Arburg showcasing packaging expertise and digitalisation at Plastimagen

Arburg will be in attendance at this year’s Plastimagen trade fair in Mexico City (8-11 March) with a focus on the packaging sector, which, alongside the traditionally strong automotive and medical industries, is experiencing the highest growth rates.

Digitalisation is also advancing at a strong pace in Mexico. As a result, Arburg is placing great emphasis on this area and will be showcasing the versatile ALS Arburg host computer system and the arburgXworld customer portal.

Plastimagen is considered the most comprehensive and important in-person specialist plastic event in Latin America.

Guillermo Fasterling, Managing Director of ARBURG SA de CV, said: "Mexico and Latin America in general are the markets offering very high and growing potential for Arburg, not least in the high-tech sector. The markets are slowly but surely emerging from the enforced pause caused by the coronavirus pandemic and are picking up again. For Arburg, the entire region is dominated by the automotive and medical technology sectors, but the packaging industry is quickly making up ground. In terms of technology, high-speed machines are in great demand here, which is why our exhibits are geared towards these."

Frank Eberhardt, Head of Applications and Technical Support at ARBURG SA de CV, added: "High-end technology is gaining in importance in Mexico and Latin America too. Here in particular, the need to expand and create added value by using state-of-the-art machine technology in combination with digital platforms such as ALS and arburgXworld is really coming to the fore."

The first exhibit at the trade fair – a hybrid Packaging-version Allrounder 570 H with a clamping force of 1800 kN and a size 800 injection unit – deals with a high-performance application. To ensure rapid in-mould labelling, the machine is fitted with a docked automation cell from Campetella which combines several robot systems in a compact space. This enables four thin-walled yoghurt pots to be produced in a cycle time of around just two seconds.

The second robot, which has an electric servo axis, is specially geared towards pick-and-place applications.

The robot cell is also linked to a transfer station for a driverless transport station that picks up the boxes of finished products and transports them to a storage area.

Four espresso cups are injection-moulded in a cycle time of 31 seconds on an electric Allrounder 470 A with a clamping force of 1000 kN. The material used is a transparent PMMA with a shot weight of 120 grams. This project resulted from a collaboration between Arburg, the Technical University of Darmstadt and Stäubli.

Arburg’s portfolio at the trade fair is also being enhanced by two demo versions of the ALS Arburg host computer system and the arburgXworld customer portal. Here, attendees will see how the systems can be used to retrieve, adapt and update quality, production planning, technology management and service management features across a company’s entire fleet of machinery and on all digital devices.