Wittmann Battenfeld’s new all electric IMM is an “excellent contribution” to packaging portfolio

The General Manager of Wittmann Battenfeld says he is confident that the company’s latest machine addition is an “excellent contribution” to its packaging portfolio.

Speaking at K 2016, Georg Tinschert said the new EcoPower Xpress Series, the company’s first all-electric, high speed machine, is primarily geared to the requirements of the packaging and thin-wall industry and is something that customers will find “very interesting”.

 “We are very pleased with the way the new machine is working and running and we are very positive that it will be a good contribution to our packaging offering,” said Tinschert.

He explained that the dynamic drive axes for injection, as well as closing and opening of the EcoPower Xpress are designed for fast movements and ultimate control accuracy, with the use of servo drives achieving high levels of energy savings.

“EcoPower Xpress stands for high output with optimised utilisation of energy, thus making a vital contribution to sustainability in plastics processing,” Tinschert told press.

Expecting good sales

The EcoPower Xpress 400/1100+ exhibited at K 2016 is the first size of this machine series, which will be available from autumn 2017 onwards with clamping forces ranging from 2100 to 5000 kN.

At the K show, the EcoPower Xpress will be on display with a Wittmann W837 IML system. Lids made of PP will be injection-moulded within a cycle time of 4.7 seconds with an eight-cavity mould supplied by Greiner Packaging, Austria.

The W837 side-entry robot from Wittmann inserts the IML foils, removes the labeled lids, subsequently presents them to an integrated camera for quality inspection and then separates the good parts from rejects. The IML system comes with compact design and a facility for fast foil change.

“We are expecting good sales for the future and because of the integrated IML functionality we can offer a single source supplier, which I think is interesting for the packaging market,” Tinschert added.

Trade fair debut of latest B8 control system

Despite a whole range of new products revealed at Wittmann Group’s 40th anniversary event in Vienna in June 2016, the company is not only premiering the new EcoPower Xpress Series at K 2016.

In addition, it is also making its latest control system one of the highlights of its exhibit at the show. The new Unilog B8 system will be shown on every single machine exhibited at the trade fair in order to demonstrate its new features, which include greater operator control, ease-of-use and memory functions.

The additional features of the B8 feed into Wittmann Battenfeld’s overall K show theme of “be smart”, where the concepts of Industry 4.0 are demonstrated across its machinery and equipment.

Two-component, all-electric moulding

In terms of other machinery on display, there will be a MicroPower 15/10H/10H, the first two-component machine of the company’s all-electric MicroPower series, which is designed for injection moulding of small and micro parts.

This machine, shown for the first time at the 40th anniversary of the Wittmann Group, is the only stand-alone multi-component machine in the micro segment currently on the market.

This 15-tonne machine, equipped with two horizontal injection units and a rotary disk, can be used for either single-component or two-component injection moulding. This makes it possible to mould parts in different colors and/or made of different materials and/or produce two different parts simultaneously in one cycle, with two ejectors handling parallel ejection of the parts in the latter case.

Tinschert said that even on the first day, there had already been some of this type of machine sold.