Bob Schad Is Back With A Winning Machine Design

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

I recently wrote about a revival of injection molding machinery manufacturing in the United States. Now there is good news to report north of the border.

Robert Schad, a Twentieth Century legendary entrepreneur for his founding and scale up of Husky Injection Molding Systems, is off the ground and running with his new machinery startup, called Athena Automation. Schad’s plan to re-enter the injection molding machinery business was first reported by Matt Defosse in Plastics Today three to four years ago.

Schad’s new company is selling hybrid injection molding machines with clamping forces ranging from 100 to 400 metric tons for three markets: PET preforms, medical and packaging.  The design of the machines reflects Schad’s decades of engineering experience and personal predilections, such as a strong tendency to “green” features where they make sense.

Key features include:

  • Servo-driven gear pumps operate on demand for plasticizing, injection, clamp force build up, mold break, shutter, nozzle pressure, nozzle opening, ejector assist, and auxiliary motions.
  • Electric servo drives operate the mold stroke and ejector,
  • Conversely, there are no servo valves, which are sensitive and expensive,
  • The hydraulic oil tank is small and only requires changes at five year intervals. Interestingly, the machine is slightly elevated to easily reveal any leaks, and for easy cleaning. That’s a real Schad feature – the machine is good and I’m not afraid to make that very visible,
  • Power, water and air connections are all at the injection end of the machine base,

And the beauty of the design continues. The hybrid platform has more than 50 pre-engineered options for rapid market-specific customization. A few examples include high-speed side entry robot integrated into machine base, stack mold carrier, dual injection with in-mold assembly, and one-touch auto shutdown and startup.

Of course, Schad has some high-powered development partners. One that has been disclosed is SIPA, which will manage the sales, service and integration of all Athena PET preform machines on an exclusive worldwide basis. SIPA, which is based in Italy, manufactures blow molding machinery. The Athena/SIPA machines will be sold as an integrated set to the PET container market.

Schad, a German immigrant, founded Husky in 1953, and built it into a powerhouse in the PET preform market with rugged, dependable machines loaded with engineering features. He was a pioneer in the stack molding business.  

Schad took the company public in 1998, while still retaining 44% of ownership. Stock market types and Schad were like oil and water, however. They wanted short-term payoff; he was always long-term and do it the right way. Schad wanted out and the company went private in 2007 with a friendly buyout from Onex Corp., a Canadian private equity investment firm. Timing of the sale was excellent from Schad’s perspective as the Great Recession clobbered the injection molding business.  He pocketed well over $400 million from the transaction and used the cash to start Athena in 2008.  Husky now has new private owners, 3,000 employees and sales of $1.2 billion.

Schad held an open house last week in Vaughan, Ontario (near the Toronto airport) to show the world that he is back in action—big time. Don’t be surprised if annual machine-capacity at the facility is at 60-65 units in 15 to 18 months. The first emphasis will be on supplying  SIPA.

Athena_Hybrid_Features_06

 

Injection Molding, Injection Molding, Medical, North America, Packaging ,

New High Heat Amorphous Polyimide Is Moldable

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

Need a molded part that provides high performance at prolonged extreme temperatures?

Say semicon plasma chamber, aircraft or electronic components?

SABIC Innovative Plastics has developed, and is commercializing,  a new class of high performance amorphous thermoplastic polyimide (TPI) resin that has a glass transition temperature exceeding 300oC.  No post-molding operations are required as is the case for a plastic such as Torlon polamide imide, which requires curing in an oven after molding to reach its peak properties.

Torlon is the granddaddy of very high-performance plastics, dating back more than 30 years to its invention by scientists at Union Carbide. Despite its impressive data sheet, Torlon has been slow to catch on because of its poor manufacturability.

The new plastic from SABIC claims to overcome that problem while retaining excellent creep resistance over time at very high temperatures, according to a presentation by three SABIC scientists at ANTEC last month.  It has been awarded the highest UL (Underwriter’s laboratory) RTI rating in the world for an unfilled thermoplastic.

Two years ago, SABIC announced an extension of the line: EXTEM UH1019 resin, with Tg of ~300ºC.

One of the ANTEC presenters, Aditya Narayanan describes himself as the Extem product portfolio owner. He says he has created innovative polymer blends generating $20 million annual revenue. That would indicate a decent start for the new materials.

More technical details are abvailable on the SABIC Web site.

Aircraft, Electronics, Injection Molding, North America ,

Fire In The Hole: Good News for Apple’s Prized Molding Material

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 1

Its expenses are rising. Its revenues are dropping. But the tide of red ink is not damping enthusiasm at what may be the most important breakthrough technology in injection molding in the 21 Century. It may go down in the history books as the most important materials’ molding technology made in America.

“It” is Liquidmetal Technologies, the California startup using amorphous metals IP developed at Caltech by Professor William Johnson in 1993.

Apple and Swatch love the technology and bought exclusive market specific rights. But the company has failed to establish a viable commercial revenue stream, and yesterday reported rising losses and a weakening cash position.

One reason that losses are rising is that hiring and R&D expenses are higher.

CEO Tom Steipp reported on a conference call that prototype shipments continue to rise, including four shipments in the first quarter to major suppliers to the oil and gas industry. Molded amorphous metal may be the perfect lining material for shaped charges used to blow holes in well casings deep underground, allowing surrounding oil and gas to rush into the well under very high pressure. The currently used linings are made of injected molded metal powder, a technology far inferior to `injection molded amorphous metal.

There are three important reasons why this application could be the savior of this brave little engine that could:

1.    The amorphous metal parts are stronger. The strength-to-weight ratio of amorphous metal is off the charts.

2.    Parts can be made more precisely and consistently with molded amorphous metal. Tolerances within 0.002 inches in every dimension are maintained part to part. Repeatable tolerances on MIM parts are difficult because parts shrink when autoclaved after the molding process. Final machining may be required. That adds tremendously to the costs, as well as the production time.

3.    The amorphous metal parts virtually liquefy when imploded, while the metallic MIM parts could get stuck in the casing hole, defeating the purpose of a shaped charge.

Millions of these devices are used yearly by the oil and gas industry. And US activity is being spurred by shale gas development.

And maybe that is why Tom Steipp is hiring and boosting R&D costs.

 

 

 

Amorphous Metals, Design, Injection Molding, Metal Injection Molding (MIM), Metals, North America, Oil Country , ,

Bayer Exits Highly Hyped Carbon Nanotubes Business

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

What’s the future of nano carbon nanotubes?

Not as much as once believed, apparently, based on a decision just announced by Bayer Material Science to exit the business and close its production plant.

“We remain convinced that carbon nanotubes have huge potential,” says Patrick Thomas, CEO of Bayer MaterialScience. ”It has been found, however, that the potential areas of application that once seemed promising from a technical standpoint are currently either very fragmented or have few overlaps with the company’s core products and their application spectrum.”

“For Bayer MaterialScience, groundbreaking applications for the mass market relating to our own portfolio and therefore comprehensive commercialization are not likely in the foreseeable future,” said Thomas. “Nonetheless, this know-how provides an important basis for a possible later use of CNT, for example in the optimization of lithium ion batteries. We are currently in contact with potential interested parties regarding the specific application of the know-how generated.”

It’s a stunner.

BMS invested at least $30 million in its multi-walled carbon nanotube ramp up at its headquarter factory site in Leverkusen, Germany. The plant has a capacity of 260 tons/year. The other players include CNano Technology (500), Nanocyl (460), Showa Denko (400), and Arkema (50).

A carbon nanotube is a tube-shaped material with a diameter measuring on the nanometer scale, or one-billionth of a meter, or about one ten-thousandth of the thickness of a human hair. Key applications were considered to be conductive plastics and structural composites. The hype four years ago was off the charts. The hype in the last three years? Well, what ever happened to carnon nanotubes?

Maybe the safety issues were insurmountable from Bayer’s perspective. There certainly are issues as far as molding compounds are concerned, that’s for sure.  

 

 

 

 

Injection Molding

Owens Corning Sticks To Its Core DNA–Glass Composites

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

Owens Corning, the Ohio-based producer of glass fiber, is a giant in the plastics industry, having virtually invented the composites business. One example was its involvement in the introduction of glass-reinforced plastics panels in cars with the 1953 Corvette. The company has been off the radar in recent years after having gone Hollywood for the decade that Glen Hiner, former head of GE Plastics, was CEO. The company was often in the news then, and making news.

The last five years at least have been rough for the company. It had participated in an industry buildup of glass fiber capacity before the Great Recession hit in 2008. Product pricing collapsed, and still has not recovered while prices of steel, aluminum and thermoset resins have seen significant recoveries.

The company held a Web-based media briefing today in an effort to establish more transparency, and to also discuss, it seemed to me, the need for significant price relief to allow investment in new capacity to meet future demand for glass-reinforced plastics (aka composites in the traditional sense).

As I listened, I wondered why the company had never made a foray into carbon fiber reinforcements. It seems like a natural. Demand for carbon fiber is growing faster than glass (3.8 times industrial growth versus 1.6 times for GFRP by Owen Corning’s own estimate). Carbon fiber is challenging GFRP for many automotive applications. The brand-new Corvette for example is sheathed in part with carbon composites using a new production process developed by Plasan.

Arnaud Genis, Composites Group president, said there are many reasons why Owens Corning is not interested in the carbon fiber business. For one, the size of the glass fiber composite market vastly outstrips the carbon composite market–something like 4.5 million tons  versus 250,000 tons. The significant price gap between the two materials will remain a significant challenge to further use of carbon fiber despite its performance advantages (more strength at less weight).

He also said, in effect, that carbon fiber just isn’t part of the Owens Corning DNA. Owens Corning has significant intellectual property positions in glass fiber materials science, manufacturing technology and assembly processes. The company’s goal is to get back to what it does best—developing higher quality, more useful and more cost-effective glass composites.

Instead the focus in recent years has been on cutting costs to staunch the flow of red ink. The company lost $19 million last year on revenues of $5.2 billion last year.

It’s an interesting approach, and not the kind of approach I think the company would have taken in the days of Glen Hiner. It’s a bread-and-butter, down-in-the trenches, get-the-job-done-right kind of approach. Let’s hope the Force is with them.

 

 

Automotive, Composites, Management, North America ,

Engel Reports Strong IMM Sales Improvement In North America

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

There’s new information to affirm positive growth for the American injection machinery industry, which was almost left for dead two or three year ago.

From the bottom of the recession in 2010 with sales of just $59.5 million, Engel North America ended its fiscal year on March 31 with record sales of more than $200 million.

The company said its key markets shape up like this:

Automotive:  Vehicle manufacturing is on pace this year for a 15 million unit build, up from the recession low of 8 million units. Engel said there is pressure to replace older injection machines as the automotive market rebounds. Customers want increasingly sophisticated controls and performance as quality and efficiency demands rise.

Packaging:  Engel is focusing on energy efficiency—a key variable that affects manufacturing costs. “Closures is a very price-driven business for molders and the costs of machines, molds, and material are relatively fixed, so it is necessary to gain an advantage in energy costs,” the company said in a press release. An all-electric machine can save up to 50 per cent  in energy costs.

Medical: There is a trend to increased cavitation and faster cycle times to cut costs. Medical markets also use vertical-clamping insert molding machines, for both cleanroom and non-cleanroom environments. Automation is desirable, especially for loading inserts.

The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.’s Committee on Equipment Statistics offered a bigger picture of the domestic injection molding market, and its impact on machine sales.

The number of injection molding machines ordered last year totaled 3,307, up 16 per cent from 2011. Dollar value was up 20 per cent, indicating a move to higher level equipment—in line with Engel’s view of the market.   

Injection Molding ,

GE Aviation Advances Use of Lightweight CFRP Engine Parts

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

General Electric was a pioneer in the development of the commercial plastics industry and then decided to sell its plastics unit to SABIC in 2007. But now comes word that GE is beefing up production of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) used in the aviation industry.

GE Aviation has opened a second factory in Mississippi to produce carbon composite parts for two new engine programs: the LEAP jet engine being developed by CFM, a joint company of GE and Snecma (SAFRAN) of France and GE’s new Passport jet engine.

Aiirbus is usiing compsite engine parts to boost efficiency.

Aiirbus is usiing composite engine parts to boost efficiency.

The Ellisville plant will manufacture fan platforms (installed between the engine’s front fan blades) for the LEAP-1A and the LEAP-1C, which will power Airbus’s A320neo and COMAC’S C919, respectively. The “neo” designation means new engine option. Improvements with the A320neo include a 15 per cent reduction in fuel consumption, two metric tons of additional payload, up to 500 nautical miles of more range, lower operating costs, along with reductions in engine noise and emissions.

Ellisville will also manufacture the inlet for the Passport engine which was selected by Bombardier to power the Global 7000 and Global 8000 business jets. The inlet is a single-piece component that is located in the front of the Nexcelle nacelle system and directs airflow into the engine.

In addition to jet engine components, Ellisville will manufacture the transcowl, a component of the thrust reverser, which is located in the rear of the nacelle for Airbus’s A320neo.

GE says it develops and produces the world’s most advanced composite components for jet engines and aircraft systems. Composite components provide greater durability and engine weight savings, which mean improved aircraft fuel efficiency and reduced maintenance and replacement costs.

In 1995, GE introduced the first carbon fiber composite front fan blade in an airline engine with its GE90, the power behind  the Boeing 777. For the new GEnx engine, which powers the Boeing 787, GE introduced both composite fan blades, using the same fibers, resin, and manufacturing processes as the GE90 blade, and a fiber-braided composite fan case. Both provide dramatic weight savings.

The new plant is a big win for Mississippi which wants to bill itelf as a high-tech aviation site. Assistance was provided by the Mississippi Polymer Institute at The University of Southern Mississippi and The Advanced Technology Center at Jones County Junior College.

 

Boeing, CFRP, Design ,

Plastics Engineering 101: Never Assume Anything

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

After 27 years of writing about plastics, the disconnect between engineering and sales still amazes me.

It comes to mind now because of an interesting research paper presented by failure analysis experts at Exponent at the recent Annual technical Conference of the Society of Plastics Engineers. They reported that polycarbonate used in a medical device housing and lens failed after just three to four months of use at several hospitals because of disinfectants caused environmental stress cracking. The poor chemical resistance of polycarbonate is basic plastics knowledge. Why would the engineering staff of a medical device OEM pick PC for a part subject to strong chemicals used to fight infections in hospitals?

It reminds me of the early days of polycarbonate when GE Plastics sales people convinced an Italian auto manufacturer to use it in bumpers. Gasoline spilled on the bumpers, triggering recalls when the parts cracked. A research skunk works was established near the GE Plastics’ sales office and an alloy called Xenoy was born. Xenoy is a winner, but why wasn’t testing conducted?

There is a natural tendency of consumers to assume that if a product is on the store shelves it’s safe to use. But for engineers those kinds of assumptions are totally unacceptable.

I also feel strongly that companies need to take more responsibility for the products they sell. The supplier that sold unalloyed and uncoated polycarbonate for the medical device housing application knew it would fail.

Automotive, Injection Molding, Medical, Polycarbonate

US Molding Machinery Manufacturing Makes A Modest Comeback

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

In the early days of injection molding, say the 1950s through the early 1970s, the United States was largely self-sufficient in the supply of injection molding machinery. William Willert, VP engineering at Egan Machinery, pioneered development of the ground-breaking reciprocating screw (there were counter German and French claims).

There was a gold’s rush of machine development and the American industry flourished with players such as Egan Machinery, Somerville, N.J.; HPM, Mt. Gilead, Ohio; New Britain Machine Co., New Britain, Conn.; National Automatic Tool Co. (Natco), Richmond, Ind.; Van Dorn, Strongsville, Ohio; Waldron-Hartig, New Brunswick, N.J.; Reed-Prentice, East Longmeadow, Mass.; and Newbury Industries, Newbury, Ohio.  

Cincinnati Milacron decided to enter the plastics machinery business and became a major player. But there was some arrogance among a few of the old timers who didn’t want to abandon their market position in the old-dated and doomed plunger technology. There was in fact a general arrogance among American manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s, and a disregard for the importance of technological change and the importance of global competitiveness.

We paid a steep price. All of the American molding machinery companies went bankrupt or went out of business.

Now there is a bit of a resurgence. At an open house last week, Milacron showed that is has emerged from bankruptcy with a strong product lineup and a robust manufacturing presence in Batavia, Ohio. Engel, an Austrian company which is the largest injection molding machinery builder in Eruope, has a strong and growing manufacturing presence in York, Pa.

And there is now some manufacturing at the old HPM and Van Dorn sites in Ohio.

In 2011, Chinese machinery company Yizumi purchased all the patented technology and other assets of HPM, and is now using its Mount Gilead site as a beachhead for North American sales. Hydraulics and electrics are added in the United States. Other customization is also performed at the site. The first machine was recently shipped to Pleasant Precision, an old fan of the big iron HPM machines.  Credit Bill Flickinger, former (and last) HPM president for keeping the flame alive.

Japanese machine builder Sumitomo is taking a similar, and even larger-scale tack with Van Dorn, which has a substantial number of legacy customers in the United States. On April 10, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag had an open house in Strongsville to show off its new technical and remanufacturing center.

There are other potential investors in machine rebuilding and finishing in the United States. A leading candidate is Haitian of China, which is now the global market leader in injection molding machinery. The company is very interested in the U.S. market and could expand presence through its Absolute Haitian unit, which is opening a technical center in Parma, Ohio next month.

The U.S. will never be the market for injection molding machinery it was 15 or 20 years ago, but it’s important to maintain technical and manufacturing presence. Never was that so apparent when Apple and Liquidmetal Technologies needed a technical partner. Engel Machinery made a huge contribution.

 

 

Injection Molding , , ,

Bemis, Milacron Team To Develop Servo Co-Injection

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Doug Smock | Permalink 0

The efficiencies of co-injection molding and servo pumps are combining in a unique hybrid machine developed by Milacron (Batavia, Ohio) for Bemis Manufacturing, one of America’s largest injection molders and major technology developer in co-injection technology.

Bemis says it will make parts for a wide variety of markets, including automotive, in the

Maxima G Servo

Maxima G Servo

1,500-ton MAXIMA Servo.

“After seeing our Maxima Servo platform at NPE2012, Bemis recognized the value of combining co-injection and servo technology,” said Jim Moore, VP Automotive Business at Milacron.  “Bemis’s deep-rooted commitment to zero waste and energy conservation aligns perfectly with the Maxima’s efficient servo motor technology, which uses less than half the energy of a comparable 1,500-ton hydraulic press.”

Milacron’s co-injection design can be configured for sequential or simultaneous injection (combining injection capacities for large part production), stack molding, multi-component and co-injection, as well as other advanced processes.

Co-injection (or encapsulation) can improve environmental sustainability and reduce costs by making it possible to include recycled or reground resin; technical grades of resin with material properties to improve part characteristics such as sound deadening or cold weather impact strength; or more economical material in the core with another material molded over top for aesthetics.

Collaboration between Milacron and Bemis Manufacturing on co-injection dates to 1994.  One of the fruits of that collaboration was development of a 6,600-ton co-injection machine.

Milacron LLC is a privately held company owned by affiliates of CCMP Capital Advisors and is the last remaining American-owned manufacturer of injection molding machinery.

Bemis Manufacturing is based in Sheboygan Falls, Wisc. and is best known for production of toilet seats.

Automotive, Consumer Goods, North America, Two-Shot , ,