PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2020

With short cycle times of less than 2 s, the new e-cap ensures high precision and repeatability. Caps are becoming lighter and lighter, causing increasingly tough challenges for the injection moulding machine technology. CAPS & CLOSURES 30 PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 04/20 www.petpla.net The next generation e-cap Fast, stable, efficient Engel presents the next generation of the all-electric e-cap injection moulding machine series for beverage caps. Short cycle times, high precision and low energy consumption are the features the Austrian engineers combined within the new machinery. At K 2010, Engel presented the first all-electric e-cap injection moulding machine. Until then, hydraulic machines using accumulators for the injection movement were the standard for the production of caps. The all-electric drive technology in this field of application was a revolution at the time. To date, the e-cap is the most energy-efficient cap machine on the market, Engel states, and at the same time the only high-performance machine tailored to the requirements of the caps and closures industry providing all-electric operation even with a clamping force range as high as 4,200kN. The average ROI is less than two years. High performance with frequent load changes “Since 2010, the requirements for beverage caps have changed substan- tially”, as Friedrich Mairhofer, Product Manager for all-electric injection mould- ing machines at Engel, explains. This is why the continuous further development of e-cap now is being integrated into a next generation machine. Continuous part weight reductions play a cen- tral role. “For still water, caps with a weight of significantly less than 1g are produced today,” says Mairhofer. “As a result, the cooling and cycle times have continued to drop. Where the cycle times ten years ago were still 2.5s, today’s cap machines need to be able to produce at two-second intervals and faster.” When developing the new generation of machines, the main focus was therefore both on performance and on stability. The new e-cap achieves even faster mould movements and is designed with an even more stable machine bed for more frequent load cycles. Ejector drives amplified with booster An e-cap 2440/380 is demonstrating the series’ new performance achieve- ments by producing 29/25 caps in a 96-cavity mould by Plastisud. The shot weight is 1.3g per cavity with a cycle time of less than 2s. An HDPE from Borealis/Borouge is processed. The system is equipped with camera-sup- ported 100% quality inspection by IMD- vista and a dry air system by Eisbär. Further system partners are Piovan, PackSys Global and PSG. The reinforced frame and the reinforced mould mounting platens on the new e-cap ensure stability of the machine movements even with short cycles and small shot volumes. The result is outstanding reproduction of surface detail and a maximum number of good parts, claims Engel. The fast dry cycle times of 1.3s with the e-cap 380, for example, and the parallel movements included in the standard right from the outset make an important contribution to achieving cycle times of less than 2s. Ejection