The Zhafir subsidiary of Chinese press maker Ningbo Haitian Plastic Machinery Group has developed a new all-electric injection molding machine, called Mercury.
Zhafir demonstrated two prototype Mercury machines an open house held Nov. 26-27 at its new 43,055-square-foot assembly hall in Ebermannsdorf, where it builds Venus all-electrics.
Zhafir CEO Helmar Franz said the company will show a production-ready Mercury at the K2010 trade show. Production is scheduled to start in 2011, initially with clamping forces of 55- and 135-metric tons. Franz said the press will be offered with “a very limited number of high-end options as standard, such as for injection compression molding.” The Mercury will enable processors and tool designers to produce more complex parts and use plastics that are difficult to process.
As part of its “revolutionary design,” the Mercury has replaced conventional round tie bars and separate machine cladding with two thick, flat steel sheets on both sides of the machine. The sheets, made by parent company Haitian in China, provide the same level as mechanical stability as tie bars, the company claims.
The presses are also narrower, enabling more machines to be fitted into a production hall.
The sheets replace the cladding, which Franz said usually only provides noise and safety protection and to “hide a bad design.”
The patented design also enables items such as the four machine guide rails to be mounted to the sheets. According to Franz, the use of guide rails mounted on the sheets means that 100 percent moving platen parallelism can be guaranteed and that there is no risk of platens tilting.
Zhafir is delivering a 55-ton, pre-series Mercury to a customer for trial and feedback.
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