Application of innovative technology in injection moulding

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Avoiding shrinkage in 2K injection moulding

EKT has been able to solve a particularly difficult task with its partners. This task was preceded by a thought of rationalisation at Miele. The essence of the thought was to make a single functional component out of several individual components from the air duct in the rear wall of a tumble dryer, consisting of a hard component and soft component on both sides in the form of sealing rings, which were to replace earlier retrofitted sealing designs.

In so doing, EKT was able to make the customer's previously developed design in co-operation with the long-term business partner, Richter Werkzeugbau GmbH, and the machine manufacturer's components, a reality. The SOP took place in June 2017 after around two years of development time.

The front and rear side of the air duct component with hard and soft Miele washer-drier component.
(Source: Synventive)

The cycle times should be kept extremely short during the 2-K injection-moulding process. For economic reasons, on the one hand, and to guarantee the high-quality requirements for the component in terms of accuracy of dimensions and process-stable reproducibility, on the other. The initial solution design envisaged producing the functional component on two separate injection-moulding machines. The produced H-component would be removed from the tool as part of the injection-moulding process and inserted into the second tool of a second injection-moulding machine, in which the component could then be extrusion-coated from both sides with the soft component.

So as to avoid shrinkage in the cooling phase during the conversion process, EKT has developed a technical solution for the entire injection moulding process on a single 2K injection moulding machine. When constructing the tool, a solution was subsequently sought, which would allow the soft component to be simultaneously injection-moulded on both sides of the pre-prepared hard component. EKT has solved this task together with its partners in terms of manufacturing technology by furnishing the H-component with bypass channels during its construction, which allowed both the front and rear side of the hard component to be injection-moulded with the soft component. The cycle times remain extremely short as the feature component is completed directly on the machine itself before going straight to shipping for the customer.

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Volker Scheﬀels explains the process stages as follows: “We want to keep the flow of materials, storage and administration as low as possible to guarantee the best economic viability. We produce modules in the machine's cycle and finalise them on the machine itself, place them in the shipping crate and load them onto the truck. These are the shortest possible processing routes. That does mean, however, if we have any disruptions as part of the production process, we will immediately have bottle-necks, since we no longer deliver from stock.

We only have a partial reserve stock for a maximum of two days. In order to be able to safely run this idea, you need suppliers who are absolutely reliable strategic partners, who know exactly in which structures and in which process sequences thinking and manufacturing takes place. Hot-runner technology is of crucial and decisive importance in our process sequences. This is because for modules with over one million units per year and corresponding guarantees for injection-moulding tools made to our customers, quality and a long life-cycle for the components must be of prime importance.

If we think about new production designs, then our strategic partner, Synventive Moulding Solutions, is an innovative producer and developer of hot runners, always involved at an early stage in order to develop process-oriented, reliable and functionally efficient hot runner systems. Synventive knows our structures and the importance of safe production sequences in our manufacturing process. We use Synventive Plug'n'Play hot runner systems, which we have delivered pre-assembled, interlaced and wired. Not only do we appreciate Synventive's functional and process-oriented hot runner technology, but we also appreciate the fast response times and the company's service, should there be a technical query or an unscheduled maintenance task.”

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