Arburg to focus on digitalisation, lightweight construction and efficiency

The Chinese market is of great importance to German machinery firm Arburg, even though visitors to Chinaplas 2021 are likely to be limited to locals this year, due to the pandemic.

“China is the world’s largest market for injection moulding machines and the demand for high-end machines and turnkey systems is growing,” says Zhao Tong, Managing Director of the Arburg organisations in China. “With our product range, as well as our arburgXworld and arburgGREENworld programmes for digitalisation and resource conservation, we are in a pole position.”

Thus, the firm will be presenting at Chinaplas, which takes place from 13-16 April 2021 in Shenzhen, not only exhibits used for LSR processing, lightweight construction and additive manufacturing, but also a turnkey solution for medical technology and its arburgXworld customer portal.

In LSR processing, it will present a version of an Allrounder from the Golden Electric series. The economic electric machine is targeted at the Asian market and will be shown manufacturing demanding lenses for the automotive industry. These are used in the matrix headlights for passenger cars, for example.

The turnkey system built around an Allrounder 470 E Golden Electric with a clamping force of 1,000 kN is equipped with a Multilift Select of Arburg and a six-axis robot from the Chinese company AID, as well as a two-cavity mould from local partner Concraft. With a laser, each component is marked with a DM code, which can be used to view the manufacturing data in the arburgXworld customer portal. This ensures 100% traceability of each individual component.

The coronavirus pandemic caused the market for in-vitro diagnostics to skyrocket. At Chinaplas, Arburg is demonstrating the fully automated manufacturing of pipette tips. An Allrounder 470 H with 1,000 kN clamping force and a hot runner mould from Chinese company Jestar can produce 48 tips per 6-second cycle. Arburg developed the turnkey system in cooperation with local automation partners, and it has been designed to produce several product variants. The automation consists of three modules for removal, camera inspection and order picking. The picking module is able to automatically fill gaps resulting from rejected parts with good parts.

Meanwhile, Arburg will show a cost-effective process with its fibre-direct compounding (FDC). A lateral feeder cuts glass fibre rovings into lengths before adding them directly into the liquid melt. The advantages of this process include high material availability, a cost reduction of up to 40% and the option of actively tailoring component properties. In Shenzhen, a hydraulic Allrounder 820 S with 4,000 kN clamping force produces test plates made of 30% PP reinforced with long glass fibres. A linear Multilift Select robotic system is responsible for performing the handling tasks.

The plastic granules processed in injection moulding can also be used in Arburg Plastic Freeforming (APF). At the trade fair, a Freeformer 300-3X combines two components and support material to create a functional component, using a hard/soft combination. The open system is also suitable for very soft and certified original materials, and is perfect for demanding applications, for example in medical technology and the automotive industry.

In digitalisation, Arburg is one of the industry’s pioneers, with its “arburgXworld” programme that contains the entire range of digital products and services. With its numerous apps and configuration levels, the customer portal with the same name provides extensive digital support. At Chinaplas, all injection moulding exhibits are equipped with an IIoT gateway and networked via the Arburg host computer system (ALS).

In the “Factory of the Future” (Hall 11, stand J41), Arburg additionally showcases real-life application examples that illustrate the advantages offered by digitalisation and automation in injection moulding. There an Allrounder 470 E Golden Electric with networked IT equipment manufactures plugs for the automotive industry – completely automatically and with full traceability.

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