Engel France opened a new training and education centre at the Wissous location. The idea behind this is to stage injection moulding 4.0 hands-on, for trials and to improve understanding with state-of-the-art machinery. In times fraught by the pandemic, virtual options are also offered for all training courses for setting up, programming and optimising injection moulding machines thanks to the digitalised training centre.
Located in the direct vicinity of Paris, the new Engel France training centre can be reached very easily. With its "feel, experiment and understand" strategy, the centre is perfectly geared for face-to-face events. Thanks to consistent digitalisation, a great deal of customer proximity is also achieved "remotely" in the age of Covid-19.
Perfectly prepared for advanced virtual training
The training room plays the main role here: digitally equipped with the best possible equipment and with the support of the Virtmould simulation tool, online webinars are held from here. Virtmould allows the injection moulding machine's control interface to be displayed on a PC screen and the machine to be operated from the PC.
The content is not limited, irrespective of the training mode. "The topics in the comprehensive training catalogue satisfy specific knowledge needs for set-up personnel, explain robot programming and support the optimisation of injection moulding processes", says Romain Reyre, General Manager of Engel France, whetting injection moulder's appetite for learning at Engel France. Where face-to-face training is still possible under Covid-19 rules, the state-of-the-art training room with its individual computer workstations can be used for a maximum of eight participants – without any machine noise from the technology centre.
Training directly on the machine
At the technology centre, a total of 200 m2 of floor space is available to the training participants for practical exercises. There is an e-victory injection moulding machine with a clamping force of 80 tonnes and an electric injection unit, equipped with a viper linear robot and a variety of modules from the Engel inject 4.0 range. The iQ weight control and iQ flow control smart assistance systems are available for trials, along with other systems. This is the perfect way to experience the new opportunities which digitalisation offers in the injection moulding process directly at the machine. Production automation and robot programming can be tried out and learned in different constellations: an e-pic robot and an easix articulated robot are also available to the training participants.
"The pandemic has shown us how important it is to stay in close contact with our customers, also with virtual training courses," says Reyre: "The future is hybrid. Remote offerings and webinars will have their place side by side with on-site training courses. This will enable us to respond even better to the individual requirements of our customers, for whom we are increasingly becoming a partner over the entire life cycle of our injection moulding machines and system solutions".
