Micro injection moulding
Founded around the same time, Dr. Boy GmbH & Co. KG (founded in 1968), manufacturer of injection moulding machines up to 1250 kN clamping force, and Regloplas AG (founded in 1961), manufacturer of temperature control technology, have had a business relationship almost from the very beginning. Dr. Boy GmbH & Co. KG has recently opted for the smallest P100XS pressurised water temperature control unit from Regloplas AG. The new temperature control units in their compact shape for the XS series mainly serve the demanding market for small technical parts and micro-components.
Boy uses the smallest REGLOPLAS pressurised water temperature control unit, the P100XS, for its smallest injection moulding machines, the BOY XXS and the BOY XS. The P100XS is used by Boy to control the temperature of small and micro injection moulded parts in the fields of medical technology, plant and apparatus construction, electrical components, white goods, elastomer processing and the toy industry.
For medical technology, for example, dental implants are made of ceramic or absorbable plastics (PLLA) that break down in the body after a defined period of time, making a further surgical procedure for removal unnecessary.
High-strength screws made of biocompatible PEEK are used to permanently fix bones and tendons, and elastic bridges help to stabilise the vertebrae.
In small injection moulding machines, tools with weights of 5-28 kg are usually used, which means that only a low but often very precise temperature control performance is required.
The directly cooled P100XS with its 3 kW heating output, 34 kW cooling capacity and a flow of 11 L/min, as well as a maximum delivery pressure of 3.7 bar, is truly a small power pack.
The P100XS with its OPC UA interface is ideally equipped for the current topic of "Industry 4.0". This enables production data to be exchanged at all IT levels within manufacturing IT. Regloplas temperature control units are integrated into the factory of the future at the highest technical level with future-oriented technology. With the new OPC UA (Unified Architecture) interface, REGLOPLAS offers its customers a reliable solution for the simultaneous, parallel exchange of data at all levels of industrial production.
Boy relies on a variety of possible interfaces for this topic and can thus guarantee data transfer to various visualisation systems and central control systems in the factories, directly from the injection moulding machines.
With ProSeS software, Boy has the option of capturing operating and machine data and forwarding these to the relevant data storage within the manufacturing process, for example to a production planning system (PPS), production data acquisition system (PDA) or manufacturing execution system (MES).
This software provides the customer with
- Visualisation of the complete factory (machine park, all Boy injection moulding machines)
- Production planning and control
- Quality monitoring
- Operational cost accounting.
Depending on the user's wishes, the individual data acquisition segments can be set up individually and expanded at any time. The PDA system software from ProSeS BDE GmbH accesses the internal BOY machine control system Procan ALPHA. Machine settings, recorded operating parameters, as well as process data logged by the machine control system, such as injection volume, temperatures, pressures, etc., can thus be recorded and further used for documentation. These data can be queried by any terminal via the IP address of the injection moulding machine and used for the desired PDA tasks. Up to 200 days of data can be saved on the injection moulding machine.
The P100XS adapts perfectly to the design of Dr. Boy injection moulding machines, be it in the substructure or directly in the machine frame. The small dimensions of the Regloplas temperature control unit allow it to be easily positioned and installed on the injection moulding machines. In addition to the small dimensions, Boy relies on the high quality of the Regloplas temperature control technology, which guarantees an error-free production process. The possibility of using various interfaces in the P100XS facilitates the ideal connection to the Boy injection moulding machines.
Temperature windows with small tolerances are increasingly required in the injection moulding process. In order to achieve this constant temperature, high demands are placed on the temperature control of the temperature control units. With a temperature accuracy of +/- 0.3 K, the REGLOPLAS temperature control units can be used to manufacture highly sensitive injection moulded parts in a very narrow temperature window. As the example of the Dr. Boy bookmark shows (Fig. 5), high-quality, sub-micron structured surfaces can be produced, which then produce the light refractions shown on the plastic part.
In summary, the advantages of pressurised water temperature control with the P100XS are:
- A powerful, compact temperature control unit with high control accuracy.
- The smallest REGLOPLAS temperature control unit
- Ideal dimensions for use with Dr. Boy injection moulding machines for small and micro injection moulded parts.
- With the OPC UA interface, the P100XS is prepared for the future and the topic of Industry 4.0.
- The new Regloplas RT200 generation of controllers will also be available for the P100XS, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interfaces.
- Large number of different interface variants for the P100XS.
[1] Photo Dr. Boy
[2] Photo Regloplas AG
[3] Photo Dr. Boy
[4] Photo Dr. Boy
[5] Photo Dr. Boy
Regloplas AG
Regloplas AG is a family-owned company that has specialised in the development and production of intelligent temperature control systems with Swiss quality for more than 55 years. These ensure maximum process stability through exact control accuracy in the temperature ranges. Regloplas AG offers its customers worldwide complete temperature control solutions for highly sophisticated manufacturing processes and is thus a market leader.
https://www.regloplas.com
Dr. Boy GmbH & Co. KG
Boy has been producing injection moulding machines in a unique compact design since 1968. To date, more than 50,000 injection moulding machines have been installed worldwide. Boy is a trendsetter in the plastics industry thanks to its innovative concepts, the processing of unusual materials and various special processes.
https://www.dr-boy.de/en/startpage/