ENGEL AUSTRIA GmbH

An injection unit for a molding machine, including a mass cylinder, an injection actuator, which injection actuator is configured to expel a plasticized molding compound from the mass cylinder via an injection nozzle, at least one sensor which is configured to detect a time-resolved, characteristic signal for the driving force of the injection actuator, and an open or closed loop control device for open or closed loop control of the injection actuator, which open or closed loop control device is configured to receive the time-resolved, characteristic signal of the at least one sensor. The open or closed loop control device is configured to carry out the following steps: controlling the injection actuator to perform a movement towards the injection nozzle, recording the time-resolved signal characteristic of the driving force of the injection actuator, determining a substantially constant force level for a period of time, preferably before a significant increase in injection force level follows, and preferably calculating the pressure loss (Δp) based on the first force level.

A computer-implemented method using a processing unit and including providing to or determining by the processing unit a totality of process variables which is available for processing for the plurality of actuators and/or sensors of a subunit, using the processing unit to determine a subset of process variables out of the totality of process variables processing, during production of a production lot, those process variables which belong to the determined subset of process variables for those process variables which do not belong to any of the determined subset of process variables, and processing a selected number of process variables. In addition, a production cell has a processing unit configured to carry out the computer-implemented method, and computer program is provided to implement such a method.

A temperature control system for controlling the temperature of components, in particular molds, of production cells, includes at least one centrally supplyable temperature control device assigned to at least one production cell, a central control or regulating unit, and optionally at least one conveying device for supplying the temperature control devices with a temperature control medium. The central control or regulating unit is configured to control the respective at least one temperature control device and optionally the at least one conveying device by control commands. The central control or regulating unit is configured to at least partially compensate for a subsequent change in operating states of the temperature control devices assigned to the other production cells caused thereby by changing the control commands when changing and/or in case of a change of an operating state of at least one production cell.

A production plant includes an injection unit suitable for forming processes, and the injection unit includes a barrel and an injection actuator, a hydraulic system for moving the injection actuator, an safety device configured to output an access signal when access detecting a person accessing the production plant and/or a possibility of a person accessing the production plant, and an electronic control unit to operate the hydraulic system in a production mode and in a safety mode. The control unit is configured to switch from the production mode to the safety mode when the access safety device outputs the access signal, and is configured to operate the hydraulic system in the safety mode such that the hydraulic system at least partially, preferably completely, counteracts an axial movement of the injection actuator caused directly or indirectly by an action of a molding compound present in the barrel on the injection actuator.

A production plant includes an injection unit suitable for forming processes, and the injection unit includes a barrel and an injection actuator, a hydraulic system for moving the injection actuator, an safety device configured to output an access signal when access detecting a person accessing the production plant and/or a possibility of a person accessing the production plant, and an electronic control unit to operate the hydraulic system in a production mode and in a safety mode. The control unit is configured to switch from the production mode to the safety mode when the access safety device outputs the access signal, and is configured to operate the hydraulic system in the safety mode such that the hydraulic system at least partially, preferably completely, counteracts an axial movement of the injection actuator caused directly or indirectly by an action of a molding compound present in the barrel on the injection actuator.

A method for determining positions of a real moulding material front during a process to be carried out with a moulding machine, wherein a simulation progression (SV) of a variable characteristic of the processa is calculated, positions of a simulated moulding material front are determined from the simulation, the real process is carried out, and at least one measurement progression (MV) of the at least one characteristic variable is measured directly or indirectly, a transformation is chosen, which has at least one parameter (ΔV, kp, V unknown ), the transformation is applied to the at least one simulation progression (SV), with the result that a transformed simulation progression (tSV) is formed, and a parameter value is determined for the parameter (ΔV, kp, V unknown ) such that a deviation between the measurement progression (MV) and the transformed simulation progression (tSV) is minimized according to a predetermined error measure or according to an operator input.

A method for monitoring a molding process carried out in cycles includes determining at least two nearest neighbors in the form of cycle data from at least two past cycles, such that the cycle data of the at least two nearest neighbors lie nearer to the current cycle data than the cycle data which do not pertain to the at least two nearest neighbors. Only those past cycles for which quality data are contained in the data collection are used for the determination of the at least two nearest neighbors. A predictability criterion is checked to determine whether a quality variation of the quality data of the cycles of the at least two nearest neighbors is smaller than a maximum variation and/or larger than a minimum variation. If the predictability criterion is not met, a first notification that a quality and/or a quality datum of the molded part is not reliably predictable is issued.

A method for determining positions of a real moulding material front during a process to be carried out with a moulding machine, wherein a simulation progression (SV) of a variable characteristic of the processa is calculated, positions of a simulated moulding material front are determined from the simulation, the real process is carried out, and at least one measurement progression (MV) of the at least one characteristic variable is measured directly or indirectly, a transformation is chosen, which has at least one parameter (ΔV, kp, V unknown ), the transformation is applied to the at least one simulation progression (SV), with the result that a transformed simulation progression (tSV) is formed, and a parameter value is determined for the parameter (ΔV, kp, V unknown ) such that a deviation between the measurement progression (MV) and the transformed simulation progression (tSV) is minimized according to a predetermined error measure or according to an operator input.

A method for operating a molding machine includes providing dependencies between, in particular unsorted and/or partially circularly interdependent, actions for performing at least one task. The at least one task is or comprises an operation, a startup or shutdown, a maintenance and/or an optimization of a molding process and/or a molding machine and/or a mold. The method further includes sorting the actions based on the dependencies between the actions.

Method for checking the suitability of a moulding tool for a defined moulding process includes providing an electronic dataset in which each of different features of a moulding tool has a range of possible values; selecting a feature of the electronic dataset as a characterizing feature; establishing an identity of the moulding tool by at least one value of the value range of the characterizing feature, wherein a moulding tool to be checked is regarded as identical to the moulding tool precisely when the established value is present in relation to the characterizing feature; providing an electronic tool dataset including a plurality of different features; allocating the electronic tool dataset to the moulding tool with the established identity by a computing unit; and checking the electronic tool dataset with the computing unit in relation to the suitability of a moulding tool with the established identity in the defined moulding process.