Lots of news for injection molders at Western Plastics Expo.

One would never have guessed it was so soon after NPE, judging by the amount of news for injection molders at the recent Western Plastics Exposition in Long Beach, Calif. Some of the new introductions actually fulfilled promises made at NPE '94 in Chicago. Others represented enhancements or revisions of products first shown at McCormick Place last June. Highlights included several new machine models and controls, plus new hot-runner components.

NEW INJECTION MACHINES

The show marked one milestone for injection molding machines: The largest all-electric presses ever built were announced by Cincinnati Milacron of Batavia, Ohio. The company has come out with 550- and 725-ton models in its modestly priced Elektra line, to complement units of 83 to 300 tons that were introduced at NPE (see PT, July '94, p. 71). No electric-servo machine had previously exceeded 300 tons.

Also, Milacron is going larger in standard toggle presses. The company launched a 725-tonner at NPE and will ship its first 1500-ton toggle machine in the next few months.

Milacron made its debut in coinjection machines at NPE, based on a new manifold design licensed from the molder that developed it, Bemis Manufacturing Co., Sheboygan, Wis. A 2000-ton coinjection machine is scheduled for introduction this summer.

One of the most unusual of several new control features introduced at the show was an option on the upgraded Syscom 1000 color touchscreen system, which was first shown at NPE by JSW Plastics Machinery, Inc., Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Called "Camot," this software automatically derives machine setup parameters from data such as material type and part projected area. New standard features on the Syscom 1000 controller include waveform monitoring, a preventive-maintenance screen, and a printer port.

JSW also showed off a new 310-ton press to fill in the gap between its 245- and 380-tonners. Shot capacity can range from 28.6 to 48.5 oz. Tiebar spacing is 24.8 in. square.

Toshiba Machine Co., America, Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill., introduced the V10 Digital Feed Forward controller. This type of control can be said to "learn" from past machine behavior so as to "anticipate" and correct for certain problems before they occur. The V10 does this for barrel-temperature control. In particular, it reportedly minimizes scrap when restarting normal cycling after a process interruption halts production. According to v.p. Tim Glassburn, the controller "learns" from prior experience not to be misled into turning down the heaters when it senses the initial flow of hot material that has been sitting in the barrel, because it "knows" that fresh, cold material will be following right afterward.

The V10 has a color LCD display and a touchscreen for graphical displays of process conditions. It adds $10,000 to the price of ISG Series machines with standard controls.

Toshiba also announced plans to introduce new 120- to 250-ton machines with a variable-volume pumping package this month.

The lower-cost NS Series of small machines from Nissei America Inc., Anaheim, Calif., has been revamped since it was introduced at NPE. The machines underwent substantial revision after feedback from molders attending the show. Among the new features are the NC 21 touchscreen controller, which controls two speeds and two pressures - up from one speed and two pressures at NPE. Also, the NS Series now has a 13.5-hp pump motor in place of the 10-hp unit at NPE. The machine comes in 20- and 40-ton sizes; a 60-tonner will be available soon.

Boy Machines Inc., Exton, Pa., now has a CIM product that can tie together the company's ProCan machine controllers. "BoyCIM" is built around a 486 PC. It offers full SPC/SQC, including storage of up to 100 pressure and speed curves.

Sandretto Plastics Machinery of Cedarville, N.J., has now made its recently introduced SEF 100 controller standard. Besides closed-loop position control, the SEF also doses the loop on injection speed and pressure and on cushion control. "We're becoming fully closed loop in the true sense of the word," says business development manager Tony Firth. In a related move, the company has enhanced its hydraulic system with fast-response servo valves. The new valves have 0.4-millisec response time - vs. 2.4 millisec in the past.

Newbury Industries Inc. of Newbury, Ohio has now added a 200-ton machine to AMT Series, which has closed-loop injection control. At NPE time, the AMT machines came only in 60- to 150-ton models.

Battenfeld of America Inc., West Warwick, R.I., has a new SPC package for its Unilog 4000. Monitoring two parameters at once, it performs the usual statistical measures such as standard deviation and x-bar and R charts. Cost is roughly $4200.

Maruka U.S.A., Inc., Rockaway, N.J., has come out with a 110-ton, 3.9-oz Toyo press for medical molding.

Boston Matthews of Norwood, N.J., which sells low-cost, manual injection machines of 10 and 22 tons, will soon add a 35-ton model. All have an insert-molding option for medical molding.

In vertical machines, Newbury Industries has extended its line up to 400 tons with a new four-tiebar, shuttle press. Until now, its largest was 300 tons.

And Autojectors, Inc. of Albion, Ind., has developed a new 50T model with metric specs. Clamp tonnage (50 metric, 55 U.S.) is adjustable. Other features include a servo-driven rotary table, larger-than-usual platens, and a new single-point height adjustment for parting-line ejection.

Autojectors plans to come out this summer with a new "mid-range" controls package built around either a Siemens or Allen-Bradley PLC.

HOT-RUNNER NEWS

Slashing hot-runner delivery times by 25%, Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. of Bolton, Ont., rolled out a new line of pre-engineered hot-runner manifolds. According to marketing manager Thom Wigle, the new hot runners can be on your doorstep in a guaranteed six weeks, down from as much as 10 weeks in the past. They're available in a variety of common pitch sizes and in more than 40 versions with from two to eight drops.

Also new from Husky is an electronic version of its hot-runner catalog. It allows users to copy hot-runner geometry directly from the catalog into their mold designs. The whole process of adding a gate to a drawing, for example, takes just a minute. For users of AutoCAD, the Husky Electronic Catalog menu simply pops up as a window within AutoCAD. Users of other CAD systems can import IGES files from the Husky disk. The disk is free to qualified customers.

There's also lots of news in valve-gate components. Kona Corp. of Gloucester, Mass., has refined its recently introduced valve-gate systems by increasing the pin stroke, thus reducing pressure drop at the gate (see PT, March '95, p. 54). Also, users can now position the valve pin in the nozzle for better vestige control.

Incoe Corp., Troy, Mich., now offers pneumatic valve-gate systems for clean-room applications.

American MSI Corp., Moorpark, Calif., has also come out with a pneumatic valve-gate control system that can be integrated with the company's temperature controls.

And Fast Heat, Inc., Elmhurst, Ill., will offer valve-gate systems by the end of this month.

Fast Heat will also introduce the Digi-Mold mold-tracking system later this Spring. Digi-Mold will mount a computer chip on each tool containing machine-setup and mold-maintenance data that can be read by a hand-held device.

JPI Technologies of Palgrave, Ont., showed a new Heitec multitip nozzle available with up to eight tips in a circular pattern. The nozzle has separate flow channels for each replaceable tip. The multitip units come as hot sprue bushings or manifold configurations.

RELATED ARTICLE: That's a Lotta Zones!

At 168 zones, it may be the largest hot-runner temperature controller ever built. American MSI of Moorpark, Calif., recently delivered this monster controller to run a 144-cavity closure tool at Courtesy Molds in Buffalo Grove, Ill.

RELATED ARTICLE: Diagnose Your Mold Cooling

Cito Products Inc. of Watertown, Wisc., has long sold flow meters for mold water lines. The company's latest system, however, makes it a lot easier to collect and use water-flow data. Cito's new "Thermoflow Analyzer" links a microprocessor-based data-acquisition unit to the flow meter's infrared sensor and thermocouples. "It's essentially the combination of a hand-held pyrometer and a flow sensor," says Martin Wieder, systems sales manager. "It measures the effectiveness of the mold as a heat-transfer medium."

After a five-minute hook-up procedure, the device will display flow information such as cumulative flow, high/low flow, and heat transfer in Btu or kcal. For monitoring purposes, the system can trigger alarms. All information can be downloaded to a PC for further analysis. So far, 15 units are in use for tasks such as making sure the baffles are correct on a new tool. Gillette has used a Thermal Analyzer on a 64-cavity tool to verify that all the cavities receive the same cooling flow. Price of a basic kit, including the hand-held unit and two turbine flow meters, is $600.