With over 1,000 exhibitors from more than 40 countries, the Plast Eurasia ranks among the world’s leading plastics trade fairs. The Wittmann Group, together with its local subsidiary, Wittmann Battenfeld Plastik Makineleri Ltd. Sti., has also been exhibiting at this fair for many years.
At the Plast Eurasia 2024, Wittmann Battenfeld will show on a floor space of 270 m² two injection molding machines from the SmartPower series, one of which will be a multi-component model equipped with an all-electric injection unit.
On this machine, a SmartPower B8X 120/350H/130S Combimould with an electric main aggregate, a bottle opener made of PC and TPE will be produced, using a mold supplied by FKT Formenbau und Kunststofftechnik, Germany. The SmartPower B8X 120/350H/130S comes as a compact Insider solution with a W918 robot from Wittmann and a conveyor belt integrated in the cell. The robot inserts the metal parts presented to it by a magazine plus the decorative foil into the mold, where they are over-molded with polycarbonate. The base body is subsequently moved by a rotary unit to the second station and there over-molded with TPE to give it a better grip. Finally, the finished parts are deposited on the conveyor belt of the Insider cell.
The second machine to be exhibited by Wittmann Battenfeld at the Plast Eurasia is a servo-hydraulic SmartPower 90/350. The machines from the SmartPower series stand out by their extremely high standard of stability, user-friendliness and efficiency.
Automation and auxiliaries
In addition to the robots and auxiliary appliances connected to the machines on display, numerous Wittmann robots and auxiliaries will be presented at the Plast Eurasia as stand-alone solutions, too.
From its range of robots, Wittmann Battenfeld will show at the fair a Sonic 108 high-speed robot capable of extremely short parts removal times and mold-open times below 1 second, as well as a selection of models from the Primus and WX series. For example, both the Primus 116 equipped with a rigid demolding axis for compact injection molding machines and the Primus 148T with a mobile X axis for production cells with up to 900 t clamping force will be present at the booth. Moreover, the WX138 robot will be shown on a rotating platform. All robots on display come equipped with the Wittmann R9 control system. One of this system’s outstanding features is a powerful hardware, which permits free programming of robot and automation sequences and fluid animations. The high quality of the animations becomes most obvious when using the QuickEdit commands or programming with the QuickNew Wizard, or when creating a digital twin. Another advantage of the Wittmann R9 control system is the fact that it is now available for the entire product range. This enables programming of all appliances from the Primus 100, W9 and WX series either on the robot’s control system or on a PC, which shortens the time the operator needs to spend on the production floor.
In the segment of injection molding auxiliaries, the company is presenting a wide range of Wittmann appliances.
The dryer models exhibited include mobile Drymax plus EcoDrive and Drymax primus dryers with two desiccant cartridges, as well as Aton segmented wheel dryers and Card primus compressed air dryers. The Drymax plus EcoDrive model enables dynamic adjustment of the drying air output to the fluctuating demand of the material, with the result of an even further reduction in energy consumption.
The expertise of the Wittmann Group in the area of materials handling technology will be demonstrated by various appliances from the Feedmax series, for example, central material loaders for small to medium-d materials handling systems, as well as for complete systems and high material throughputs. For handling material transport over short distances, the Feedmax S3 net stand-alone material loader will be shown. Another model on display will be the Feedmax Clean, which has been developed with a particular focus on the requirements for handling recycled plastic materials. By a special flow configuration with a cyclone effect combined with material circulation across virtually the entire conveyance cycle, the extraction of dust particles has been maximized. In this way, a separation rate of up to 80 % (for particles < 1.000 μm) has already been achieved within a single conveyance cycle. With conventional material loaders, the maximum separation rate is no more than 10%.
A newcomer to the Plast Eurasia is the Feedmax primus central material loader. The Feedmax primus models are the entry-level appliances among the extensive range of material loaders from Wittmann. This variant, too, is made entirely of stainless steel and is therefore largely insensitive to abrasives. Its outlet flap system and exchangeable inlet nozzle pendulum flaps ensure reliable and safe operation via material distribution systems.
A further item on show will be the E-Max 2 central conveyor control system, which is able to support the installation of material distribution systems with up to 22 conveyors and up to two vacuum circuits.
The extensive range of auxiliary equipment will also include a Gravimax 14 gravimetric blender and a Dosimax volumetric blender, as well as an RFID-monitored Codemax coupling station.
In addition, Wittmann Battenfeld Plastik Makineleri will exhibit an S-Max 2 beside-the-press granulator to represent the company’s large portfolio of granulators. This particular model is a screenless granulator rotating at low speed for energy- and cost-efficient grinding of engineering plastics, as well as styrene, acrylic and fiberglass-reinforced materials.
Last but not least, the temperature controllers on display will represent a significant cross-section of the vast portfolio of these appliances. Technically demanding applications are completely covered by the Tempro plus D series. Noteworthy here is the extensive standard equipment of this series, complemented by further options in line with the market, such as a choice of different pumps. The exhibition also includes a single-circuit and a dual-circuit appliance from this series. At this year’s Plast Eurasia, the company will also show some appliances from the Tempro basic series and a selection from its range of flow controllers, including the Flowcon plus and the WFC120.
