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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Plastics News Show Daily - April 3, 2012

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