Injection Moulding Asia Industry News
Additive manufacturing on the rise
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ccording to a report from Wohlers Associates, additive manufacturing with the new trade term for rapid prototyping – will experience double-digit growth rates and hit US$3.1 billion worldwide by 2016. By 2020, the same additive manufacturing products and services should reach US$5.2 billion. Once considered discrete, the technology is moving mainstream because of the growth of low-cost 3D printers that are increasingly available to students, researchers, do-it-yourself enthusiasts, hobbyists, inventors and entrepreneurs.
solutions using efficient injection mould machines. In line with this, the firms will introduce an all-electric Engel ecap 3440/420 injection moulding machine with a 96-cavity mould made by Plastisud. Designed to handle high output rates, the machine can produce up to 130,000 sealing caps/hour, with a cycle time of 2.8 seconds. It consumes 0.75 kW/ hour/kg of granules, saving electricity as well as water. The solution comes with 32 to 96 cavity moulds as standard along with clamping force of 200-420 tonnes. Greencap is based in Shanghai on Engel’s premises while Plastisud opened its sales office in Shanghai 18 months ago.
partnership with MuCell will enable it to provide turnkey solutions to customers beyond PS to include PP/PE low density products. The company recently delivered its first polyolefin line to a customer in the US.
Simpoe signs deal with Solidworks
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rench firm Simpoe, a provider of injection moulding simulation software, has sealed a distribution agreement with Dassault Systemes Solidworks. The deal involves Simpoe to develop and maintain the new Solidworks Plastics simulation software product line and also to sell its existing Simpoeworks MFG and Simpoeworks Tool software through its authorised channel partners. The latter products are integrated in Solidworks, giving customers an opportunity to upgrade to more indepth analyses without having to leave their familiar Solidworks 3D environment.
Closure machine for Chinese market
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ould manufacturer Plastisud has partnered with Austrian injection moulding machine maker Engel to offer turnkey solutions for the production of sealing caps for water and soft drinks containers in China. Called Greencap, the project addresses the increasingly stringent requirements on packaging products. According to the companies, the global demand for caps and closures is growing by 5% annually with China being the largest market in terms of volume. By combining their expertise, the companies say they can produce quality plastic cap
Green caps rolling off an Engel machine
MuCellCommodore ink deal
Automotive News
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uCell Extrusion and Commodore Technology have made an agreement with the former to supply process equipment and support services for the latter’s turnkey tandem extrusion lines running either microcellular PS, PE and PP low density products. According to Commodore, its
Making carbon fibre use in vehicles a reality
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ith the aim of reducing the weight of new cars and trucks by up to 340 kg by the end of the decade and to improve fuel efficiency, US firms Ford Motor Company and
Dow Automotive Systems are partnering to research the use of advanced carbon fibre composites in highvolume vehicles. Reducing energy use in vehicles in two ways can improve the conversion efficiency of fuels to motion and reduce the amount of work that powertrains need to do; Ford tackles the conversion problem primarily through downsizing engines with EcoBoost and electrification while mass reduction and improved aerodynamics reduce the workload. Carbon fibre composites have been used in aerospace and racing cars for decades due to their high strength and low mass and until recently these materials have been far too costly for use in high-volume mainstream applications. Dow and Ford have signed a joint development agreement that will see researchers from the two companies collaborate on establishing an economical source of automotive-grade carbon fibre and develop component manufacturing methods for high-volume automotive applications. The joint development effort will also leverage work that Dow has already begun through partnerships with Turkish carbon fibre manufacturer AKSA and the US Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Ford says carbon fibre components may begin appearing in its cars in the latter part of this decade, meeting new fuel efficiency standards of more than 50 mpg and extending the range of plug-in vehicles.
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Automotive News
Sustainable material in Volvo trucks
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abic Innovative Plastics’s footprint by as much as 49% latest project with Volvo compared to virgin PBT resins, Trucks involves the use of an says the firm. Yet, unlike other up-cycled material from postrecycled materials, which consumer recycled content. lose performance through Valox iQ PBT resin incorporates successive melt histories, Valox up-cycled water bottles and iQ resins are up-cycled to is used for the brackets of the deliver comparable or better side air deflection system of all performance than conventionally seven models in the 2012 Volvo manufactured materials. As a VN platform of heavy trucks. result, Valox iQ resin delivers The material is said to help excellent resistance to impact, deliver top performance under chemicals and stress fatigue. harsh driving conditions as well as attain greater sustainability. Sabic also assisted with application development and technical support to help the truck manufacturer turn the design into a tangible part. The Valox iQ resin may contain up to 60% PCR content and can help The new Volvo trucks for the US market feature recycled resin content reduce the resin’s carbon
TPOs pander to new Fiat car
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talian automotive maker Fiat is relying on PP materials from Borealis and Borouge for interior and exterior components on its new Fiat Panda. Borealis says it has worked previously on models such as the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Fiat 500. For the new Fiat Panda, Tier One supplier Magneti Marelli used Daplen thermoplastic olefin (TPO) compounds from Borealis for the bumper to provide a balance between impact strength
and stiffness. The grade gives improved surface quality and is easy to process. Its high flowability allows the moulding of complex-structured parts with very high flow path/wall thickness ratios. TPO grades are also used in the dashboard and centre console. Daplen EE168AI-9533 offers impact behaviour combined with low gloss and scratch behaviour. This grade was also chosen for the new Lancia Y model launched in 2011. For the dashboard fascia, Borealis and Borouge developed a specific solution for Fi a t to overcome the potential for warpage and distortion often associated with the adoption of overmoulding technology for this part. TPO grades are used in the interior/ exterior of the Panda model
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