Spanish Arburg subsidiary held two open house events in Alicante and Barcelona to present the latest injection moulding solutions

•  Open house events in Alicante and Barcelona
•  Around 90 customers find out about automation and production efficiency
•  Measurable increases in efficiency 

Lossburg, 06-8-2013 — /EuropaWire/ — In the first half of 2013, the Spanish Arburg subsidiary held two open house events at the TechnologyCenter in Sabadell (Barcelona) and in Alicante. Around 90 customers made the most of these opportunities to find out at first hand about the latest injection moulding solutions. The main focus was on the topics of automation and production efficiency.

“Once again, both events were a complete success for us,” says Martin Cayre, Managing Director of Arburg’s Spanish subsidiary with evident satisfaction. He adds: “Our customers lost no time in taking this opportunity to talk to our experts. Many were surprised at the potential for optimisation that they could exploit, using our Selogica control system, intelligent automation and energy-efficient injection moulding technology, for example. Participants obtained numerous novel ideas and impetus, which they could put into practice in their own plant relatively easily.”

Automation: integrated robotic systems
In Sabadell, automation workshops were held in small groups first thing in the morning. Here, participants could gain hands-on experience of, for example, how easy it is to program robotic systems, thanks to their complete integration in the Selogica machine control system. In the afternoon, approximately 50 customers learned all about current automation issues in specialist presentations given by experts from the Lossburg headquarters and representatives from the Hasco and Enicont companies.

In the subsequent practical session, simple programming using the Selogica user interface was demonstrated by means of a six-axis robotic system. Using a Multilift Select linear robotic system as a demo model, the Arburg team showed how to optimise robotic sequences by synchronising the machine movements and the “Set-up Assistant” Selogica module. This human-machine interface assists the installation technician through guided menus, and simplifies the set-up process – from mould changes and automatic parameter calculation, through to teaching the finished production sequence.

Hasco explained what prerequisites have to be fulfilled, from a mould manufacturer’s perspective, in order to achieve cost-effective, fully automated production.

Co-operation: projects with local partners
The Enicont company is one of the select partners with whom Arburg is about to implement more complex projects in Spain. At the open house event, the automation supplier introduced some completed systems, including solutions for the laser cutting and welding of plastics and gripper accessories. “Working with local suppliers makes us more flexible than before. We can offer production cells at an even more attractive price/performance ratio, and further enhance our comprehensive offering with a fast after-sales service provided by a local service specialist,” says Martín Cayre, summing up the advantages for Spanish customers.

Production efficiency: taking account of the entire value-added chain
For the 40 or so customers at the open house in Alicante, the focus of the presentations and practical demonstrations was production efficiency. Arburg Managing Director Martín Cayre shed light on the factors that influence the entire value-added chain. BASF presented its newly developed high-speed materials, which can be processed at lower temperatures and injection pressures, thus reducing the energy requirement. Hasco used this opportunity to present quality moulds and emphasised the fact that high-quality standards can considerably improve machine maintenance costs and service life.

Productivity package reduces energy requirement
In the practical session, the Spanish Arburg team explained the various drive concepts, and the advantages and areas of application of hydraulic and electric injection moulding machines. Subsequently, a hydraulic Allrounder 320 C from the Golden Edition series produced a piggy bank on a Hasco mould. The machine operated once with and once without the productivity package, which includes the Arburg energy-saving system (AES) with variable speed pump drive and water-cooled drive motor. With this package, the two-circuit pump drive version, which enables simultaneous machine movements, is rendered even more cost-effective. Comparative energy measurements showed that energy consumption was reduced by 18% when the productivity package was used.

Rapid return on investment for electric machine
The second example involved an Allrounder 370 E from the electric entry-level Edrive series, which produced the “spider’s web” BASF component. Using the Arburg cost efficiency calculator, the results were compared with those of the 2012 open house in Olaker, when a hydraulic Allrounder 320 C Golden Edition operated with the same mould. The result: Over 300 days of production in 3-shift operation and with 95% availability. Due to its higher productivity and lower energy requirement, the electric machine achieved an extra yield of 12,500 euros a year, so that the higher purchase costs are amortised over a period of just 1.6 years.

About Arburg
Arburg, a German machine construction company, is one of the leading global manufacturers of injection moulding machines for plastics processing with clamping forces between 125 kN and 5,000 kN. Robotic systems, customer- and sector-specific turnkey solutions and further peripherals round off our product range.

In keeping with its motto “Arburg for efficient injection moulding”, the company places the overarching topic of production efficiency at the centre of all its activities, taking into account the entire value-added chain. The objective is to enable the Arburg customers to manufacture their products in optimal quality at minimum unit costs – e.g. for the automotive and packaging industries, communication and entertainment electronics, medical technology, or the white goods sector.

An international sales and service network guarantees first-class, local customer support. Arburg is represented by its own organisations at 32 locations in 24 countries and by trading partners in more than 50 countries. The machines are produced exclusively at the parent factory in Lossburg, Germany. From a total of more than 2,200 employees, around 1,840 work in Germany. About 360 further employees work in Arburg’s organisations around the world. In 2012, Arburg became one of the first companies to gain triple certification: to ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001 (Environment) and ISO 50001 (Energy).

Further information about Arburg can be found at www.arburg.com.

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At Arburg Spain’s two open houses events in Sabadell (photo) and Alicante, around 90 participants discussed the topics of automation and production efficiency with experts.
Photo: ARBURG