"Action Plan: Energy": Advice and retrofitting in demand
Energy efficiency was an important theme of the Anniversary Days 2023. The new "Action Plan: Energy" is particularly interesting in this respect. This includes advice on a host of measures to help customers significantly reduce costs in injection moulding production and optimise energy requirements throughout the entire production process, beyond the machine itself.How existing machines can be energy-optimised through retrofits – for example with fully insulated cylinders, Arburg energy saving systems AES and IE3 class motors – was demonstrated in a practical manner in the service area. There, visitors were also able to find out how to quickly get a new warehouse machine via the customer portal app "Ready2Go". Arburg can also provide documented consumption measurements for businesses that require detailed energy data for certification.
Energy efficiency was an important theme of the Anniversary Days 2023. The "Action Plan: Energy", with which Arburg offers its customers, for example, comprehensive advice, machine upgrades and energy measurements, generated a correspondingly high response.
Efficiency Arena: Focus on sustainability and digitalisation
Selected partners provided information on current topics such as marking, identifying, sorting and recycling, supported by the transmission of data along the value chain.
Arburg also presented its sustainability strategies, the arburgXworld customer portal and the ALS host computer system in the Efficiency Arena.
The Efficiency Arena with its focus on arburgGREENworld and arburgXworld was once again a key port of call this year. Together with selected partners, innovative solutions relating to resource conservation, digitalisation and the circular economy were presented.
Automation Arena: Major interest in turnkey solutions
Probably the most sought-after give-away at the event was the tool box already known from the world's leading trade fair K 2022, this time in the anniversary design. It was manufactured by a turnkey system around a hybrid Allrounder 1120 H and finished with gold Arburg lettering. Together with its partner Zahoransky, Arburg presented an innovative turnkey solution and a new process for injection stretch blow moulding in the Automation Arena: Medical vaccine containers, "vials", are produced from crystal-clear, unbreakable COC in just one work step. The pre-moulded parts were produced by a vertical Allrounder 1600 T in a special version without a rotary table. They were then transferred directly in the mould to two other stations and stretched and inflated in the process. The plan is to produce around 22 million parts a year with this system and a 16-cavity injection mould.A turnkey system based around a hybrid Allrounder 630 H in cleanroom design was particularly sustainable and a prime example of digitally networked plastic parts production. The injection moulding machine processed crystal clear recycled PET and communicated with the mould, hot runner controller, material dryer and automation via the Gestica control system and OPC UA. 32 blood vials each were produced in a cycle time of around 6.5 seconds, which corresponds to well over 17,000 blood vials per hour.
Another highlight was a customer project with a vertical rotary table machine Allrounder 1600 T and a total of five integrated robotic systems. Another turnkey system with two integrated Allrounders boasted a high level of autonomy of around twelve hours for pallets, intermediate layers and finished products.
There was enormous interest in automation and turnkey systems. In the Automation Arena, selected exhibits and current customer projects were on display – from the automated production of the coveted tool box in the anniversary design to highly complex turnkey systems.
Success story: 100 years of the Hehl family company
On the occasion of the anniversary, there was also a special event location to visit this year: the Arburg Cube. There, visitors were able to embark on a multimedia journey through the 100-year history of the Hehl family business and also enjoy culinary delights. Another special feature of the Anniversary Days 2023 was the welcoming of the 100,000th visitor to the industry event on 8 March, which has attracted thousands of customers from all over the world to Lossburg every year since 1999.
