Unique industry event world-wide

• Over 5,200 visitors: Arburg Technology Days 2011 sets new record
• “50 years of Allrounder” anniversary and world premiere of electric Edrive machine series
• More than 40 exhibits and applications: from manual workstation through to highly automated injection moulding cells

The injection moulding sector is booming again, as the Technology Days 2011 clearly confirmed: Record numbers of visitors, an excellent atmosphere and numerous intensive and project-related technical discussions. More than 5,200 trade visitors from 54 countries came to the Arburg headquarters in Lossburg between 23 and 26 March 2011 in order to take a close look at the machine manufacturer’s current range of products and services. Some 40 percent of visitors came from outside Germany. The largest groups counted 160 participants and came from France, Switzerland and the US respectively.
Michael Hehl, Managing Partner and Spokesperson for the Arburg Management Team, is highly satisfied with the event: “No other event world-wide combines detailed insights into the current Arburg technology so well with the opportunity to engage in exhaustive technical discussions with our specialists. Moreover, the unique atmosphere at the Customer Center and throughout the company never fails to impress our visitors.”

World premiere: Electric Allrounder Edrive machine series

A permanent fixture at the Technology Days is the presentation of product and application innovations: This year, the new electric Allrounder Edrive (E) machine series, which enables high-end entry into the world of Arburg electric machines, celebrated its global premiere. In terms of performance characteristics, the Allrounder Edrive machines represent an alternative to basic hydraulic machines. With their sophisticated equipment, they cover a broad range of applications, particularly with regard to the technical injection moulding segment. All four sizes of the Edrive machine series were presented, covering a clamping force range from 600 to 2,000 kN.

“50 years of Allrounder” – customer benefits in focus

In 2011, Arburg is celebrating its anniversary “50 Years of Allrounder”. The advantages that the Allrounder philosophy brings customers today were clearly demonstrated at the Technology Days. More than 40 hydraulic, hybrid and electric machines as well as a comprehensive range of applications provided impressive evidence that the modular Allrounder range always provides optimal customer-specific solutions.
The applications presented included the production of packaging and medical technology products, clean-room technology, multi-component injection moulding, micro-injection moulding, the production of technical parts and the processing of different materials, from liquid silicone (LSR) and thermosets through to metal and ceramic powders.
For example, disposable LSR hoses for the medical technology sector were produced on an electric Allrounder 470 A, which was docked to a clean room. Both the machine and the dosage system are servo-electrically driven and meet the highest standards in terms of precision and cleanliness.

A large part of the product presentation was dedicated to automated injection moulding systems with customised removal and post-processing concepts. Production cells with Multilift robotic systems or six-axis robotic systems showed the efficiency with which even complex high-end parts can be manufactured. One highlight in this field was the co-operation project with Sonderhoff: a production cell built around an Allrounder 570 S, featuring a six-axis robotic system and downstream application of a foamed PUR seal. Complete moulding part handling was performed by the robotic system, which allows complex contours to be followed and is also extremely simple to program thanks to implementation of the Selogica user interface. Initially, an automotive part with a groove was produced. Following injection moulding, each part was then in turn positioned beneath the mixing head with nozzle, the seal contour was followed and the finished part set down onto a conveyor belt.
A mobile six-axis robotic system was presented as a highly flexible solution. This was mounted onto a transfer platen together with guarding and a conveyer belt, making it suitable for use on a variety of machines.

In contrast to the diverse automation solutions, a manual workstation suitable for cost-effective production of small batch volumes was jointly presented with Küfner. A fuel tank strainer was produced from two filter shell halves encapsulated with POM, whereby both the encapsulation and joining processes were performed in three cavities within the mould. All the downstream manual finishing operations take place within the overall cycle time, so that no time delays occur.

The Service and Product Training departments also presented themselves to customers and prospects in a dedicated area, where they demonstrated that their offerings extend far beyond the machines themselves.

Specialist presentations offer an insight into practice

The exhibition of products and services was ideally complemented by the extremely well-attended specialist presentations with a total number of around 2,200 visitors. The presentations were held continuously throughout the duration of the event, both in German and English. In addition to the historical retrospective of “50 years of Allrounder”, topics included new features of the Selogica machine control system, intelligent energy management, efficient UV painting of moulded parts, innovative developments in the field of cube moulds, as well as the premiere of the new Allrounder E (Edrive) machine series.

Tours of the premises popular among visitors
In 2011, the tours of the premises again proved enormously popular. The foreign delegations, who visited the Technology Days in the company of the Arburg subsidiaries and trading partners, were offered guided tours in their own national language. In addition, around 2,000 visitors took part in the approximately 250 German language tours.

The Technology Days have been successfully completed at Arburg, marking a good start for the current financial year 2011.