KraussMaffei Group has taken a bigger booth than in 2012 to demonstrate a broader range of innovations. Its KraussMaffei brand will include a process combining injection molding and thermoforming of composite sheets. At the booth, the company will produce glass-reinforced nylon airbag housings in cycle times of 45 seconds. Showcasing the Netstal brand will be a molding line producing 44-oz stadium cups and another producing 16-oz containers with cycles of 5.5 seconds on a 4 + 4 cavity mold.
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag will demonstrate nine machines, including one with which the company will attempt to beat the world speed record for production of water bottle caps. The machine will be running a 96-cavity hot runner mold. "Each hour, the machine will be producing over 180,000 lightweight 1.3-gram HDPE water bottle caps with tamper-evident band molded by mechanical slides," said vice president and COO John F. Martich III. "The sub-two-second cycle, the waterfall of 96 caps out of the mold, and the caps literally flying by on the IMDvista vision inspection system - it will definitely draw a crowd."
UBE Machinery will show more equipment at NPE2015 due to the "great attendance and excellent response to NPE2012," said David Bernardi, senior sales and marketing manager. Shown in operation, dry-cycling the clamp in 4 seconds, will be a 1,000-ton, fully servo hydraulic molding machine, equipped with a SmartHeat barrel from Nordson Xaloy, that offers 70% savings in electricity.
Wittmann Battenfeld has expanded its total show footprint by 10% over NPE2012, said David Preusse, president. Shown in operation will be fully integrated, turnkey injection molding cells. Also new will be a smartphone app that enables molders to monitor the status of all of their production cells and robots. "Most NPE2012 attendees remember Wittmann Battenfeld for out 'Basketballer Robots,' as still seen on our You Tube channel," added Mr. Preusse. "This March there will be a no less spectacular and attention-grabbing event from our USA team!"
Yushin America will have about 30% more space than in 2012 and double the number of injection molding machine, said Ronald Bryant, equipment sales manager. "Attendees have requested more running cells versus static displays, so we have increased the overall number of robots operated by partner OEMs throughout the West Hall."
NPE: The International Plastics Showcase is a triennial exposition solely owned and produced by SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association. NPE2015 will take place Monday through Friday, March 23-27, 2015, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. It will be the largest plastics industry event in 2015, including a world-scale trade show and multiple educational programs. The trade show portion will include 2,000 exhibitors on over one million sq.ft. (93,000 sq.m) of space. NPE2015 will host over 60,000 industry professionals from 120 countries.
