Sandretto drops interest in all-electric moulding machines

Sandretto has dropped plans to develop all-electric injection moulding machines that it showed in prototype at the K 2004 show. The company’s export sales manager Fausto Rinaudo confirmed the decision to at the Plast 06 show in Milan, Italy, yesterday.

Although several other Italian and non-Italian machinery makers are showing all-electric drive machines in Milan, Rinaudo said that the aspect of energy consumption, that was an issue seven years ago is no longer an important factor, with the consumption of hydraulic machines having meanwhile dropped from 1.5Kwh for 1kg of material to around 0.45 Kwh. Rinaudo said it can be laborious and costly to bring in external assistance to deal with the complex all-electric machines, and suggested processors should question all-electric machine suppliers on spare part prices.

A small hydraulic accumulator is often required anyway with electric machines, Rinaudo pointed out and added that all-electric machines need a first class mould, as there is no compensation for any lack of sufficient parallelism. Rinaudo admitted there was a place for all-electric drive in food industry, cleanroom and optical media moulding applications, but not for more general moulding.