At Fakuma 2023, Arburg will present nine exhibits at Stand 3101 in Hall A3, plus 10 additional machines on partner stands. The application example of a tire lever will show how digitalization and automation go hand in hand to produce plastic parts efficiently and with 100% traceability. Each product is clearly identifiable using "Invisible Tracing," a technology from partner Detagto.

The turnkey system with multi-axis robot, overmolding of inserts and parts assembly is a sophisticated production solution with a high degree of autonomy. With the bicycle tool, tires and inner tubes can be quickly and easily removed from the rim and mounted again.

Processing of recyclate (PIR)

The tire levers are produced ready to use by a compact turnkey system built around an Allrounder 375 V with 500 kN clamping force and a 1+1-cavity family mold. The vertical machine overmolds inserts with 50% glass fiber-reinforced PA 66/6 into a "remover" and an "installer." The insert is made of ISCC-certified POM, while the PA material is a single-grade post-industrial recyclate (PIR). The cycle time is around 45 seconds. The exhibit is equipped with Arburg's recyclate package for homogeneous material preparation and consistently high product quality.

Space-saving automation

The complete parts handling process is carried out by a Kuka six-axis robot. No additional floor space is required for automation: the six-axis robot is suspended to save space and integrated into the machine controller. It first feeds clips provided via a vibratory bowl feeder to a camera inspection and inserts them into the mold. The removed molded parts are given a DM code in a laser station. Then they are supplemented with operating instructions and the two-part tire lever is assembled ready to use.

Each product receives a digital fingerprint and is clearly traceable via "Invisible Tracing". Source: Arburg

Mark-free "Invisible Tracing"

Before the tire lever is placed on a conveyor belt, a camera system in a separate station photographs a defined area of the component's surface. The comparatively new "Invisible Tracing" technology from partner Detagto is used here. The image data of the registered surface is converted into a few kilobytes of easily storable character string and compressed before being transferred to a database. As every surface has tiny differences, similarly to a human fingerprint, each component can be clearly identified later at a separate test bay – in a way that is reliable, tamper-proof and requires little effort.

100% traceable using ATCM

On the exhibit, this invisible "fingerprint" is transferred to the Arburg Turnkey Control Module (ATCM) Scada system. To do this, the ATCM records the data from the injection molding process for each component ID and links it with the results of the optical inspection of the insert and the digital fingerprint, thereby ensuring 100%. The part-specific data can be retrieved by scanning the DM code, for example, with a mobile device.

Visit Arburg at Fakuma 2023 during October 17 to October 31 in Friedrichshafen, Germany.