The new rotary platen machine will be revealed at K next month

At next month’s K show machinery manufacturer Battenfeld will reveal a new rotary platen machine for injection-compression moulding of large polycarbonate automotive glazing panels.

Speaking at PRW and EPN’s Plastics & Automotive Glazing conference in Frankfurt last Friday, the company’s technical and process technology manager Dr Joachim Berthold said the first 1,300-tonne rotary platen machine has been installed at the technical department at Battenfeld’s headquarters in Meinerzhagen, Germany.

Berthold said the rotary platen machine now represents the company’s preferred technology for automotive glazing. It has retractable tie bars for easy side entry and fast mould changing, similar to the 2,000-tonne HM series machine that demonstrated injection-compression moulding of a polycarbonate roof at the NPE fair last year (PRW.com3 April 2003).

Battenfeld’s K2004 demonstration involves moulding a 1 sq metre polycarbonate roof on the HM machine. Berthold told PRW.com a tool has already been built for an even larger 1.4 sq metre polycarbonate glazing application that is scheduled to begin production in 2005.