Austria's Engel Holding GmbH is further reinforcing its industry knowhow of injection molding and comprehensive, intelligent systems by focusing on tailor-made production concepts for its customers.
In North America, a focus of the machinery maker's exhibit at NPE2018 will be its five business units for injection molding: automotive, technical molding, teletronics, medical and packaging.
In 2015, Engel Machinery Inc., the group's U.S. subsidiary based in York, Pa., appointed business managers for the five areas. Mark Sankovitch, president of Engel Machinery, said in a news release that feedback from customers has been "excellent."
For the first time in North America, debuting at NPE at Booth W3303, Engel will show its fully automated production cell for the DecoJect process, a technology that combines injection molding and in-mold graining. The process can be used to produce premium interior automotive components.
During NPE, an Engel Duo press with a clamping force of 1,000 metric tons will produce interior upper door trim with various surface textures, such as refined leather grain or a modern carbon look.
In medical molding, a clean room version of Engel's all-electric E-Motion injection molding machine will mold interdental brushes in a single-shot process. For the teletronics area, a 35-tonne vertical injection molding machine will make thermal switch housings. Over in packaging, an all-electric E-Cap press with a clamping force of 420 U.S. tons is equipped with a 96-cavity mold to turn out 26 mm beverage caps with tamper-evident bands.
Engel will also demonstrate its technical molding capabilities by producing LED automotive lenses from liquid silicone rubber on a 120-ton e-victory press.
Engel's investment in Industry 4.0 will also be at the forefront of the machinery maker's exhibition.
"Industry 4.0 is much more than a buzzword. Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution," Sankovitch said in an email interview with Plastics News. "Although we prefer the wording 'evolution,' it describes a change not only in production, but also in our way of thinking and our lives. Digitization and networking are really shaping our future."
At NPE, Engel will present two of its technologies to the North American market for the first time: E-Connect customer portal and iQ Flow Control.
"iQ Flow Control comes with a newly developed series of temperature control units," Sankovitch said. "The e-temp temperature control units are integrated in the CC300 control of the injection molding machine, thus allowing to adapt the pump speed automatically to the current requirements, saving a lot of energy."
Sankovitch said the latest version of its customer portal E-Connect can simplify and speed up communication between plastics processors and Engel. The system also shows an overview of the machinery, highlighting the processing status of service and support orders as well as the price and availability of spare parts.
