Wittmann Battenfeld shows Easy Cells to automate cramped factories

Torrington, Conn.-based Wittmann Battenfeld Inc. has developed a way for injection molders to retrofit presses with automation equipment like sprue pickers and robots even when their manufacturing plants have limited space.

The company's Easy Cell brand housings were designed primarily for injection molding machines installed so closely together there isn't enough room for a fixed protective housing with access via a safety gate.

Wittmann Battenfeld's Easy Cells don't need a safety gate. This is just one of the recent products innovations the company is promoting through online presentations and meetings.

The other advances are related to digital contact with customers, screenless granulators, automation, temperature control and internal gas pressure technology.

Easy Cell housings are mounted on casters and can be moved to provide access to the non-operator side for mold changes. Despite the compact design, the cells meet all necessary safety features of CE (conformité européenne), a company press release says.

The Easy Cells were developed for fitting out machines with sprue pickers and robots from the Primus series. They are available in six standard versions, such as for robots in L configuration with parts depositing behind the clamping unit.

The cells have options for grippers, a commissioning package and a complete CE installation.

Wittmann Battenfeld demonstrates Easy Cells at its facility in Nurembeg, Germany, or online via Wittmann Interactive, a digital platform to support sales.

With Wittmann Interactive, company specialists in Austria and Germany establish live transmission by using a head camera with a function for interaction with the customer via a streaming platform. The head camera has plug-in modules to provide lighting, sound and video, and can be used for web conferences right next to injection molding systems.

The Wittmann Interactive platform also can be used for technology presentations, training sessions and customer appointments.

For the G-Max 3 screenless granulator, Wittmann-Battenfeld is offering an option for an additional built-in feeding shaft to avoid bridging, especially in case of grinding long runners and flat parts.

The added feeding shaft keeps large runners and parts in motion and pre-breaks them, which helps avoid bridging or nesting of parts. The shaft also reduces downtime caused by material backing-up or material overflow.

Compared to conventional blade granulators, screenless granulators provide energy efficiency, reduced noise and uniform regrind from hard, brittle plastics such as ABS, polycarbonate, ABS/PC, nylon and reinforced plastics, another release says.

The granulator motors have a high torque and the units run smoothly at a low speed without stalling, making them suitable for cutting thicker sprues or parts to a pellet size from 4-10 millimeters.

Wittmann Battenfeld also released an upgraded WX153 robot for injection molding applications on machines with clamping forces from 500 to 1,300 tons.

The new automation for the medium and higher clamping force range consists of a cartesian axial structure with a mobile X-axis serving as a demolding axis.

Three additional axes can be mounted to each robot at the end of its vertical axis to drive the removal gripper.

The WX153 can operate with a gripper weighing more than 20 kg even when using three more axes. That's a 30 percent increase in weight compared to the previous device concept, a press release says.

The company also can build tandem robots with two traversing units acting together on the main carrier.

In addition, the control cabinet keeps its original dimensions regardless of the number of additional axes attached.

The Tempro plus D L12 temperature controller offers a maximum heating capacity of 36 kW to ensure an optimal heating time for the mold both technically and economically.

The heat accumulated in the steel of the mold combined with additional heat from the melt of the injection molding process then must be extracted from the mold circuit as fast as possible via cooling channels.

The Tempro plus D L120 was fitted with a ¾-inch proportional cooling valve that operates with a step motor and continuously opens or closes to maintain constant temperature control.

To maintain ideal conditions, the Tempro plus D L120 is optionally equipped with a new frequency-controlled pump (SpeedDrive) that lets users set the correct parameters for motor speed, flow rate, pump pressure and differential temperature.

For economical use of resources, Wittmann Battenfeld gave its Airmould internal gas pressure technology a more compact design and added some features to create Airmould Next.

During internal gas pressure injection molding, nitrogen is injected into a mold cavity already partly or completely filled with plastic melt to form an internal cavity structure, which helps produce light-weight parts within a short cycle time with good surface attributes.

The Airmould package includes a nitrogen generator unit that extracts nitrogen from the surrounding atmosphere processors don't incur costs for nitrogen supplies and a compressor unit. The units can be combined to supply several injection molding machines with nitrogen via a system of hose connections.

For Airmould Next, Wittmann Battenfeld redesigned both the pressure control module and the manual operating device. The focus of the updates was on user friendliness, higher quality monitoring and compact design.

The new module is about 15 percent smaller than its predecessor and an external control cabinet is no longer required.

Airmould Next demonstrations are held on site in Wittmann Battenfeld's technical lab Meinerzhagen, Germany, or digitally via Wittmann Interactive.