Electric machines are better for accuracy and repeatability, the company says

Electric machines are better for accuracy and repeatability, the company says

UK technology company Im-Pak Technologies has commenced development of an all-electric version of its patented high speed injection-compression moulding system for thin wall items.

The Im-Pak moulding process requires a moulding machine that delivers repeatability and precision rather than extremely high injection speeds. Im-Pak Technologies director Peter Clarke says a number of electric machine suppliers have shown interest in the moulding technology.

“I can see Im-Pak and electric injection moulding machines working very well together, better than hydraulic for accuracy and repeatability of clamping,” he says. The fully electric development project involves replacing the hydraulic-driven integrated shooting pot that regulates delivery of the melt to the cavity in the Im-Pak process with an electrically-actuated system.

Some of the development of the Im-Pak process has been carried out on Netstal moulding machines at the Swiss machine builder’s UK subsidiary. Although toggle clamp designs are not theoretically best suited to the Im-Pak process, Clarke says that the Netstal machines have outperformed all alternatives so far.

In the most recent trials at Netstal’s facility, Im-Pak’s 5lb US margarine tub development tool produced production quality parts in an MFI 44 PP (Basell EP548S) on a cycle time of 3.2s. This 49.7g container moulding has a 0.6mm wall providing an equivalent flow ratio of 400:1.