Published 6/26/2017

Amerimold 2017: Plastics Exhibitors Promoted Products, Too

Amerimold had it all this year—or should I say it had MORE than ever before. While metalworking tools, materials and systems reigned supreme, the plastics side of the equation was also well represented.

Cynthia Kustush

Contributing Writer

Moldflow’s plastic injection molding simulation tools were demonstrated during Amerimold by the Autodesk team. Every designer, CAE analyst and engineer wants to know that his or her mold design is optimally produced, and Autodesk technicians emphasized the software's ability to help validate that every specification is being met.

At Amerimold, Beaumont Technologies had a lot to talk about with attendees, including its new Molding Certificate Program, a hands-on, intensive course designed for molders by molders, at its AIM Institute. Additionally, Beaumont acquired the Autodesk MoldFlow material characterization business that services North America and Europe.

A closeup of Hasco's new H6000 hot runner nozzle series shows that interchangeability is a key benefit. All relevant components, including the nozzle body and tip, thermocouple, melt chamber and more, are designed for ease of maintenance. In fact, the company says the heater and thermocouple can be replaced without removing the nozzle tip, saving valuable processing time.

HRSflow featured its FLEXflow Patented Technology during Amerimold. The company says that FLEXflow is the first servo driven valve gate system in the market that assures accurate, easy to operate and flexible control of pressures and flow rates during the entire injection process. The Society of Plastics Engineers recently selected the system as one of the most notable patents, too.

Synventive introduced its SVG+ hot runner systems for sequential molding of large parts and recent enhancements made that support time savings by providing monitoring and diagnostic tools from outside the molding machine, resulting in less downtime, less scrap and increased reliability. The activeGate control is said to lower operating costs and improve quality.

Innovate Manufacturing put a spotlight on its extensive molding capabilities and displayed an array of products made at its Knoxville, Tennessee, facility with the cooperation of its two sister companies based in China. A highlight was its “Private Label” hydration bottle campaign. The company specializes in injection molding, blow molding and injection stretch blow molding

Mold maintenance has a major impact on mold performance and certainly on the quality of plastic parts produced. At Amerimold, several companies exhibited along the Mold Maintenance Highway that offer products and services to ensure molds run at optimum levels.

MoldTrax, formerly ToolingDocs, offers several mold maintenance training courses for all levels of capability at its Ashland, Ohio, facility. Classroom and hands-on curricula set students on the right path for maintaining molds efficiently and cost-effectively.

Wittmann Battenfeld always draws a crowd, and at Amerimold it's obvious it was a popular place to stop and see the latest in molding technology. The company featured two turnkey injection molding work cells. One will be molding a toy yo-yo on a mold provided by Hasco and will feature the company’s SmartPower 110 molding machine with a Unilog B8 control and W823 robot with servo B-axis rotation. The latter demonstrated Wittmann 4.0 technology, integrating the robot and auxiliaries including Flowcon Plus water control, an Aton Plus dryer, S3 net loaders, a G14 blender, a Tempro Plus temperature control unit and a GMax granulator.

Zeiss is a brand seen in many a mold manufacturing plant that relies on data derived from inspection and measurement to validate machining processes and prove out first article inspections. At Amerimold, a variety of equipment for these purposes was on display.