ENGEL at T-Plas 2017 in Bangkok

"The packaging industry is one of the especially fast-growing sectors in South East Asia, and is one of the innovation drivers at the same time", states Romain Reyre, President South East Asia for ENGEL. "There is hardly another sector in which the per unit cost is under higher pressure than in the packaging industry." Competitive production is only possible when the highest throughputs, a stable process and a high degree of process integration come together. To allow, for example, ready-to-fill food containers to come directly out of the injection moulding machine, an increasing number of processors are turning to in-mould labelling technology (IML). IML makes high-quality decoration economical and also allows for the efficient production of smaller batch sizes. In order to take full advantage of the efficiency potential of IML integration, the injection moulding machine, the mould and the handling of the labels and finished products must be perfectly coordinated with each other. To this end, ENGEL has developed a worldwide network of partner companies.

For the production of oval bowls - used, for example, for convenience meals -, the e-mac 440/180 injection moulding machine presented at the T-Plas works with Asian partners who are also well familiar with the requirements of local producers and translate these into optimally tailored solutions. The 4-cavity mould comes from CNN Plastic System, based in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The IML-automation is implemented by JET Engine Automation - also based in New Taipei City.

"The collaboration with local partners makes it possible for us to guarantee high cost-efficiency for our customers, even for very sophisticated, innovative technologies, and to also keep the delivery times for the complete production cell short," emphasises Reyre.

High productivity requires a reliable and high-performing injection moulding machine. The all-electric e-mac is exclusively equipped with especially powerful servo drives. Ejection and pressing is also handled servo-electrically. This guarantees the best possible precision and process stability while maximising the effectiveness of the machine as a whole. The highly energy-efficient machine ensures a stable production, even at continuous, round-the-clock operation

Self-optimising injection moulding machine

With the CC300 control, the e-mac provides full flexibility for the integration of robots and other peripherals, as well as the use of intelligent assistance systems from the inject 4.0 programme of ENGEL.

inject 4.0 - this is the response of ENGEL to the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, for which the name Industry 4.0 has become established. The goal is a smart factory in which production processes continuously self-optimise through the networking of production systems, the systematic use of machine, process and production data, and the utilisation of intelligent assistance systems. Producers can thus increase the productivity and quality of their production and respond very flexibly to ever more rapidly changing requirements.

ENGEL already offers an entire range of mature products for digitalisation and networking that have been proven in practice again and again, and is continuously expanding its line-up. The modularity of the inject 4.0 approach makes it especially easy for plastics processors to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Industry 4.0. Even small isolated solutions provide huge benefits.