2000 visitors at Engel Open House in Dietach

Mass identification detects the weight in the gripper and adjusts the speed of the axis movements to reflect the load on the gripper. This extends what is already an extremely long service life of the robot's mechanical system, while at the same time improving the productivity of the production plant. Efficiency control minimises robot wait times by allowing the robot to modify its motion outside of the injection moulding machine to automatically reflect the production plant's cycle time. This function again ensures a long service life of the robot's mechanical systems and makes a major contribution towards energy efficiency.

Five sizes with nominal load bearing capacities of between 6 and 60 kg are currently available. Visitors to Dietach were treated to a sneak preview of the new Engel viper 90, which will extend the top end of the model range as of the Fakuma trade fair in October this year. The viper 90 is designed for a nominal load bearing capacity of 90 kg.

Complete integration of multiple axis industrial robots with the CC 200 control unit on the Engel injection moulding machines was another highlight of the product presentation during the anniversary event. Wherever Engel supplies injection moulding machines and robots from a single source, full integration of the two control landscapes is guaranteed without needing an Euromap 67 interface.

This sets the Engel solution apart from the many other suppliers whose understanding of integrating multiple-axis industrial robots is that of simply mirroring the robot's user interface on the injection moulding machine's display, without removing the need for the users to familiarise themselves with the two different control approaches.

The Engel product developer's primary goal is thus: if you can operate the injection moulding machine, you can operate the robot, too. From the point of view of the CC 200 control unit on the Engel injection moulding machine, it really doesn't matter whether the machine cooperates with a linear device or a multiple-axis industrial robot. The control concept is identical for the two robot types. At the same time, the fact that the machine and the robot share data storage improves efficiency and process reliability.

Engel Automation Technology currently resides at three locations. Besides Dietach, automation centres exist at Engel's headquarters in Schwertberg/Austria and at Hagen/Germany. To do justice to Engel Automation Technology's continually increasing market share, substantial investments are also being made at the facility in Germany. Right now, the production floor space is being extended and the number of staff considerably increased.