(Fakuma Direct) ENGEL's close-to-standard solutions speak volumes, sales revenues to decline

The company’s FY23/24 estimated sales revenues will decline approx. 6% to 1.6 billion euros from the previous year’s level of 1.7 billion euros, ENGEL reported at the press conference at Fakuma 2023.

“The downward trend is particularly pronounced in Europe: high energy and personnel costs are causing investments to be shifted to other markets, such as USA and other countries outside Europe. And Asian manufacturers are increasingly growing their share of the Western markets. This is particularly noticeable in the automotive sector,” said Stefan Engleder, CEO of ENGEL.

(Left) Stefan Engleder, CEO of ENGEL. 

As told, the Asian market is recovering more slowly than anticipated. The level of foreign investment in China is declining, with moderate growth forecast for next year. However, investments by many Chinese companies provide cause for optimism in Southeast Asia.  

Regarding the application sectors, the market potential of the automotive industry is expected to drop by approx. 30%, but slight pickup has been observed after weak Q1 and Q2 in Asia. Overall, it is hard to predict the future demands. For the packaging industry, the wars at the moment results in low demands, and there would be no major changes in the next few months.        

At the fairgrounds, among other exhibits, ENGEL presents an automotive application and a medical application at its stand, demonstrating what close-to-standard solutions with ENGEL technology can look like.

ENGEL's stand at Fakuma 2023.

Entry level dual-platen machine for processing recycled plastics 

In the dual-platen machine area, ENGEL exhibits a standard application that supports a variety of use cases, manufacturing automotive trims for the vehicle interior made of Borealis’ PP compound, which has 30% recycled content, in a 4-cavity mold by Simoldes on a duo 1480/500 standard machine. 

The duo 500 is an entry-level machine for the 2-platen segment.

The cover, which is used in the interior of automobiles, consists of 30% recycled material.

The servo-hydraulic drive featuring ENGEL ecodrive is available as standard for the duo series. In combination with the digital assistance systems from the iQ family, such as iQ clamp control and iQ flow control, energy savings potentials of up to 40% can be achieved compared with conventional dual-platen machines. This close-to-standard design also offers the advantage of shorter lead times.

Featuring all the iQ solutions available, ENGEL is showing the full potential of the standard-based duo 500 machine. While iQ weight control and other systems ensure process quality, iQ process observer ensures that the machine operator is alerted to any changes during the injection molding process in real time.

High-precision and space-saving application in cleanroom

For the medical sector, ENGEL showcases a high-precision and space-saving all-electric application: needle protection caps are being produced on an e-mac 265/130 – equipped with the ENGEL cleanroom package – in a premiere at Fakuma. The cycle time is 6.2 seconds.

This means that the compact e-mac series is now also available for space-saving production of medical parts in cleanroom applications.

ENGEL produces needle protection caps for the medical sector on an e-mac 265/130.

The 96-cavity mold comes from KEBO and was developed specifically for secondary packaging. Secondary packaging does not directly touch the active ingredient and is mainly used to protect and identify the medical device.

The injection-molded needle protection caps drop out of the mold into a delivery chute and are transported from there by a Z conveyor belt to a box waiting on another conveyor belt. Once the full capacity (30,000 units) is reached, the box is cycled forward on the conveyor belt. There is space for four boxes of this type on the belt.

The box transfer system is designed to support optimum use of the production cell in partially to fully automated production. It can be connected to an automated guided vehicle (AGV) system.

The box transfer system is on show for the first time.

Combinations for optimum temperature control

Both the duo 500 and the e-mac 130 show how smart temperature control works. The two production cells combine e-flomo plus with eco-flomo plus to manage the various aspects of temperature control.

While e-flomo plus takes care of mold temperature control, eco-flomo plus is used for hot runner cooling, and more specifically for flow rate monitoring. All manifolds are clearly displayed by the iQ flow control smart assistant.

eco-flomo and eco-flomo plus for temperature control.