Case study: Austrian injection moulder ANA-U and Wittmann Battenfeld technology

Based in Gleisdorf, Austria, ANA-U produces moulded parts from natural ingredients consisting of renewable materials. The parts are manufactured on an all-electric injection moulding line from Wittmann Battenfeld.

ANA-U specialises in the development, production and global sale of cards, card printers and electronic components, as well as the development and design of lighting solutions for retailers, shopfitters, museums and galleries. In addition to its facility in Gleisdorf, the company has another production plant in Austria and one in Shenzhen, China.

Founder and CEO Ewald Ulrich holds 15 patents in the areas of chip cards, thermal printing and security. He is regarded as the inventor of thermo-rewrite technology (TRW) for chip cards. A special coating applied to the cards makes it possible to erase card contents and subsequently reprint the cards. By using this type of technology, ANA-U makes a substantial contribution to waste prevention.

ANA-U has been producing moulded parts from natural substances under its ‘Green Quality’ brand. These consist of plant-based renewable materials with typical products including event cards, voucher cards, wood-to-wood connecting parts and plastic-free housings. In this way, ANA-U has delivered ~40,000 access passes for the students of Karl Franzens University in Graz for the summer semester of 2022. For next year, the production of cards with embedded electronics is also planned.

The Green Quality moulded parts are manufactured on an all-electric machine of the EcoPower series from Wittmann Battenfeld with 1,600kN clamping force. The EcoPower 160/750 is equipped with a fully integrated Wittmann W918 robot, which removes the parts and deposits them on a conveyor belt. A Wittmann TEMPRO basic C90 temperature controller and a GRAVIMAX 14 gravimetric blender are also integrated in the machine’s UNILOG B8 control system.

The line is completed by a COOLMAX C40 cooling device, an ATON plus 30-70 VS segmented wheel dryer, a FEEDMAX plus 206-40 material loader and a DOSIMAX MC Balance metering device. In addition, the machine is fitted out with the HiQ Melt software package for monitoring the material quality, a feature of importance in processing plastic-free and recycled materials to enable fast response to viscosity fluctuations. A G-Max 12 granulator from Wittmann is used to recycle sprue, faulty parts and returned parts.

Ulrich said: “Moulded parts made of renewable raw materials require production machinery with high precision and extended options for parameter setting. This is provided in every respect by the EcoPower 160 from Wittmann Battenfeld. In addition to the high quality of the machine, the perfect training programs and excellent customer support were decisive factors in reaching all our ambitious project goals.”