Arburg Presents its "Technology Days 2018" Event in Lossburg, Germany

Around 6,300 invited guests from 54 nations came to Lossburg for the Arburg Technology Days, held from 14 to 17 March 2018. Around 660 employees and trainees played an active part in the event.  The full range of machines, applications and processes for the efficient production of plastic parts was on show. Expert presentations, a special show on service, company tours, and above all the Efficiency Arena, which this year was all about "digital transformation", provided numerous sources of inspiration.

"Our concept has proven its worth, making the Technology Days the world's largest in-house event for the plastics industry. Overall, between 1999 and 2018, we have welcomed more than 87,500 visitors to our Technology Days in Lossburg," said Michael Hehl, Arburg Managing Partner and Spokesman for the Management Team.

One of the main topics of the event was digital transformation

 Arburg has long been intensively focussed on the digitalisation of its products and services, aiming to enhance production efficiency even further for our customers. Numerous examples were on view under the slogan "for digitalisation" in the Efficiency Arena 2018. The focus was on six new assistance packages that actively support the machine operator and that are now available for purchase:

• "4.set-up" for guided set-up,

• "4.start-stop" for easier production start-up,

• "4.optimisation" for reduced unit costs,

• "4.production" for greater freedom during programming,

• "4.monitoring" for process and quality monitoring and

• "4.service" for fast online support.

Versatilyt- lightweight construction, packaging technology, LSR processing

No fewer than five different processes and solutions for lightweight construction were exhibited at the Technology Days 2018:

• Fibre Direct Compounding (FDC),

• physical foaming with Profoam,

• a turnkey Mucell production system,

• gas injection moulding technology (GIT) and

• processing of filler-optimised material consisting of hollow glass spheres.

The hybrid high-performance Allrounder Hidrive machines combine the speed and precision of electric technology with hydraulic power and dynamics. The fact that they are predestined for high-speed applications in the packaging industry was demonstrated by an Allrounder 630 H in the Packaging version, which produced 20 disposable spoons from PS in a cycle time of 6.4 seconds. A hybrid Allrounder 820 H in the new design with the new Gestica control system produced screw caps on a 48-cavity mould in a cycle time of 12.7 seconds.

Two technically interesting applications relating to the processing of liquid silicone (LSR) were presented

• an electric Allrounder 520 A used highly transparent LSR (Shore hardness 70 A) to produce napkin rings in a faceted optical design with crystal look.

• In the case of an electric Allrounder 470 A, which produced seals for household appliances, the LSR dosing system was integrated in the machine control system via OPC UA.

Additive Manufacturing: Eight Freeformers for additive manufacturing

A total of eight Freeformers produced functional parts from original material in the Arburg Plastic Freeforming (APF) process. An innovative application was presented involving the processing of PMMA and medical-grade SEBS with a hardness of 28 Shore A (Cawiton PR13576). Moreover, closure caps made from standard PP were on view, as well as parts made from PC, PA10, ABS and from two components.

For more information, please visit www.arburg.com.