Orlando, Fla. — Small-press specialist Boy Machines Inc. showed six of its small-tonnage injection molding machines at NPE2018, including the U.S. trade show introduction of the company's Procan Alpha 4 controller, robots now built by Boy and a new Boy XXS with 7 tons of clamping force.
Boy also demonstrated two-component molding to make wine spouts. The 66-ton press, a Boy 60 E, shown during NPE, May 7-11 in Orlando, was equipped with a bolt-on injection unit, which can be added to an existing standard Boy press or used on any other machine brand.
The multishot press molded acrylic from one injection unit and thermoplastic elastomer from the other. Todd St. Pierre, president of Boy Machines Inc., said the two-component press can run thermoplastics, silicones and elastomers. The two-component injection units are available in three different sizes, with shot weight from 0.14-9.01 ounces.
That wine cork molding operation shows off another piece of news for Boy: a top-entry LR 5 robot, now built in-house in Fernthal, Germany, the headquarters of parent company Dr. Boy GmbH & Co. KG.
Klaus Engel, senior adviser, said an outside company used to make Boy's top-entry robots. But Boy is now designing and building its own robots. Engel said that makes it easier to connect the robot to its Procan Alpha machine controller.
Other demonstrations include a 7-ton Boy XXS with a screw diameter of just 8 millimeters, molding small technical parts: a gear wheel from acetal. The company offers an optional cart so you can move it around. St. Pierre pointed out another feature: an integrated chiller that recirculates the cooling water, or glycol. That means you don't need water and drainage connections, making it useful for prototype molding and laboratory use, the company said.
The NPE show presses were linked through the Procan Alpha 4 controller. One of the biggest improvements to the controller is graphical sequence programming. Functions like core pulling and delay times are now freely programmable in the operation sequence of the machine.
Other features of the Procan Alpha 4 include automatic screw size identification, giving easy set-up and the monitoring of peripheral equipment status and communication reports.
Boy's largest press, the 110-ton model 110 E, is molding small electrical insulation protective sleeves made of liquid silicone on a 128-cavity mold, running at 20.5-seconds. In cooperation with Elmet, the sleeves are removed from the mold with a scraper bar. Boy officials said the Boy 100 E's free-standing, cantilevered two-platen clamping unit offers enough space for the removal device, plus allows easy access to remove parts from below the molding area.
Other NPE demonstrations included a Boy 25 E molding a clear magnifying lens and a Boy 35 E turning out medical parts.