SUMITOMO (SHI) DEMAG MARKS ALL-ELECTRIC ERA AT PLASTICS LIVE IRELAND

By: Kris Thacker – Technical Sales Manager, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag

At Plastics Live Ireland, stand D7, the evolution of electric innovation reaches another big milestone. Presenting the company’s Today. Tomorrow. Electric. message, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag concurrently celebrates 15 years of its all-electric IntElect machine featuring the company’s proprietary Sumitomo drive technology.

Launched first at K 2010, the IntElect series has been through multiple iterations to deliver power savings and increased processing precision without compromising speed for every market segment. Technical Sales Manager Kris Thacker reflects on what has made the series one of the most popular and energy efficient all-electric injection moulding machines installed by Irish processors today.

Originally developed for the medical and electrical precision markets, the IntElect’s exceptional torque, smooth dynamics and cutting-edge direct drive motors engineered by the Group in Japan helped to set a new standard for energy efficient injection moulding.

The first generation all-electric IntElect led the way earning industry acclaim for its repeatability, speed, precision and efficiency.  Given its strong medical, bio-science and consumer industries, combined with its decarbonisation efforts, Ireland was one of the earliest and fastest adopters of all-electric technologies in plastics processing notes Kris.

Initially, the IntElect standard models were intended to handle tasks typically managed by hydraulic machines, while a high-performance variant was created to meet the demands of the more challenging and fast cycle moulding applications. Today’s latest models are more technically mature and very often pay for themselves in less than two years through energy savings and repeatability, claims Kris.

Mid way through the decade, the company unveiled its smart NC5 colour touchscreen. A range of technology hardware and software modules badged under the Active series were launched around 2015 to maximise efficiency and output. Among them was activeLock, an actively closing non-return valve that increased machine precision. Yet, one of the most innovative and popular technologies that continues to be utilised globally by processors today was activeFlowBalance. This was specifically designed to balance pressure levels when polymer is injected into multi-cavity moulds, helping to reduce the underfilling of moulds and consequently rejects.

Kris reflects: “Maintaining continuous quality throughout the entire life cycle of the machine has been a critical advantage of the all-electric IntElect series.”

Always leading on innovation

Launch of the next generation of motors followed. This new IntElect drive unveiled in 2017 contributed to the improvement of the platen design which helped to increase process stability but more importantly reduced the overall footprint of machines. Developed in cooperation with the parent company Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI), performance tests showed that energy consumption at 1.5 kW/h was the less than boiling a household kettle. 

Design innovations reduced space requirements and improved machine accessibility, ergonomics and precision. The installation footprint was approximately 10% smaller than comparable all electric moulding machines on the market at that time, notes Kris.  “The ability to use larger moulds on smaller tonnage machines was a significant leap forward for processors and contributed hugely to reducing energy bills and supporting greater production flexibility.

“Each iteration of the all-electric IntElect has focused on continuous improvements, refining the control systems in order to open up the opportunities for all-electric machines into more applications and improving machine performance to succeed in the fast cycling markets,” emphasises Kris. These developments led to the launch of the mid-size IntElect S. A med-spec version of this machine was the first to be installed in the company’s dedicated facility in Limerick. This series targeted the high volume packaging, medical and automotive markets requiring the highest processing precision in the fastest cycle time.

“Counteracting the impact on rising manufacturing costs, especially high energy costs, became increasingly imperative for competitiveness, especially in the past five years,” emphasises the Ireland Sales Manager. As well as energy efficiency, Kris also highlights that the R&D team simultaneously focused on fine tuning the braking recovery system to extend the lifespan of electrical components and capacitators. 

The IntElect S series addressed all these elements with optimised tool movement, injection and ejector movements and metering speed. The S model even went on to outperform previous generations of IntElect machines.

To mark the next era, at K 2019 Sumitomo (SHI) Demag unveiled an LSR and multicomponent version, plus a medical machine that enabled processors to combine the use of large moulds with a small injection unit. “The ability to install small screws matched with a large mould space introduced another gamechanger for medical processors. This improved the dosing and injection performance, which is so critical when moulding small components like pipette tips,” clarifies Kris.

Adhering to the explicit ISO 13485 medical device quality management and validation standards, the IntElect S 180-ton also introduced new user parameters. This was to ensure adjustments could not be made to processes without authorisation.

With the unveiling of its new Today. Tomorrow. Electric slogan, K 2025 unsurprisingly presented the next shift in all-electric adoption. Among the eight exhibits, three LSR IntElect machines demonstrated the complete synergy that is supporting processing scalability and leading to better energy, waste and sustainability outcomes for customers.  Additionally, the main booth presented an all-electric 2K multi-component IntElect 350t machine with a second R-position injection unit to accommodate a top entry robot.  

However, the biggest shift for the injection moulding machine expert is witnessing the development of PAC-E. “As we celebrate this 15 year anniversary, we should also recognise that all-electric is no longer just confined to specific applications or machine sizes. By fusing the company’s all-electric IntElect processing insight with our expertise in high speed packaging and medical processing, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag continues to present itself as a master of all-electric innovations,” concludes Kris.