"More colours. More integration. More energy efficiency." – this is the motto chosen by Engel Austria in for this year's presentation of system solution competency at Fakuma from 18th to 22nd October in Friedrichshafen/Germany. With five production cells at our own trade fair booth and five additional machines at partner booths, Engel will be demonstrating efficient and economic production of premium quality moulded parts based on solutions tailored for a variety of applications.
More colours. More Integration." – These two statements stand for maximum process integration, multiple-component technology and for insert-placing methods or surface decoration in Engel's trade-fair exhibits. In Friedrichshafen, Engel will be showing its full hand of efficiency-boosting and process-optimising approaches: from the use of innovative technologies, machines and mould concepts, through automation, to reducing energy and material consumption in production.
"More energy efficiency": from hydraulic machines with energy-saving servohydraulics, through hybrid machines, to fully electric high-performance machines, Engel will be presenting future-orientated drive concepts at Fakuma, each of which is tailored to meet the specific needs of the automotive, teletronics, medical, technical moulding, and packaging industries.
The vision of a vehicle interior without buttons and switches is becoming increasingly tangible. At the Engel trade fair booth in Hall 5 visitors to the fair can take a seat in the automotive cockpit of the future. Various control functions can be activated via the centre console in the simulation cell. All you need to do is to lightly touch one of the functional elements below the completely closed surface. Thanks to Engel clearmelt technology and the integration of a capacitive foil via in-mould labelling, vehicle controls will be just as elegant as smartphone controls in the future. At the same time, Engel's clearmelt technology opens up a totally new degree of freedom to interior stylists.
At Fakuma, an Engel duo 350 injection moulding machine equipped with the servohydraulic Engel ecodrive will be producing piano black centre consoles. This is the first showing of this new machine size, which brings the power of the duo large-scale machines – maximum power on a small footprint – to the lower clamping force class.
Thanks to reversing plate technology, the thermoplastic centre console top carrier made of ABS-PC is injected while the pre-moulded part created in the previous cycle is overmoulded with polyurethane in the second half of the mould. This process is based on the Engel combi M method, but with a polyurethane system connected to the mould instead of a second injection unit. The capacitive foil is insert-placed into the mould before injecting the first component. Two Engel viper 20 and Engel viper 40 type linear robots take care of component and part handling.
In the Engel clearmelt process, the layer of PUR fulfils multiple functions at the same time. The primary task is that of protecting the part's class A surface against chemical and mechanical exposure. The coating's excellent degree of glossiness and the 3-D effect that it creates, thus adding value to the part's appearance, are important side effects.
Engel is presenting this exhibit in cooperation with system partners. The mould maker is Schöfer from Schwertberg/Austria; Hennecke from Sankt Augustin/Germany is the exclusive project partner for polyurethane technology; the function foils are supplied by plastic electronic in Linz/Austria, with Magna Exterior & Interior Systems from Munich/Germany supporting the processing technology side of the project.
