Tags:Plastic Mold Maker  Plastic Injection Molding  Die Casting

The largest member of the E Series family of robots, designed for injection moulding machines with clamping forces ranging from 13,000 to 55,000kN, will be presented at K 2001.

The E Series thus covers the entire range of injection moulding machine capacities currently available on the market.

The modular robots of the E Series afford the plastics processor a great many advantages which, when added together, mean "more output for less money": higher speeds and acceleration rates with standard versions, various selectable levels of performance for digital drive systems, extended maintenance intervals and greater ease of servicing (through permanent lubrication of the rack-and-pinion drives, the use of low-maintenance linear guides, the use of plug-in limit switches etc.), digital monitoring of the vacuum system for the suction grippers (with display and control elements), increased number of optional additional modules, and, last but not least, availability at an even lower price than that of the previous series (approx.

 10 to 15% depending on the actual equipment fitted).

Robot control systems - intelligent automation The user-beneficial integration of machine and robot control systems has been one of the main objectives of Engel Automatisierungstechnik GmbH ever since it was founded.

Engel's "intelligent" robotic systems have been constantly developed and improved.

The many improvements achieved in recent years include: the faster synchronization of robot and machine movements - without any additional hardware - through the use of internal bus connections between the respective control systems, new features for easier operation and programming using menu and teach-in modes, extended integrated safety functions.

Since the launching of Engel's stand-alone robot control system at K 98, the sale of robots for other makes of injection moulding machine has increased considerably.

Like the "integrated version" (joint operation of the machine and robot control systems via the machine's VDU), the stand-alone control system is equipped with a high-capacity RISC processor and communicates with the digital drive system and the sensors and actuators of the robot via a CAN bus.

 From "high speed" to "low price" Depending on the application, the ERC Series robots are capable of minimizing demoulding times to 0.7 seconds and the total cycle time to around 4 seconds.

For standard applications, such speeds are really exceptional, but when it comes to using machines for special, fast-cycling applications (e.g thin-wall packaging containers), even these speeds are too slow.

For such high-speed applications, Engel has developed special ERS Type high-speed robots which have already proved themselves in actual practice many times over.

 This high-speed version permits robot movement speeds of up to 8m/s and an acceleration of up to 150m/sec2 - that's 15 times faster than acceleration due to gravity! However, fast speeds and acceleration rates alone do not suffice to achieve extremely fast cycling times.

Just as important is the optimum co-ordination of the injection moulding machine, the injection mould and the robot.

The process of "tuning" these three system components even involves optimizing the software running times for the individual program sequences.

This facility is a performance feature which distinguishes Engel systems from those of its competitors.

 ERS high-speed demoulding robots operate so fast that it is possible to achieve a total cycle time of only 2 sec and demoulding times of less than 0.3 sec (the shortest demoulding time achieved so far is 0.235 sec!).

Not every application calls for a high-end robotic system.

For demoulding injection moulded parts and depositing them on a conveyor belt, the handling devices of the ER-HLi Series represent a low-cost, integrated means of automation, especially in conjunction with Engel tiebarless machines with clamping forces ranging from 200 to 6,000kN.

This compact demoulding robot can be optionally mounted on the moving platen or on the stationary platen.

The parts are deposited on the machine's own integrated conveyor belt behind the safety guard, whereby the area around the mould remains readily accessible, as the conveyor belt can be pushed aside whenever necessary.

The compact design of the system not only permits short robot movements and hence short cycle times but also minimizes the required floor space for the production machine.

The integration of the robot control into the machine's control system makes for optimum ease and reliability of operation..

From the robot to the tray server "Never lose the orientation of a part" is one of the fundamental principles of automation technology.

 Consequently, many production facilities make use of special transport containers and systems.

Widespread use is made of thermoformed plastic trays, especially for parts such as mobile telephone housings and components.

The injection moulded parts are deposited, temporarily stored and then transported in these trays for further finishing and assembly (e.g fitting of electronic components).

For this special logistics application, Engel has extended its product range to include, among other things, the so-called tray server.

Thanks to this intelligent system module for the destacking, filling and restacking of trays, the injection moulding machine can produce parts for several hours at a stretch completely unattended.

Moreover, the tray server takes up a minimum of floor space and, thanks to its integration into the production machine (both into the actual machine and into its control system), affords optimum ease and reliability of operation.The news come http://www.bossgoo.com/