WITTMANN BATTENFELD with new VPower at the Fakuma 2018

The prototype of the new VPower was shown for the first time in June of this year to customers and business partners of WITTMANN BATTENFELD who were invited to the company’s 10th anniversary celebration as. At this year’s Fakuma, it will now be introduced for the first time to the general public. Following its integration into the WITTMANN Group 10 years ago, WITTMANN BATTENFELD started to redesign its entire portfolio of machinery. The range of machinery known by the name of PowerSeries is now well established in the market. With the development of the VPower, the company’s vertical machine models are now also being remodeled to fit the PowerSeries design.

The new VPower stands out primarily by its high energy efficiency, compactness and user-friendliness. The machine’s generously dimensioned rotary table is powered by a servo-electric drive as standard and laid out for short rotation times. The injection unit can be converted from vertical to horizontal and vice versa even after commissioning. Moreover, the absence of a central tie-bar enables central media supply from below through the rotary table or the installation of a compact rotary manifold. Thanks to its open design, the machine is ideally suited for the integration of automation systems with insert feeding and finished part removal functions. At the Fakuma, the functionality of the new VPower will be demonstrated with a VPower 160/750 featuring a rotary table 1600 mm in diameter. The presentation will focus on the machine itself.

Fig. 1: Our highlight – the new VPower

High-speed EcoPower Xpress for the packaging industry

Another novelty presented at the Fakuma will be the EcoPower Xpress 160/1100+. Following the successful launch of the all-electric high-speed model in the 400 to 500 t clamping force range, the EcoPower Xpress series is now being extended by adding the machines in the lower clamping force segment. The EcoPower Xpress is a high-speed, all-electric high-performance machine, which is of interest mainly for thin-walled applications in the packaging industry.

At the Fakuma, the smallest machine of this series will be shown producing a lid made of PP (Borealis, Austria) with a 4-cavity mold, using IML technology from WITTMANN. The IML system is a high-speed model with a W837 side-entry robot. With the help of anticipatory signal exchange transmitted in real time between the machine and the robot, the mold opening time can be limited to an absolute minimum. The lids are produced within a cycle time of roughly 3 seconds. The machine will be equipped with the CMS condition monitoring system from WITTMANN BATTENFELD, which ensures continuous condition monitoring of its most important parameters.

Multi-component technology on the servo-hydraulic SmartPower 240 and the all-electric MicroPower 15

Furthermore, the COMBIMOULD technology will be shown to visitors at the Fakuma on a machine from the servo-hydraulic SmartPower series. On a SmartPower 240/750H/210S, the housing of the WITTMANN R9 Teachbox will be produced from ABS and TPU with a single-cavity mold. A WX142 robot from WITTMANN with a transfer and removal gripper will be used to remove the finished parts. It will transfer the preforms into the second cavity for insert molding. Subsequently, an inkjet printer will print a QR code on the parts to secure traceability of the production data. Next, the parts will be sorted and deposited on a conveyor belt.

Fig. 2: MicroPower 15/10H/10H COMBIMOULD

In the second COMBIMOULD application, a sensor component for a medical measuring instrument will be produced.  It will be manufactured on a 2-component machine from the MicroPower series specially designed for injection molding of micro parts, a MicroPower 15/10H/10H, with a 4-cavity mold supplied by Wittner, Austria. The razor-thin, spherical membrane injection-molded from TPE serves to measure a specific pressure inside the measuring device. The parts will be processed in a clean-room environment which is created by using a laminar flow box inside the machine. They will be removed by a W8VS4 SCARA robot from WITTMANN specially designed for this machine, inspected by a camera system integrated in the machine and then deposited on a conveyor belt.

WITTMANN 4.0 cell equipped with HiQ software packages

The full extent of WITTMANN 4.0 integration will be demonstrated at the Fakuma on an EcoPower 90/350, in whose UNILOG B8 control system the robot is integrated, together with all connected peripheral appliances, such as TEMPRO temperature controllers, GRAVIMAX blenders, DRYMAX dryers and FLOWCON electronic flow controllers. As a novelty, the electronic data sheet will be used in the UNILOG B8 control system. This electronic data sheet serves to configure a production cell integrated via the WITTMANN 4.0 router in accordance with the selected mold dataset, including all necessary appliances such as robots, temperature controllers, metering devices, dryers and electronic flow controllers. Via the “plug & produce” mode, the production cell is ready for start-up in next to no time. All required data for quality management from the machine and the peripherals are available for documentation via WITTMANN 4.0. Moreover, the WITTMANN 4.0 router allows secure access by a single IP address (single point entry) to all modules of the production cell for servicing by the web service.

Fig. 3: WITTMANN 4.0 demonstration cell, equipped with HiQ software packages

The machine will also be equipped with the WITTMANN BATTENFELD software packages HiQ-Flow, HiQ-Melt and HiQ-Metering, whose functionalities will be shown at the Fakuma. HiQ-Flow is a material viscosity-controlled injection control system, which compensates the effect of temperature and batch influences on material viscosity and thus ensures reliable, consistent good quality of the injection-molded parts. HiQ-Melt is a method of monitoring material quality, which enables easy detection of deviations in material quality by measuring the energy consumed in the plasticizing process. HiQ-Metering designates active closing of the check valve to ensure that precisely the necessary quantity of material is injected with every shot to achieve extreme consistency in part weights. Moreover, this machine is also equipped with the CMS condition monitoring system from WITTMANN BATTENFELD.

Fig. 4: WITTMANN R9 Teachbox – the display frame is injection-molded on a SmartPower 240

Information and counseling at the WITTMANN 4.0 expert corner and at the service center

At hourly intervals, presentations will be held to provide visitors to the Fakuma with detailed information about integration, HiQ-software packages and the CMS machine condition monitoring system. The WITTMANN BATTENFELD service center will also offer advice concerning the MES solutions provided by WITTMANN BATTENFELD, as well as web and remote servicing and process technology issues. At the expert corner for plasticizing units, the latest solutions for screws and check valves will be shown, demonstrating their advantages to trade visitors. Here, customized solutions can also be discussed with the relevant experts.