Plastics News Show Daily - April 3, 2012 - (Page 24)
24 PLASTICS NEWS, April 3, 2012
Sigmasoft made for on-floor simulation
By Bill Bregar
PLASTICS NEWS STAFF
ORLANDO, FLA. — Mold designers
are plenty familiar with simulation
software, but Schaumburg,
Ill.-based Sigma Plastic Services
Inc. (Booth 65027) wants to bring
process simulation to the plant
floor, through its Sigmasoft.
“In the plastics industry, simulation
is well-known, but interestingly
enough, it has never been
implemented in the processor
world, like at the molding machine,”
Sigma President Christof
Heisser said.
Heisser and John Berg, market-
ing director of MGS Mfg. Group
Inc. (Booth 63030), discussed
process simulation at the Plastics
News Executive Forum, held earlier
this year in Tampa, Fla. MGS, a
Germantown, Wis.-based custom
injection molder, mold maker and
manufacturer of injection units
for multishot molding, has used
Sigmasoft for three years.
They said simulation can help
cut wasted steps, especially trialand-error
mold sampling.
Commercial mold-filling simulation
software has been around for
more than 25 years. But Heisser
said it’s aimed at designers: “Probably
in 90 percent of the cases,
‘[Sigmasoft] is
virtually a molding
machine.’
Christof Heisser
Sigma Plastic Services
process is an afterthought and it
really is not their problem.”
Sigmasoft is designed for people
who have processing knowhow.
“It is virtually a molding machine,”
modeling the entire
molding process, including things
such as hot runners, heater
bands, mold cooling, venting,
fiber orientation, crystallization,
shrinkage and warpage.
The three-dimensional meshing
is done automatically and quickly.
When MGS officials decided to
get into process simulation, MGS
hired a full-time simulation engineer.
Sigmasoft can cut down on
the amount of time spent to modify
molds, especially on challenging
parts, Berg said.
He described one situation in
which MGS and the customer
wanted to make an automotive
part with thinner walls, to reduce
the material required. Low molded-in
stress was also a priority.
Using simulation,
they
learned that the
best solution
was a mold with
conformal cooling,
so cooling
channels are
contoured to
hug the shape
of the part. The
mold design
Berg
also cut cycle time, Berg said.
MGS said simulation can increase
the accuracy of quoting
jobs. “We want to make our critical
decisions on the tool before
we start cutting steel,” he said.
Printpack
buys Kiefel
machine
By Roger Renstrom
PLASTICS NEWS CORRESPONDENT
ORLANDO, FLA. — Printpack Inc.
is buying a Kiefel (Booth 2763)
Thermorunner KTR 6 L Speed machine
that is forming polypropylene
drinking cups at NPE2012.
“The machine
will be located
in our
Williamsburg,
Va., plant,”
said Matthew
Piercy, engineering
manager
for Printpack’s rigid plastics division.
Printpack needs more capacity
and wants additional functionality
in the manufacturing process,
Piercy noted.
The machine’s key selling
points for forming yogurt cups,
drinking cups, cups with snap-on
lids or plant pots are “size, speed
and rigidity,” said Markus Zlotosch,
vice president of sales and
service with the Kiefel division of
Brückner Group USA Inc. in
Portsmouth, N.H. The KTR top-ofthe-range
6 L can use high-cavity
molds, achieve up to 40 cycles
per minute and incorporate
downstream equipment.
Printpack decided in October
to make the purchase. The company
reviewed larger, trim-inplace,
tilt-table thermoforming
machines, Piercy said.
“After considering technical
factors, such as forming area, linear
trim, potential throughput
and level of innovation, and nontechnical
factors, such as customer
service, technical service,
willingness to customize the
equipment and our history with
the vendor, we selected Kiefel’s
KTR 6 L machine.”
In the Orlando exhibit, Kiefel
uses a 50-up cup tool in the automatic
pressure former and
Kiefel’s own integrated KIST
78/56 in-line stacking system.
Printpack, however, won’t use
that stacking system in Williamsburg
and, for now, declines to disclose
whose stacker it has acquired.
Atlanta-based Printpack also
makes films for numerous end
markets.
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