Maplan automates, innovates to save time, labor, energy

With the economic challenges that are replete across the globe and especially in Europe, saving energy is the order of the day. And machines molding rubber and silicones need a lot of energy to run.

This is a trend that is not going to reverse itself, according to machine manufacturer Maplan GmbH, based in Kottingbrunn, Austria.

"Since prices for energy have risen to lofty heights due to the [Russian war in Ukraine] and additional climate protection measures have to be financed, the expenses for this have reached the top of the cost calculations," said CEO Wolfgang Meyer at an Oct. 19 news conference at K 2022.

"For mechanical engineering, this means the progressive use of energy-saving technical components," he said.

Maplan's hands-on example of this is the Rapid horizontal machine series and especially the periphery around the new injection molder being introduced by Maplan. The highlight of the machine is the high-precision clamping unit, which reduces energy consumption and enables faster cycle times. This comprises both the central ejector and the bar ejectors on both machine platens, Meyer said.

The servo-electric drive allows parallel operation without the need for parallel hydraulics.

"This is a face-lift for the auto industry," Meyer told Rubber News. "Indeed, rubber machines need a lot of electricity to run. Maplan introduced the servo drive for the industry, and we are at the forefront with this."

Meyer analogized the engineering around the massive Rapid 300 injection molder to achieving energy savings at home, whereby a homeowner might turn many small things off to witness reasonable gains.

With the machine's optimized hydraulics, linear guidings to reduce friction and an isobar system for heat distribution, these components — like the many appliances and outlets in a home — in aggregate can help save energy.

"Our servo-hydraulic drive is the most efficient drive on the market," Meyer said. "It only runs when you need it. No one seems to be talking about the cooling that is required. Where does all this heat go? Inefficiency creates heat.

"If you do not create energy in the beginning, you don't have to cool it away."

Often motors are always running, whether a company needs them to or not. "Instead of having a 750W cooling unit running 24/7, a company might only use half of this energy or less," Meyer said.

This, too, plays into the notion of peripheral components helping to save money and energy, as the Demand Control Intelligence system developed in-house by Maplan offers a precise temperature control unit for the Rapid 300.

According to Maplan, the new injection molding machine can realize savings of about $12,900 per year over another, comparable injection molder that is 10 years old and up to $22,360 per year for an injection molder that is 20-30 years old.

"This is terrible energy consumption without the servo drive," Meyer said.

And with energy savings comes improved environmental and financial stewardship, said Philippe Soulier, managing partner of Maplan owner Soulier Holdings.

"With a machine that costs $200,000, it can pay for itself [over a 20- to 30-year-old machine] in 10 years," Soulier said. "It helps with overhead costs as well as reduced CO2 production."

Other improved features of Maplan's new injection molder include speed of production increasing by 20 percent and closing speed increasing by 75 percent; and with production of O-rings, for example, between two and three seconds can be saved per cycle.

"That does not sound like much, but it is enormous over the period of a year," Meyer said. "Energy is never going to be as cheap as it was in the past. New machines can reduce the entire energy network that you have. Throw out the old crap. … It really makes sense to do so nowadays.

"There are a lot of things that, in combination, serve to make an efficient machine. When energy was cheap, many people did not care."

As Maplan enters its fifth decade, it has evolved with the times, in this case automating to save in labor, downtime and energy costs.

"In addition to energy costs … the lack of labor in many places is the second major challenge for production and machine manufacturing companies," Meyer said. "The topic is no longer to automate where there [are] expensive labor costs. In Mexico, China and Turkey, where there is cheap labor, the factories are empty.

"Automation is constant, cost-efficient and 24/7. There is no one there to make a mistake."

Enter Map.autocell, a machine cell that Maplan has been working on since the last K show, which can be tailored to machining tasks from a modular system that "largely corresponds to machine control."

"We sell a standard machine for rubber manufacturing," Soulier said. "Then we develop the energy-saving items. We don't sell elements of our machines. The 360-degree solution is Maplan's autocell."

Meyer noted that Maplan, by staying ahead of the game, often is aware of information "that the customer has no idea about, like turnkey systems."

"Robots take over the parts transfer from the machine or within the cell," Meyer said. "By arranging several cells in a row, processing sequences from demolding to deburring, quality inspection and labeling to packaging can be combined and cycled through."

Even complex tasks can easily be programmed with the autocell system, Meyer said.

"The programming of the robot movements is just as easy as that of the machine movements," Meyer said. "This also allows less qualified employees to quickly familiarize themselves with the system."

Maplan injection molders are used in the automotive, alternate energy, railway, sanitary system, medical technology, construction and garden, aerospace and electrical industries, among many others.

The injection molding machines and presses can produce rubber metal parts, cable bushings, bearings, shaft seals, head gaskets, flat gaskets and diaphragms, among many other components.