Engel will introduce its new injection moulding machine specifically developed for rubber processing for the first time at the IRC trade fair. The hydraulic machine is “compact, precise and economical” says the company, and can process all common rubber compounds, making it well-suited to the production of o-rings and flat gaskets competitively. During the DKT/IRC, the machine will be producing o-rings with a 102-cavity mold. The horizontal machine has optimized heating plate dimensions and a screw injection unit to ensure high precision for production with small and mid-sized shot volumes. It also has conventional brush modules for fully automatic processing. The new o-ring machine is equipped with Ecodrive servo-hydraulics as a standard, which drastically reduces energy consumption, says Engel, by consistently reducing energy losses. As the heating phases are often longer, there is a greater potential for savings in the production of o-rings and flat gaskets. For liquid silicone rubber processors, Engel will exhibit two additional applications during the four-day exhibition. First, flyswatters will be made out of an LSR/metal composite on an Engel insert 200V/100 rotary xs LIM injection molding machine using a two-cavity mold by Elmet. The metal inserts are placed in the mold by hand. Engel says thanks to the rotary table, this step takes place parallel to the injection molding process, keeping the total cycle time short and improving the energy balance, because the mold only needs to be open for very short time while the rotary table is in motion. In addition, an Engel e-victory 120 combi injection molding machine with an integrated Engel viper 20 robot will demonstrate how multi-component injection molding processes with liquid silicone can be mastered “reliably and efficiently”. A four-cavity mold will be used to produce sensor housings for flow measurement with integrated seals. – Rubberworld.com