Plastics News - Show Daily - October 22, 2022 - 36

36 * Plastics News, October 22, 2022
SHOW DAILY
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag sells 80,000th all-electric press
By Catherine Kavanaugh
Plastics News Staff
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics
Machinery GmbH employees handed
over the company's 80,000th
all-electric injection molding machine
to their largest customer, TE
Connectivity, at K 2022.
The consumer electronics company
has invested in about 500 of
the machine maker's presses in the
last 30 years, according to Gerd
Liebig, CEO of the Schwaig, Germany-based
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag.
The number of press sales to
the electronics industry, mostly
to produce packaging, has been
" excellent " and looks strong going
forward, Liebig said.
However, sales to the medical
market are declining after intense
investments in the last couple
years because of the COVID-19
pandemic and there have been
slowdowns in the consumer and
packaging markets.
On the heels of reaching 2021
sales of 808 million euros, which
was Sumitomo (SHI) Demag's best
year ever, the company expects to
take a bit of a fi nancial hit in 2022.
Liebig put it this way: " We
think we will achieve only a decrease
of around 4 percent to
778 million euro. "
Next year, Europe's transition
to tethered bottle caps will help
packaging sales recover, Liebig
said, but he sees problems for the
automotive market because of
high energy prices.
" They're very bad for investments
from the automotive supply
industry and injection molding
machines, "
the
CEO said,
hopes are dashed for now about
possible tailwinds.
SUMITOMO (SHI)
DEMAG PLASTICS
MACHINERY GMBH
Hall 15,
Booth D22
" Our hope was restructuring
the automotive industry,
interconnectivity, lightweight
construction, and autonomous
driving would lead to additional
investment but I think this will
not come before the end of 2023, "
Liebig said. " Unfortunately, it's a
very bad situation, and in Europe,
I think we will have a recession in
the next year. "
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag's employees
don't need to worry
about job security, however. The
company's management will enter
a solidarity pact with workers
as it has done in the past.
" Our strategy is not to fi re people
and then hire again after two
years, " Liebig said, adding it's an
important time to groom the next
generation of company leaders.
" We see a big risk in the future
because we have more older
people like me sometimes getting
out because of
retirement
and we need for the future highly
qualifi ed specialists in Germany, "
he said. " This will be a big,
big challenge. I think the biggest
challenge we are facing because
so important is the reputation of
our company. We need qualifi ed
specialists. "
For customers, from now on all
Sumitomo (HSI) Demag machines,
equipment and innovations will be
designed with sustainability and
the EU Digital Product Passport
(DPP) in mind, Thorsten Thümen,
senior director technology, said in
an email ahead of K 2022.
" For
this
reason, we have
streamlined our machine portfolio
to all-electric injection molding
machines and powerful services,
for example, to support our partners
and customers in the responsible
use of virgin material and to
enable them to increase the recycled
content in their products. Or
- even in near future - to halve
the energy consumption of their
packaging production by upgrading
from a conventional hybrid
injection molding machine to our
all-electric PAC-E without losing a
single millisecond of cycle time, "
Thümen said.
Robot range expands
Sumitomo (HSI) Demag keeps
expanding its robot range to support
injection molders. Three
concepts of its brand of SAM (Sumitomo
Automation Machine)
proprietary robotics and automation
products are showcased at K
2022, including a new six-axis system
with special kinematics that
uses Sumitomo drive technology.
The unveiling of the new SAM-S
series took place at the company's
LSR exhibit featuring production
of a cap on an IntElect 180 in
a large work envelope.
The SAM-S
(Scara)
series,
which builds on the SAM-C (Cartesian)
in-house range launched in
2021, features a 6-axis hybrid robot
comprising Scara mechanics
and linear robots. Two payload
sizes - 12kg and 25kg - will be
offered. The company says the
series is suitable for applications
where a linear robot is too infl exible
and an industrial robot is too
complex for operators.
The series is currently dimensioned
for injection molding
machines with clamp force between
130 and 1,000 tons. The
basic robot comprises five servo
axes with an optional extension
to a sixth axis.
Another exhibit features a
fi ve-axis linear robot model SD
22x on an IntElect 220 as a nod
to the long-standing partnership
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag has with
Sepro.
K 2022 also marks the offi cial
sales launch of the SAM-C series
that was unveiled last year. The
series
is designed
for
simple
handling tasks. In Hall 10, F45, a
SAM-C3 ONI model will demonstrate
its pick-and-place functions
on an IntElect 75 machine manufacturing
polycarbonate beer
mugs using a single tool.
The company's next phase of
development focuses on handleand-box
applications. At the company's
main booth, an IntElect75
with a SAM-C5 robot and a storage
and conveyor system, also developed
in-house, will manufacture
components for a DEHNguard
ACI brand surge interrupter on a
four-cavity tool.
To follow its principles to Act!
Sustainably, all of the components
made during the trade fair
will be sent to the customer, Dehn
SE, for use in production.
The handle-and-box robots are
suitable for injection molding
machines with 75 to 280 tons of
clamp force range.
Packing a punch
The company unveiled a new
high-speed, all-electric machine
series at K 2022 called PAC-E that
is initially targeted for packaging
applications requiring a medium
clamp force.
With a fusion of features from
the El-Exis platform and IntElect
series, PAC-E has a brand new injection
unit specifi cally developed
for manufacturers of beverage closures
and thin-walled packaging.
The company says PAC-E sets
a new benchmark for energy consumption
and cleanliness.
The press blends innovations
from the company formed in 2008
through the merger of the Germany's
Demag Plastics Group with
the Plastics Machinery division
of Japan's Sumitomo Heavy Industries,
Ltd.
The PAC-E press has toggle
levers, plates, tie bars and plasticizing
elements, including the
screws and cylinders, that were
developed in Germany while the
electric drives and the new injection
unit came from the group's
Japanese parent company.
" PAC-E is a global development
project that combines all our
company know-how from Germany
and Japan, " Arnaud Nomblot,
director of business development
packaging, said.
Two critical innovations differentiate
PAC-E press from the
existing hybrid packaging series,
he added: The solely electric-driven
axes deliver up to 50 percent
in energy savings; and, the toggle
lever is part of a closed-circuit
design that prevents leaks during
lubrication.
The company estimates a
savings of 30 cents per kilowatt
hour, which it says can add up to
70,000 euros ($71,285) per year
compared to a high-speed hybrid
packaging machine.
" It is the most economical machine
in terms of energy consumption
in relation to production output,
i.e. in terms of kilowatt hours
consumed per part produced, "
Thümen said in an email.
Packing producers also can save
money, time and headaches related
to cleaning toggle lever. The
leak-free closed-circuit system, extracts,
fi lters and recycles the oil,
which eliminates the need to clean
the lever and reduces oil consumption
of plastics processing.
" The closed circuits reduce
the consumption of consumables
such as oil and lubricants to a
minimum and, due to the clean
elements in the machine, cleaning
costs and agents are saved. Last
but not least, the price for the entire
machine is very competitive
as well, " Thümen said.
In addition,
the machine is
shorter and narrower than other
designs to deliver on requests
for more compact, space-saving
presses.
PAC-E is suitable for thin-wall
and food packaging with in-mold
labeling (IML), Nomblot said.
" This machine will enable processors
to produce even thinner
and lighter packaging items, resulting
in a signifi cant reduction
in raw materials, waste and shipping
costs, " he said.
The company will demonstrate
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag
handed over the company's
80,000th all-electric
injection molding machine
to its largest customer, TE
Connectivity, at K 2022.
Messe Düsseldorf photo
the PAC-E at K 2022 using a 72-cavity
mold (supplied by Z-Moulds)
to manufacture 2,100 still water
beverage caps every minute
from an HDPE copolymer (Eltex
HD5211EA-B by Ineos Olefi ns &
Polymers Europe).
Also, as part of the demonstration,
Polar Bear introduced
its advanced cavity cooling and
tool dehumidifi cation system
and for quality control, 100 percent
of all the beverage caps
pass through the Intravis camera
inspection system.
Plastics News - Show Daily - October 22, 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News - Show Daily - October 22, 2022
