Düsseldorf, Germany — At K 2019, Foboha, a unit of Barnes Group Inc.'s Molding Solutions Group, molded multicomponent parts, or different parts that require in-mold assembly, on a new Reverse Cube mold — two high-cavity molds, one on top of the other, that turn in opposite direction to each other, Rubik's Cube style.
Barnes also named a plastics industry veteran to head the Molding Solutions Group.
At the show, a Reverse Cube was running on an Arburg Allrounder Cube 2900 injection press. The parts — a socket and roller — each were molded on the same injection molding machine from different materials, then assembled in the mold. The counter-rotating mold halves cut cycle time by 40 percent compared to a conventional system, and uses about 60 percent less space, Foboha said.
Finished parts are removed after each rotation of the two cube molds. The two molds are thermally separated, allowing the production of components with different processing windows to be manufactured.
Normally those two components would have to molded on two injection molding machines, according to Foboha.
At K, a six-axis Kuka robot removed the rollers from the lower cube at the same time as the injection cycle and inserts them into the sockets in the cavities if the upper cube half.
