Sumitomo (SHI) Demag all in for all-electric presses

Friedrichshafen, Germany — Schwaig, Germany-based Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH is accelerating its strategic plan to roll out all-electric presses to every market.

The company launched the IntElect S earlier this year and gave it a European debut at Fakuma 2023.

The IntElect platform, produced in Germany, China and Japan, has options available for every segment, including packaging, medical, automotive, electronics and consumer goods.

After its 80,000th IntElect installation in 2022, application fields were added, such as a multicomponent LSR version and the IntElect S for thin-wall packaging in the medium clamp force range.

At Fakuma 2023, an IntElect S 220 produced container lids with in-mold labels from Bornewables-brand polypropylene.

Packaging and automotive are two markets where CEO Gerd Liebig told Plastics News he is optimistic the company will pick up sales next year after a challenging 2023.

This year, sales are down about 128 million euros ($134.7 million) compared with 2022, when the third-largest injection molding machine builder in the world reported sales of 778 million euros ($819 million).

Sales for 2023 are expected to be around 650 million euros ($684.3 million) with high interest rates, inflation and energy prices prompting plastics processors to pull back on investments.

For 2024, Liebig expects sales to climb back up to 720 million ($758 million) to 730 million euros ($768.5 million) with increased demand for medical packaging and the trend toward tethered caps for beverages as well as replacement demand for machinery in the automotive market leading the way.

Fakuma 2023 in Friedrichshafen was the first time Sumitomo (SHI) Demag went all in on all-electric presses in its exhibition history. All machines incorporated automation to increase part quality, expedite production runs and support workforce safety.

Even though all-electric presses cost more, the price gap isn't what it used to be, according to Tony Marchelletta, national sales manager for the United States.

"There's definitely a slight premium, but on the small tonnage, it's almost even," he said. "Anything 300-400 tons and down, by the time you option up a hydraulic machine to the same performance levels as all-electric, they're on par with each other. And if you start factoring in the lower operating cost, energy efficiency and a lot less maintenance on them, they quickly bridge the gap — sometimes as soon as six months."

Still, there are some solutions that can't be covered with all-electric, Liebig acknowledged, pointing to the need for high injection speeds that can be achieved by the company's hybrid machines.

Company officials expect that in the coming year many more of the machines built in Europe will be fully electric in response to rising energy prices. The return on investment for almost all applications will not only make the presses more affordable but also is expected to help future-proof the business.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag products were featured at eight exhibits, including four at the company's booth.

At its main booth at Fakuma, the IntElect S 220 press for packaging saw dry fast cycle time of less than four seconds. The machine was designed to process narrow tolerance and thin-walled packaging items at injection speeds reaching 350 millimeters per second.

In the demonstration, recyclable in-mold label lids with a shot weight of 28 grams were produced for 500-milliliter margarine containers in 1.6 seconds with a four-cavity mold tool supplied by Bazigos.

"Through the optimization of tool movement, nozzle position, metering speed, and injection and ejector movements, we have achieved a one-second cycle time saving in comparison to a standard IntElect model," said Arnaud Nomblot, business development director of packaging.

Cycle times between three and 12 seconds and injection speeds of up to 350 mm/s are the typical range of this new all-electric series.

The exhibit also addressed energy consumption as a major fluctuating operating expense for mass-packaging processors. The IntElectS series has proven energy savings of between 40 and 50 percent compared with hybrid systems, according to company officials.

"Fluctuating energy costs create uncertainty, particularly for mass-manufacturers where energy is the highest and most unpredictable expense. To counteract this, processing repeatability and reduced waste is imperative," Nomblot said.

To make recycling as efficient as possible, the lids are made from recyclable Borealis polypropylene and every container provides digital data that can be easily accessed via a QR code label.

Another partnership led to a first in horticultural products processed with a high-speed El-Exis SP series, according to company officials, who said the global production of flowerpots and planters will continue to grow in the coming years due to increased demand for greener spaces and the introduction of vertical gardens.

The collaboration between Campetella and Sumitomo (SHI) Demag showed how manufacturers of horticultural plant pots can increase their competitive edge with a fast-cycling hybrid El-Exis SP 250.

In a work cell with a six-cavity mold tool (supplied by Glaroform), six flowerpots with a shot weight of 55 grams were produced every 3.5 seconds from the mechanically recycled polypropylene supplied by Borealis. Campetella's side-entry robot removed and stacked them on a conveyor belt. The demonstration was the epitome of production efficiency, Nomblot said.

"Despite extremely high production volumes, molding precision is equally important. Thin-walled applications of this nature need the fastest injection speed and opening and closing dynamics," Nomblot said. "Achieving perfectly centered drainage holes with a shot weight of 55 grams requires an even spread of the melt into each cavity."

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag highlighted its multicavity LSR processing capability, including OPC UA interface compatibility, on a fully electric IntElect 180/570-250 injection molding machine. This system produced 256 individual 15-gram conductor seals in a cycle time of 17 seconds.

"The market for liquid silicone is growing dynamically, both in terms of applications demanding skills in LSR as well as volume," according to Rustam Aliyev, the company's LSR expert and business development director of automotive and electronics.

The material is unique because it remains flexible and elastic down to -50° C yet also retains its properties up to 200° C. As a result, LSR is used extensively in electronic components, cables and products where insulation is required, as well as in medical and health care products and the consumer goods sector.

At Fakuma, LSR tooling specialist Rico supplied the 256-cavity open tool system for the conductor seals, and Wacker supplied the Elastosil material, which is dispensed by a dosing system supplied by Reinhardt-Technik.

The turnkey system coordinates every processing step to efficiently manufacture 256 LSR parts every 15 seconds with minimal flash and material waste.

"It's the definition of high-volume sustainable production," Aliyev said.

An integrated Sepro robot removed the parts and inserted them into a nest pipe system as opposed to 256 components ejecting from the tool and falling into a box. The 256 components then are funneled into an individual receptacle, feeding into smaller packing boxes.

The full LSR package includes the injection unit, robot, vacuum and venting. To ensure full traceability of components, the OPC interface connects to the IntElect processing data in real time.

Visitors to the Reinhardt-Technik booth (Hall A3, Booth 3313) will see surgical dental protection covers being manufactured with a combination of thin walls and thick beaded geometries.

To accomplish this level of LSR molding precision, specialists in health care applications EMDE MouldTec supplied the gated four-cavity mold tool, which fits into the generous tool space of the IntElect 75/420-65.

Because each part weighs just 0.425 grams, the exhibit features Sumitomo (SHI) Demag's smallest IntElect injection unit.

The burr-free dental components are produced in 25 seconds, then a Sumitomo (SHI) Demag SAM-C5 robot removes them and places them into containers to maintain hygiene standards.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag continued to add to its integration and automation products with robotics prevalent at Fakuma.

Any task performed faster, more reliably and efficiently gives polymer processors a competitive edge and higher production capacity, according to Jürgen Schulze, automation business unit director.

"SAM-C responds to the market demands for high-availability, low-maintenance automation solutions that require minimal human intervention," Schulze said. "In addition to increasing production capacity of standard components, this 'easy automation' range simultaneously addresses the skills and labor challenges many currently face. Customers benefit from process and system technology from a single supplier source, complete with hardware and software control integration and robotic mechanics fully customized to Sumitomo (SHI) Demag machines."

The company is concentrated on what it refers to as the "easy automation" of its proprietary robots, which includes the SAM-C5 Cartesian handle-and-box robot and the SAM-C3 handle-and-place robot — both with small footprints.

In a compact turnkey demonstration, an automated IntElect 75 produced 25-gram measuring calipers every 22 seconds with a polystyrene from Ineos. The cell includes a handle-and-box robot and a storage and conveyor system.

Another IntElect 75 machine on the main stand demonstrated the SAM-C3 handle-and-place capabilities combined with a conveyor belt and sprue mill all enclosed within a low-height production cell.

The press produced two consumer cover caps made of high density polyethylene supplied by MOL Group. During the 25-second cycle time, 32 grams of material are injected into each of the two mold cavities. The Cartesian vertical telescopic axis then extracts the parts and places them onto an enclosed conveyor.

The SAM-C robots, which are available in four payload sizes (3, 5, 10 and 20 kilograms), are designed for injection molding machines with clamp force sizes between 50 and 500 tons and for standard applications with cycle times of 10 seconds and higher.

All of the robots incorporate Sumitomo (SHI) Demag's myConnect web-based software for direct access to network of support services to help better manage inefficiencies, reduce costs, optimize total cost of ownership, troubleshoot errors and minimize downtime.

For more complex and industry-specific requirements, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag is collaborated with two partners that are experts in their respective fields: Sepro and Hekuma.

At the Sepro booth, four polypropylene cups were molded every four seconds on an IntElect S 130/520-460. A multitasking Sepro high-speed linear robot extracts and stores each component from the four-cavity mold tool supplied by Kebo.

For processors in the medical and health care markets, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag demonstrated production of extremely narrow-tolerance microcomponents in high volumes at fast speeds with a compact turnkey cell at the Hekuma booth.

A clean room-compliant IntElect S 100/470-250 machine produced 32 pipette tips that are demolded and placed into corresponding racks in less than five seconds.

The 32-cavity tool from Schöttli ensures 9 grams of PP material evenly fills every cavity. Hekuma's six-axis HEKUtip gripper system automates the demolding and quality inspection process.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag said it is driving forward digitalization to enhance sustainability with the launch of activeMeltControl for its all-electric injection molding machines. The fully automatic control process integrates into the machine's control system to provide greater process continuity.

"With aMC, we can compensate for shot weight variations in nearly all applications and materials, whether it's due to batch fluctuations, recyclables, regrind, drying differences, dosing variations or the use of additional additives," said Thomas Schilling, product manager for digital solutions.

For example, shot weight fluctuations in 100 percent recycled material can be corrected by the software, bringing it to the level of virgin material.

"This significantly reduces the customer's reject rate. Depending on the process and material, it goes toward zero," Schilling said, adding that leads to better process consistency, longer machine uptime and reduced scrap, which all contribute to greater sustainability. "Furthermore, customers benefit from greater manufacturing flexibility, as a wider range of material variations can be accommodated when using post-consumer and post-industrial resin types."