CHICAGO (June 19, 9 a.m. EDT) — Van Dorn Demag Corp. (Booth S3300) is ushering in the new millennium with a sleek new logo and a new line of Integra toggle-clamp presses that, by next year, will serve as the platform for its first all-electric machine.
The company is running nine injection presses at its 1,300-square-foot NPE booth.
The new logo spells out Van Dorn Demag in blue letters, with a bright red accent slash underneath, all on a white background.
Patrice Aylward, marketing communications manager, said the red, white and blue color scheme is meant to show that Van Dorn Demag is the U.S. flagship for Mannesmann Plastics Machinery.
Van Dorn Demag also has changed standard colors on its presses. At NPE, all nine Van Dorn-brand injection presses are donning a lighter shade of gray with midnight blue and bright red.
The old logo dates to the 1960s. Bill Carteaux, vice president of sales and marketing, said Van Dorn Demag's reputation as "a steady, reliable supplier" needs some updating.
"It had become clear to us that our old company logo no longer accurately represented Van Dorn Demag's position in the marketplace," he said. The new logo, he said, expresses "our strength, vitality and commitment to growth and change."
In Chicago this week, change — in the form of new technologies — is embodied in the Integra toggle-clamp injection press. Aylward said Van Dorn Demag will continue to make the "tried and true" HT toggle machine, but will position the HT as a competitively priced, more-basic machine.
Integra is the higher-end toggle. It has a five-point toggle, instead of the four-point on the HT. At NPE, Van Dorn Demag is showing a 140- and a 280-ton Integra. By the end of 2001, the full line will be available, in eight sizes, with clamping forces of 140-625 tons.
The Integra uses MPM's global platform for toggle-clamp machines, Americanized with standard U.S. voltage requirements and mold-mounting, ejector and robot-mounting patterns.
Longer-term, the flexible platform means Van Dorn Demag will be able to integrate technology quickly into the Integra, such as all-electric, multicomponent models, high-speed, gas-assisted molding and silicone.
Van Dorn Demag should have a prototype all-electric press by early 2001, Aylward said during a preview of the company's technology before NPE at headquarters in Strongsville, Ohio.
Van Dorn Demag is stressing Integra's modularity, so options can be added easily, without longer lead times and very high prices, Aylward said. Customers can choose from three injection units per mode, with three choices of screw and barrel for each injection unit. A patented state temperature control unit can manipulate the heat zones to avoid overshooting the setpoints, so it works more quickly and saves energy. The machine uses ceramic heater bands.
On the clamp unit, the company's digital feed-forward technology uses real-time data to anticipate when to begin slowing the clamp down.
Two energy-efficient "smart pumps" ensure simultaneous movement of major machinery functions. One hydraulic-fluid pump is dedicated to main functions such as clamp movement and injection. The second pump handles secondary functions such as ejectors and core pull.
Van Dorn Demag uses directional and proportional valves, plus a new swash plate, to control oil flow. The metal plate swings open and shut, and the company touts it as being more precise than valves alone.
The Integra is fitted with a Pathfinder controller.
On the hydraulic-clamp side, Van Dorn Demag has retired the old HP line and rolled out the Spectra. For the show, the company has a 500-ton press molding a nestable storage bin. A 730-tonner will run a front grille on a Lincoln Mark VIII, using the gas counter-pressure system from M&C Advanced Processes Inc. That company in Ann Arbor, Mich., was purchased recently by Textron Automotive Co.
"With the Spectra Series, molders have a good deal of flexibility for speed," said marketing director Scott Kroeger. "That makes the Spectra series ideal for a broader range of applications," compared with the HP.
For example, the 500-ton Spectra comes standard with 75 horsepower, but the press includes a 100-horsepower high-performance option and a 125-horsepower high-speed option.
The 730-ton model has four options, topping out at 165 horsepower with accumulators for very high speed.
Other improvements include a three-port valve, a wide platen and full tie-bar support.
In other developments, Van Dorn Demag has adopted twin-cylinder injection for the Spectra and the two-platen Caliber machine, which have larger injection units with capacities exceeding 166 ounces. A twin-cylinder unit is shorter than a single-cylinder unit.
"In some cases, the new twin-cylinder injection units reduce machine length by 20 percent," Kroeger said.
The two-cylinder design also is easier to maintain, due to a power swivel that swings the injection unit out for screw changes.
At NPE, the new injection unit appears on an 1,100-ton Caliber press.
On the screw and barrel package, the twin-cylinder design also boasts a higher standard pressure than the one-cylinder, offering 23,500 pounds per square inch vs. 20,000 psi. Also new is an optional electric screw drive, which previously was offered only on smaller-tonnage machines.
Van Dorn Demag also is introducing the Cadence line of small-tonnage hydraulic machines, by showing a 40-ton press, and is demonstrating magnetic mold mounting on two machines, the 1,100-ton Caliber and the 140-ton Integra.
In vertical-clamp injection molding, the Newbury line has redesigned its 125 Newbury Vertical to handle a broader range of jobs, including larger insert-molded parts. The new machine, called the 140 Newbury, is bigger. The platen area was increased to 16 inches by 20 inches, from 15 inches by 16 inches. The rotary table is bigger, too — 60 inches in diameter, up from 52 inches. The shuttle table stroke has increased to 32 inches, from 26 inches. Van Dorn Demag boosted the maximum mold height to 21 inches from 17 inches. The centerline to injection also was raised.
Shot sizes range from 5-15 ounces.
Demag Ergotech news
Demag Ergotech USA will share the booth with Van Dorn Demag. The big Ergotech news: the North American debut of its speedy line of El-Exis hybrid electric/hydraulic injection presses, and the world debut of a new standard El-Exis, the S model.
The firm's parent, Demag Ergotech GmbH, first showed the El-Exis two years ago, at K'98 in Germany. The machine uses both servo-electric drive and hydraulic power, which give the press a desirable combination of speed and pressure, according to the company.
Independent electric motors power the clamp and screw functions, including clamp movement, ejection and screw rotation. Hydraulic power moves the injection unit and does other functions such as core pull and ejector pins.
A patented, hydrostatic drive turns rotary motion from the electric motor into linear clamp movement.
"It's the fastest clamp in the world," claims Richard Shaffer, vice president and general manager of Demag Ergotech USA. The El-Exis-S has an injection rate of 40 inches a second.
The drive requires only 1 liter of fluid, as it runs as quietly and efficiently as an all-electric machine, he said.
The injection rate of the new El-Exis-E is 10 inches a second, but the press runs very quietly and consumes less energy.
Both models of the El-Exis are running at the company's booth this week.
Demag Ergotech USA also is announcing that, on July 1, it will begin reporting directly to Demag Ergotech GmbH in Schwaig, Germany, instead of the U.S. operation. Demag Ergotech USA this fall plans to move out of Van Dorn Demag and into its own 26,000-square-foot building in Strongsville. The two companies will maintain separate sales staffs, Aylward said.
In 1999, Demag Ergotech USA generated $40 million in sales — half of the sales from outside Europe for the German company.
Demag Ergotech will introduce a two-platen injection press later this year.
