汽车

SEVG+ (Servo electric Valve Gate) ALLOWS FOR RAPID PROCESSING OPTIMIZATION ON TIER 1 LIGHTING APPLICATION

Mold-Masters customer, a Tier 1 automotive lighting component manufacturer, was contracted to produce the front lighting components of an exciting new electric SUV for a major North American brand. As electric vehicles no longer require air flow to enter an engine bay, this new PC lighting component stretches across the entire front grill .

For the automotive brand, it was critical that this component be produced without any visible flow lines on the lens. A mold-flow analysis determined that the application required sequential filling in order to achieve the necessary results. However, the component manufacturer traditionally used pneumatic actuators which do not provide the repeatability or accuracy required to achieve consistent processing for such an application.

Mold-Masters hot runner solution for this application was a Fusion-Series G2 system (F7000 nozzles, extended hot valves) and incorporated our advanced SeVG+ (Servo electric Valve Gate) actuation control system. The SeVG+ system was favored by the customer because of its simple and compact design in addition to Mold-Masters sales and engineering support. SeVG+ features a direct drive design unlike competitive systems that incorporate levers, gear boxes and other components. This not only reduces spare part requirements but also minimizes cut-out requirements. Additionally, the height of our new 2nd generation motor has been reduced by 48% which minimizes stack height. The height of this motor is now only 90mm high.

In this specific application, each nozzle/gate of the hot runner system fed a sub-runner that fed into the left and right-side lighting component. There were 3 sub-runners total.

Initially, the 2 outboard drops (Gates 1&3) produced splay. To eliminate this issue, the Mold-Masters team worked through stepping the profile on these drops. The pin was opened slowly for the first 50% of the stroke and then opened quickly for the rest of the movement. Profiling the individual drops allowed for this issue to be quickly resolved in under 10 shots.

Had this hot runner system not been fitted with the SeVG+ system, fixing the splay would have involved adjusting the process at the injection press which would influence all gates including the center gate which was good. It is clear that the flexibility of the SeVG+ system to precisely control individual gates on challenging applications allows for processing solutions to be quick and easy.

E-MULTI DELIVERS STABLE PROCESSING, MINIMAL SCRAP RATE AND RAPID ROI

“I am fully convinced that this is the best auxiliary injection unit for our processing requirements that is currently available on the market.”

Mold-Masters customer designs and manufactures automotive rear-view mirrors for brands such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Iveco, VW, Ford, Skoda, BMW and more. This specific application involved the production of a new 2K automotive side-mirror using a competitor’s hydraulic auxiliary injection unit.

The process on this 2K automotive component could not be stabilized over several months which resulted in a variety of part defects which included burrs and short shots. The scrap rate was about 14%. The goal was to return to economical production by optimizing the process and updating equipment. In addition, the machine downtime was also significantly higher compared to similar cells. This was a result of the special maintenance requirements of the competitor’s auxiliary injection unit they were using at the time.

The Mold-Masters E-Multi auxiliary injection unit (EM3-100-28) was selected to replace the poorly performing competitor auxiliary injection unit.

The E-Multi was installed on the existing injection machine in a horizontal configuration and offers additional features that are not available with their current competitive unit (ex: program up to 10 injection profiles with holding pressures). The E-Multi’s comprehensive overview with statistical process data and overall production tracking gave new insights to further improve parameters that were not accessible with the previous system.

Although systems integration was not a priority when the cell was put together, the advantage of the E-Multi control system acting as the brain for overall process management and eliminating excess equipment to save valuable space on their shop floor was a huge benefit. The E-Multi controls the auxiliary injection molding process and incorporates temperature control and other various smart control features to fully integrate into a single control device.

After the E-Multi was installed and the process optimized, the scrap rate with E-Multi was minimized to less than 1%.  This has resulted in cost savings of 15.000 EUR in less than 4 months which allowed the system to be amortized in less than 2 years (the system is planned to be in production for 6+ years). Downtime was also significantly reduced with E-Multi thanks to its minimal maintenance requirements.

Our customer realized that purchasing the cheapest unit from competitors was not always the best for their business where performance and quality are critical to their business. E-Multi proved the value of investing in a system with a far lower total cost of ownership pays for itself quickly. E-multi can also save a lot of hassle for the engineering and shop floor team.

在挑战PFA电池应用方面，Summit系列将正常运行时间延长400%+

一家新顾客向我们咨询了有关模制锂离子电池盖的问题，以满足电动汽车行业对PFA树脂的日益增长的需求。这种特殊的树脂对锂离子电池盖应用非常重要，因为它可以抵抗电池液的腐蚀，并且可以防止电池过度充电。传统上，由这种材料制成的组件是用冷流道生产的。但是，由于材料非常昂贵，客户希望转用热流道以降低废料并减少生产成本。

PFA树脂的成型要求使任何注塑机都面临挑战。这种树脂的主要问题在于，在加热过程中，材料会释放出对钢具有腐蚀性的氟气。热流道系统和注塑机都受到这种气体的影响。一旦腐蚀开始，腐蚀就会迅速蔓延并导致阀针卡死并最终泄漏。在联系Mold-Masters之前，客户曾尝试与其他几家热流道供应商合作，但都以失败告终。他们的系统只能运行一周，然后需要大量维修和清理维护。这不是可持续的做法，因此客户继续寻求更好的解决方案。

这个难得的机会使Mold-Masters与客户紧密合作，以确保他们的成型应用成功。Mold-Masters Summit系列热流道系统特别适合此类应用，因为它旨在适应具有腐蚀性/磨蚀性或对温度/剪切敏感性的挑战性树脂。Summit系列将各种特殊材料和涂层结合到其组件中，以保护系统免受有害腐蚀性材料的影响，从而延长维修间隔。

与竞争对手相比，通过使用Mold-Masters Summit系列热流道，正常运行时间增加了至少400％（1个月vs. 1周）。 如果模具保持连续生产，则某些Summit-Series系统可以保持生产长达12周（100万次循环），从而大大延长了维修间隔和计划外停机之间的时间。 该客户对结果非常满意，现在依赖于Summit系列热流道系统来进行此应用的成型。

Mold-Masters Summit系列热流道系统通过PFA应用获得了了明显的竞争优势。这一成功必将使更多的制造商转向Summit系列的PFA应用，最终通过增加正常运行时间和减少废品来收回成本。