Germany — The production of a glass container starts with the design of the mould. The more precisely the mould is designed and manufactured, the better its quality in terms of glass distribution, visual appearance, strength and weight. The weight in turn plays an important role in energy consumption and resource efficiency.

Standardised high-quality mould units provide a reliable basis for modern mould- and toolmaking. This was reason enough for Schoform, a German mould and toolmaking company based in eastern Saxony, to opt for standard mould units from Hasco for the last 20 years. The latest example is a 32-cavity hot runner mould, for which Hasco supplied the complete, ready-to-assemble “hot half” as well as most of the associated standardised components.

Germany — For some time, the management team at SD Formentechnik, based in Lüdenscheid, has been thinking in terms of networked process chains. When it came to electrical discharge machining, this mould maker called on Zimmer & Kreim: The Chameleon and the Alphamoduli workshop software integrate the erosion systems, as well as a machining centre for electrode milling and the measuring machine.

Germany — The Hannover Messe Digital Edition 2021 will see Arburg present a new turnkey system that is set to raise the bar in aspects of digitalisation, automation and the circular economy in plastics processing. The digital networked injection moulding machine produces drinking cups with a crumpled look. These can be visually enhanced inline and marked with recycling information that is specific to them. Not only that, but they are also 100 % traceable.

UK — Crossen Engineering, a specialist in both toolmaking and parts production for injection moulding and pressing/stamping operations, has invested in a new Sodick AD35L spark-erosion machine from Sodi-Tech EDM. The machine, which arrived in December 2020, is now busy producing mould and press tools for a range of important medical projects.

Germany — Creating tomorrow’s polymer innovations starts with understanding the chemical and mechanical performance and processing conditions of materials. At the Injection Moulding & Extrusion Pilot Plant of BASF in Ludwigshafen, Germany, the newest all-electric fully-automated injection moulding cell from Sumitomo (SHI) Demag is delivering pioneering and repeatable results on over 4000 test settings a year.

Mapal has launched a new series of drills for machining in the micro range. The drills of the new series Micro-Drill-Steel are available in a diameter range of 1-2.9 mm.

Ireland — 2k moulding is one of the most innovative processes in use in plastics manufacturing today. Although the concept has been around for many decades, as with all tech processes, there have been a lot of technological advances in the use of 2k moulding in recent times. With a wide set of applications, it has many practical uses.

The Japanese-German injection moulding machine manufacturer Sumitomo (SHI) Demag will be serving the Czech and Slovakian markets from April 1, 2021 through the newly founded sales and service company Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery Česko spol. s r.o. Headquartered in Prague. Expansion in Eastern Europe as next logical step.

Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF), a pioneer in microscale 3D printing systems, announced a software partnership with Materialise, a global provider of 3D printing solutions.