Home game for ENGEL: Fakuma 2012

Home game for ENGEL: Fakuma 2012

E-novation: Efficiency & Innovation – Under this motto, ENGEL AUSTRIA presents at Fakuma 2012 from October 16 to 20 in Friedrichshafen how innovative technologies and machine concepts can be used to optimize efficiency potentials and maximize competitive advantages through ten highly integrated and automated production cells. For the Austrian machinery manufacturer, Fakuma 2012 is for the first time a home game. A new location for southwestern Germany is being established near Stuttgart by the end of the year.

Higher throughput with lower unit costs

Applications in medical technology place especially high demands on system solution competence. Thanks to its own cleanroom and a range of resulting cleanroom machine concepts, ENGEL medical has many years of experience and high cleanroom expertise. System solutions for this industry are optionally delivered with complete GMP documentation.
At Fakuma, an ENGEL e-motion 80H/80W/180 T WP combi in cleanroom version will produce parts for auto-injectors using a servo-electric 16+16-cavity indexing tool from Hack Formenbau (Kirchheim unter Teck/Germany) in two-component injection molding. An ENGEL easix multi-axis industrial robot, fully integrated into the CC 200 control of the injection molding machine, will remove the parts and place them on a GMP-compliant conveyor belt. The application project partner is the Swedish medical device manufacturer SHL (Scandinavian Health).

While multi-component applications and highly integrated processes in medical technology have been rather the exception so far, the industry is now catching up rapidly, as cost pressure is also increasing in medical technology. For this reason, another trend is moving toward larger, electric injection molding machines for the use of tools with higher cavity counts.

From affordable standard to custom solutions

All manufacturing cells at the ENGEL trade fair stand are equipped with conveyor belts from our own development and production. For the first time, the new generation of XFB conveyor belts will be on display. Thanks to a high degree of modularity and standardization, ENGEL has succeeded in further improving the price/performance ratio of its standard conveyor belts. As part of a system solution, the conveyor belts are fully integrated into the safety enclosure of the injection molding machine, taking up hardly any additional space.
New in ENGEL's range are also GMP-compliant conveyor belts, which significantly increase process security in medical technology. Until now, many conveyor systems used in cleanrooms were based on standard solutions. Equipped with stainless steel frames and white belts, they meet the visual requirements of medical technology producers, but are often identified as sources of contamination. Especially angle conveyor belts, whose belts are rerouted multiple times, prove problematic. To minimize abrasion and particle load, ENGEL solutions combine several individual straight conveyor belts instead of belt rerouting. The drive rollers are designed so that the conveyor belt automatically centers itself without additional components. In the premium version, only sealed drum motors in stainless steel are used.

ENGEL developed the GMP-compliant conveyor belts, available in premium and economy versions, together with customers from medical technology, and tested and qualified the new concept in its own cleanroom. It has been proven that even in continuous operation, only minimal abrasion occurs and particle load remains well below the acceptance threshold.

ENGEL offers a wide range of accessories for conveyor belts, such as hoppers, part monitoring, and speed control. Additionally, customized conveyor belt solutions are implemented tailored to specific applications.