Currently, the demand for plastic products in the market is becoming increasingly stringent, with “green smart manufacturing” leading the way. In the entire industry, after several rounds of technological advancements and environmental policy adjustments, active injection molding machine manufacturers are now highly focused on developing a new generation of high-tech equipment. By incorporating intelligent controls, these machines can meet the high-precision requirements of current product manufacturing.
Traditional injection molding machines that use hydraulic transmission have significant drawbacks, such as environmental pollution, high noise levels, and high energy consumption. These machines not only suffer severe energy losses but also pose significant environmental challenges. Despite their high market share due to low manufacturing costs and convenient maintenance, about 80% of mainstream injection molding machines now come equipped with energy-saving auxiliary devices. These include low-energy heating coils, servo intelligent control systems, and optimized core components and construction processes, resulting in a significant performance upgrade. Clearly, green environmental protection has become a symbol of the new era and an important factor that plastic machine manufacturers must consider in their future model planning.
Injection molding machines will continue to evolve towards automation, energy efficiency, intelligence, and unmanned operation. “Global encouragement for plastic injection molding equipment companies to vigorously develop high-value-added, high-tech, and low-energy-consumption products to enhance international competitiveness in the industry.” Within the next 20 years, all-electric injection molding machines, with their excellent energy-saving, control, and processing characteristics, will rapidly dominate the plastic machine market.
Any significant changes in the industry lead to overall adjustments and adaptability. Before the arrival of all-electric injection molding machines, frequency converters and servo technologies were essential for energy-saving. Presently, most domestic injection molding machines adopt PLC control systems, but PLC control has its limitations, such as insufficient anti-interference ability, reliability, and temperature control accuracy. With servo drive systems demonstrating unmatched advantages in control precision and system response, as well as mechanical soft startups and minimal grid impact, the next 20 years will be the era of all-servo-controlled injection molding machines as equipment costs decrease.
Furthermore, companies have recognized that improper mold positioning or incomplete product ejection caused by injection molding machines have led to frequent mold maintenance and high repair costs. Mold pressure and repair delays can also affect customer schedules. To address these challenges, Turing Corporation has developed a series of mold monitors that operate 24/7, 365 days a year. These monitors effectively detect product compliance, check for residues before molding to prevent mold damage, avoid downtime for mold repair, and ensure timely product delivery.
The mold protector can detect the mold from the following aspects, and once any of the following situations are detected, an immediate alarm will be triggered to prevent mold pressure.
- Detection of mold cavity, core, and product residues before closing the mold.
- Detection of slide position, return of ejector pins, and correct installation of inserts.
- Correct detection of external program insertion.
- Detection of insufficient or broken ejection.
- Detection of product shortage or burrs.
- Detection of complete product ejection.
- For precision products, detection of product dimensions’ compliance.
- Detection of missing parts in multi-cavity products.
- Detection of correct color mixing for multi-color products.
- Reduction of unnecessary ejector pin movements to prevent continuous production of defective products.
- Reduction of mold release agent usage, suitable for products with difficult demolding.
- Used for automatic production lines or assembly lines to select or correct products.
- Automatic positioning and lighting compensation filtering functions are available to eliminate errors and prevent false detections.