Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019 - 14

INDUSTRY 4.0

Supporting downstream
alignment
Japanese injection moulding
machine maker Sodick
has integrated Industry
4.0 functionality in its
hardware, but has yet to
see much demand for such
capabilities in the UK

The new Sodick European headquarters facility in Warwick

We've got to be part of
the solution
Peter Capp, Sodick Europe

The V-Line material injection system

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odick is a famous name in the electrical discharge machining (EDM) sector, but the company has also been
marketing its plastic injection moulding
hardware in Asia (predominantly Japan
and China) for more than 20 years, and in
the United States for 10 years.
While the Japanese brand might be
less well known in Europe, the company is
now looking to build a foothold in the region by starting direct sales of its injection
moulders to European customers.
"We estimate that the European market totals 16,000 injection moulders per
year. We'll be looking to take about 1% of
that, or about 160 machines," says Peter
Capp, CEO of Sodick Europe. "We think
that's an achievable target."
Sodick is positioned as a manufacturer
of premium hardware, but while that undoubtedly comes with a premium price tag,
the machines include a series of advanced
operational features. Central to this is the
V-Line injection process. Where conventional hardware melts, meters and injects
polymer using a reciprocating screw and
check valve, the V-Line system prepares
each shot by weight in a highly-accurate
and repeatable two-step process.
Such accuracy lends itself to micro-moulded parts with multiple features.
Conor Cooke, IMM product manager, offers more detail: "Shot size repeatability
and maintenance of the polymer's volumetric ﬂowrate is critical to achieving part
size compliance and lower wastage. Medical applications require tolerances measured in microns and the V-Line system
oﬀers this level of repeatable capability."
Cooke notes that while customers using Sodick machines would generally use
engineering polymers, the V-Line system
can use any polymer type, including those
with glass or carbon ﬁbre ﬁllers. The system oﬀers an added beneﬁt. "The high
speed of the V-Line system promotes
a low-viscosity shot and that helps with

aligning the material ﬁller," says Cooke.
Returning to Peter Capp, he says that
European sales will be supported by
new CE compliance. It has taken a year
to gain the correct compliance, but all
parts across the machine now have the
required certiﬁcation. That said, the range
launch will still be highly targeted.
"We ﬁt a certain sector of the market,
we're not going to ﬁt everyone's brief as
to what they require from an injection
moulding machine," he explains. "Our
machines are not designed for producing
millions of caps, for example. High-precision medical or automotive moulders are
our key customers."
The company has picked a series
of models to spearhead the European
launch in 17 countries. The areas have
been pre-selected to include customers
looking for IMMs which can deliver the accuracy oﬀered by Sodick hardware.
Capp says that the EDM units have featured Industry 4.0 capability for a number
of years and that has now been carried
over to the injection moulding range. "In
Italy, the government oﬀers a 20% rebate
if the machine you purchase includes Industry 4.0 capability," he says. "We incorporated those features and sales in Italy
took oﬀ on the back of those updates."
While such tools are of clear interest
to Italian buyers, Capp says there has yet
to be one customer in the UK to enquire
speciﬁcally about Industry 4.0 functionality. "I can only talk about EDM with regards
to UK sales, but [Industry 4.0] is not seen
as being an advantage. Such capability
would only be of interest to very large
companies."
The Industry 4.0 system used across
Sodick moulding machines is branded
S-Viewer. This feeds back information
related to process and machine performance to support adjustments to further
improve overall performance.
"It collates data covering uptime, how

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Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019

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