industry, Bechard stressed. It is coming off of its best ever year. But it also sees global opportunities by widening its customer base. With several consumer electronics contacts in the southeastern U.S., Synventive believes the Orlando location will help draw those people.
The firm has introduced new products that will help its key customers, with in electronics or the auto industry.
Its e-Gate is an electronically controlled hot runner system that can control up to 64 valves individually – allowing molders to vary the position, speed, acceleration and stroke. That’s increasingly important for companies using family molds who want to get more out of their existing press fleet, Bechard said.
“Just as companies are going to electric presses for better control, the electronic system in the e-Gate offers increased precision on individual gates,” Devellian added.
Synventive’s SynFlow is a flow regulation technology to control hydraulic valve gates, while Dynamic Feed integrates online melt pressure control in the hot runner system to control each nozzle and hold pressure phases, providing a system in which each gate operates as if it has its own injection unit.
