In the past few years, the Austrian Engel Group has benefited from the rapid development of the plastics processing industry, especially the processing demand for automotive parts. As of the end of March 2019, the Engel Group continued to achieve solid growth in the 2018/19 financial year.

Strong growth is turning into horizontal consolidation

" But globally, this strong growth is turning into horizontal consolidation." Gero Willmeroth, Engel's president for East Asia and Oceania, said: "In addition to the German-speaking countries of Europe (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Asia, particularly China, while continuing to grow, is also beginning to show some signs of softening. "On the other hand, the latest developments in North America are not encouraging, with the trade dispute between the major economic powers generating uncertainty. "

Engel Group East Asia and Oceania President Gero Willmeroth

New mobility models bring new demand for lightweight structural parts

Wei said that since the middle of last year, although the growth rate of the auto industry has slowed, China has maintained growth." This growth will not only be in terms of volume, but will also be incentivized by investment in higher-level production equipment. Current trends in the automotive industry will increase the need for innovative processing technologies." Wei Meiluo said. "Electric vehicles and other alternative drive concepts, autonomous driving, and alternative usage patterns like car-sharing are leading to a growing demand for high-quality, powerful plastic components, as well as new and economical production processes," he stressed.

CHINAPLAS 2019 Live demonstration of LED lens injection molding

As in CHINAPLAS 2019, ENGEL Group will demonstrate how to use LSR as a lens material to achieve injection molding of LED headlamp lenses through a pull-free ENGEL e-victory 310/120 injection molding machine equipped with an ENGEL viper linear manipulator.

"LSR offers significant weight reduction compared to glass; Compared to PMMA, LSR can be injection-molded into any geometry, allowing for greater design freedom." "And the production unit we have configured is highly automated, so that when the LED lens leaves production, hopefully, it is already ready to be installed, and there is no need for secondary processing." Wei Meiluo says.

Among them, ENGEL drawless injection molding machine can realize the efficient injection molding of LSR. The ENGEL viper manipulator can be directly from the side of the cavity without damaging the edge around a week, reducing the handling time, thus reducing the mold opening time.

In addition, the rod-free technology enables a particularly compact production unit. Because there is no pull rod in the middle, the die template can be used completely up to its edge. This means that the high-capacity lens mold used by ENGEL at CHINAPLAS 2019 fits into a relatively small 120-ton injection molding machine.

Injection molding of LED lenses requires accurate reproduction of surface details, which relies on the excellent parallelism of the mold template. According to Wei Meiluo, the patented force divider ensures that during the formation of mold locking force, the moving mold template accurately follows the mold and distributes the applied force evenly on the surface. When using a multi-cavity die, the parting lines of all cavities are subjected to the same surface pressure. This ensures that the low-viscosity silicone does not show up as burrs when machined, and that the injection molded parts do not require rework.

" We are working this year with partners including Dow Silicones, ACH-Solution and AVR Tech Innovations to complete the demonstration of this LSR lens injection molding production unit." "Wei added. LSR lenses can be used not only in cars, but also in buildings and street lighting.

Industry 4.0 is another growth driver

In addition to automotive lightweight, Wei Mailuo sees Industry 4.0 as another growth driver. Today, ENGEL already offers a full range of mature products and services for smart factories. With the help of intelligent assistance systems, the manufacturing process is constantly self-optimizing, thus improving manufacturing efficiency, availability and productivity, as well as product quality.

For the LED lens injection molding production unit mentioned above, Engel's self-developed iQ weight control is used to analyze the pressure curve of polymer melt injection, compare the measured value with the reference period, and adjust the injection profile, the transition point and the maintenance pressure in each injection according to the current conditions. Fluctuations in raw material and environmental conditions are automatically compensated before a single waste product is produced.

" In the current new market situation, only by constantly introducing equipment with competitive advantages, and constantly innovating and optimizing equipment, can users be more successful. Engel is ready to meet this challenge." Wei Meiluo concluded.

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