In recent years, with the increasing consumption of medical and electronic products, the demand for small injection moulding products with an injection volume of less than 100g has increased year by year. Therefore, small molding machine that produces these special products has also attracted widespread attention.
Advantages of Small Injection Molding Machines
Today, whether it is consumer electronics or household appliances, the product replacement is faster and faster, and the life cycle of plastic products has become shorter and shorter. In recent years, small injection molding machines have gradually attracted people's attention because they can adapt to the characteristics of many types of miniature products, short delivery time, multiple varieties, and small batches. It can improve the effective utilization rate of materials, shorten the molding cycle, reduce the cost of mould making, improve production efficiency and save space and energy.
Often, the advantages of small injection moulding machines are not always immediately apparent. Lego's experience shows that machines using larger multi-cavity molds can indeed achieve higher output per unit time, but the costs of molds, machines, ancillary equipment, floor space, depreciation, energy consumption and maintenance have also increased accordingly As a result, the total cost of production does not decrease because the output per unit time increases.
However, there are some limiting factors that are not so prominent on small machines. For example, when the equipment is being repaired and maintained, it is usually not necessary for Lego to completely stop the production of a part. This is because the moulds of the same product are installed on different machines for production. Even if one of them is repaired, the production can continue.
In addition, product colouring is a critical process, and toy manufacturers pay particular attention to this, because the same product often requires different colours. Using different sets of molds installed on each small injection moulding machine can produce products of different colours in parallel. This arrangement has higher production efficiency than the case of using one set of molds on a large machine.
Guarantee High Intact Rate
The German Bosch company is a plastics processing enterprise, one of which is the provision of latches and latch couplings to the automotive industry. Its production is also highly automated and distributed on a large number of small machines. Repair, maintenance and service are also key points of concern for Bosch.
First of all, this is because the machine must continue to be intact and have the longest life, and the mould parts must have a consistent and high-quality level.
Secondly, it is necessary to prevent production interruption due to the mold. For example, the mould slide bar, core pulling device or other cavity parts damage and cracks will cause the mold to stop.
In these cases, disassembling the mold becomes necessary. When using a single mould with multiple cavities, the production of such parts must be stopped. However, because the deadline for delivery must be observed, it is extremely important to plan an appropriate affluent time to deal with mold shutdown when planning production.
Bosch has been using several molds with fewer cavities for production over the years and has proven to be very successful. For example, Bosch used two-cavity molds for co-injection moulding, and achieved good results.
Small Plastic Injection Moulding Machine
Almost all manufacturers of injection moulding machines produce machines with lower clamping forces. For example, ss machine and Dr. Boy’s small injection molding machines have even become their main products. In addition, companies such as Demag-Ergotech, Engel, Battenfeld and Krauss-Maffei also have their own series of small injection molding machines.
Like those large injection moulding machines, the small injection molding machines produced by these companies also have many forms, for example, they also have two-plate type, toggle type and full hydraulic mould clamping equipment. Like large machines, hydraulic drives dominate various drive systems in small injection molding machines.
In the German market, all-electric machines with a clamping force of 500kN are currently only provided by Fanuc, Ferromatik-Milacron and Battenfeld. Fanuc is the only supplier of injection molding machines with a clamping force of less than 500kN.
The well-known small injection molding machine manufacturer in the Chinese market has ss machine. It mainly produces injection moulding machines with clamping force of 320KN-920KN.
The Danish company Lego has many years of experience in plastic processing and the application of small injection molding machines. They use hundreds of small injection moulding machines for production. More than two-thirds of these machines have a clamping force between 250 kN and 600 kN. Theoretically, small products can be produced on a multi-cavity mold with a large mold clamping force.
For example, one can manufacture some small parts on a larger machine with a 32-cavity mould, but Lego It will be produced on 4 small injection moulding machines equipped with an 8-cavity mold.
Conclusion
In short, the examples obtained from various processing manufacturers prove that small injection moulding machines provide cost savings, increase production flexibility, increase effective utilization of materials, shorten moulding cycles, and reduce mold production costs. Plastic processors have brought many unexpected benefits. Therefore, we have reason to believe that small injection molding machines will have a broader future.
