More than 15% of plastics global production is used by the automotive market. On many models of cars the use of polymers has reached 150 kgs. The new Serie Mega ES is capable of meeting most of the requirements of these applications: from bumpers to dashboards, from headlights to "under hood components".

Read more about how our machines are used in the Automotive Industry below:

• Visteon
• Automatic Plastics
• ChromeCo
• PEP
• TRW

Visteon
SANDRETTO WINS MAJOR CONTRACT TO SUPPLY VISTEON IN SPAIN

Visteon has ordered six Sandretto injection moulding machines. Ranging in size from 1300 tonnes lock to 2000 tonnes, they are to be installed at the company’s moulding plants in Barcelona, Madrid and Galizia.

One of the world’s leading automotive suppliers, Visteon states that dash boards and door panels for Renault, Citroen, Nissan and Opel are amongst the moulding which will be produced on the new Sandretto machines.

On one of the 1500 tonne machines, injection/compression technology will be employed in the production of door panels. The outer skin is inserted into the mould before the polymer is injected, initially with the die halves partially open.

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Automatic Plastics
INVESTMENT IN QUALITY FOR AUTOMATIC PLASTICS

After 31 years in business, Automatic Plastics of Tinaheley in County Wicklow is now run by a specialist team which includes a second Al Lawless who identifies consistent quality as the prime reason behind the company’s continuing success. This is substantiated by the considerable investment in quality control equipment, such as non-contact video image measurement; with magnification of up to x 276 and employing the new Quadra-Chek 2000 interface, this permits the preparation of accurate ISIR studies on new products.

Al Lawless explains that many changes have been made in the company’s approach to quality management. “Our registrations to both ISO 9002 and the automotive QS 9000 represented major steps for us and we now have what I believe is one of the most advanced SPC systems operating in any custom moulding shop.

THREE NEW SANDRETTOS DURING 2002

Investment has not been confined to quality control as is evident in the moulding department, which has been expanded to 20 machines over the last 18 months. Most recent additions include three more Sandrettos – a 75 tonne, a 130 tonne and a 230 tonne of the new NOVE S range – bringing the total of Sandrettos to 13. A policy of regular machine replacement has always ensured that the average machine age is low; now it is a remarkable four years.


Automatic Plastics operates 20 injection moulding machines from 25 tonnes to 380 tonnes lock. To accommodate what has been a notable increase in capacity more space was needed. An addition of 1200 sq metres raised the overall factory area to 3000 sq metres but, significantly, increased production floor space by 80%.

NEW CRANE AND NEW TOOLROOM

The need to reduce tool change times prompted installation of an overhead crane in the moulding department. The move proved very effective and the situation has been further improved through a programme of tool maintenance made possible through the re-equipping and enlarging of the in-house toolroom.

Post-moulding processes such as pad printing, hot-foil stamping, ultrasonic welding and component assembly represent increasingly important aspects of the service offered by Automatic Plastics. Customers, from the pharmaceutical, domestic appliance, telecommunications and automotive industries – including Braun, BMW, Citroen, Renault, Porsche, Volvo and games specialist Hasbro – are spread throughout the UK and mainland Europe, as well as Ireland.

“It is as much in the added value operations we can provide as in our design input where we are proving we can be of most benefit to a customer” explains Al, “and we hold ‘ship to store’ status with many of them.”

MECHANISATION

To a visitor possibly the most noticeable investment made by Automatic Plastics is in automation and mechanisation. All 20 moulding machines are fed from a centralised materials handling system and all machines are fitted with de-mould robots. Indexing conveyors transfer the parts to the down-stream processes.

“Maintaining the position we’ve earned as one of Ireland’s leading custom moulders remains a challenge” states Al, “and to achieve it we go out of our way to provide the highest possible level of customer support.

“And I want to stresses that this couldn’t be achieved without the commendable attitude shown by our staff – supervisors who’ve been with us for 25 and even 30 years, for example, and a moulding technician who came to us from school in the 70s, soon after we started. When they sense the need they stay until the job is done; and customers benefit from this level of dedication.”

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ChromeCo
“WE GAVE THEM THE SHELL; SANDRETTO HANDED OVER A FULLY OPERATION MOULD SHOP” States CHROMECO

ChromeCo had specialised in providing a quality chrome plating service for the plastics moulding industry. Much of its work is for the automotive industry. Recognising the benefits, which would accrue, in terms of both production control and quality control, from having its own moulding shop, the Walsall based company turned to Sandretto for more than just the necessary moulding machinery.

“In simple terms” explains ChromeCo Operations Director, Chris Sharpe, “our brief to Sandretto was ‘We’ll give you the shell; you provide the mould shop’.”

EXTENSIVE FACTORY PLANNING SERVICE

For some years, Sandretto has offered customers a factory planning service, which extends well beyond a production layout. “In addition to wanting ancillary equipment and production lines to be incorporated in layouts” states Operation Manager, Jeff Taylor, “customers are now turning to us for a factory complete with all services. This is what happened with ChromeCo.”

As existing premises could not be expanded to accommodate even the short term requirements, new premises had been identified a few miles away at Chasewater Heath, near Cannock. It was at this stage when ChromeCo sought Sandretto’s experience.

The need to ensure that numerous building, consultant and local authority approvals would be achieved required that Sandretto proceeded with the project in advance of ChromeCo agreeing to take over factory buildings which had not been designed to accommodate capital plant and gantry cranes.

In a building complex capable of accommodating up to twelve moulding machines, Sandretto prepared full plans for six moulding machines – a 485 tonne, three 380 tonne, and one each of 200 tonne and 110 tonne clamp.

SURVEYS AND LIAISON

Whilst the floor proved well able to support the plant, it was necessary to remove some of mezzanine level which would have restricted siting of moulding machines below. The remaining mezzanine was strengthened to provide storage and to carry both the mould chiller and the central raw material feed units. Ground surveys and liaison with the building consultants were necessary before installing foundations and supports for the 5 tonne overhead gantry.

“This was perhaps the single most important factor in the project” states Chris Sharpe. “we were anxious to see the moulding plant in production, but could take no final decision on accepting the premises until it was certain that the crane could go in. Noise levels from the plant also had to be checked and satisfy the local authority.”

Sandretto also installed compressors and a full compressed air circuit and negotiated to upgrade the electrical power sufficient to run the injection machines. “Time was against us at this point and it was necessary for us to have a temporary service laid on so that production on the smaller machines could commence on schedule.

Jeff states that Sandretto has carried out much larger projects. “This was different; we took on an empty shell of a building and handed over a working mould shop. At ChromeCo’s request, we handled all negotiations; specified all of the building alterations and oversaw their completion, installed cranage, power, compressed air and drainage and the systems for raw material supply and mould chilling and finally delivered and commissioned the six Sandretto machines, one of which had been temporarily producing ChromeCo work in another factory.”

Since completion of this start-up project, ChromeCo have increased throughput with the introduction of de-mould robots on a number of the machines together with a system of conveyors to extend the conveyor installed by Sandretto. Further expansion is possible as only half of the floor area is employed for moulding production.

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PEP
Custom moulder PEP installs a new Automotive component manufacturing Cell

Precision Engineering Plastics (PEP) of Tottenham, North London, have set themselves ambitious targets, in the custom moulding sector, every year since they were formed in 1986 and every year they have met their targets both in terms of growth and investment in new equipment.

The latest addition to their 16 machine (20-300 tonnes) engineering moulding facility is a Nove S 220 tonne Sandretto together with a Servo Robot loading system and an automatic packing station. This addition compliments the recent installation of 2-shot capability. The new machine is for a specific dedicated cell to produce a high volume insert moulded technical engineering component for a Tier 1 automotive customer. This addition to the higher tonnage range strengthens PEP’s position in the specialist close-tolerance sector serving the automotive, engineering, electrical and medical industries. PEP’s manufacturing site is being extended by 5,000 sq.feet to cater for the company’s future expansion programme.

Mike Cox - Sales Director at PEP, explained that the equipment for the new cell was purchased to meet the specific requirements of an existing customer, as well as to meet the company commitment to stay ahead of the field in terms of expertise and equipment. Mike said “We have built the business by specialising in technical moulded components and by differentiating ourselves from other moulders in the UK through a “partnership philosophy” which we adopt with every client.”

Mike is confident that PEP’s continued investment in new machinery and a “one stop shop” approach will continue to pay dividends, “We are a QS9000 accredited company with in-house tooling expertise, modern state-of-the-art equipment and a firm commitment to full project management. We like to think of ourselves as an extension of the customer’s operation, committed to moving forward with our customers by offering the complete moulding package.”

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TRW Engineered Fasteners & Components
In-Mould Assembly with Flexibly Combined Machine Concepts

The production of a complex three-component injection moulding part demonstrates the compatibility of Sandretto’s and Windsor’s two solutions for the multi-component technology: Series Nove Multi and PlugXPress®. Together with TRW Engineered Fasteners & Components, both companies show how it is possible to achieve a significant surplus value through a combination of innovative solutions for multi-component technology. A three-component moulding cell, consisting of a two-component injection moulding machine Series Nove Multi 220/860/185 and a multi-component retrofit unit PlugXPress WKT 0.6, is the interesting solution proposed by Sandretto and Windsor for the In-Mould Assembly process. Air grilles for the automotive industry made out of several single components, fixed together but movable to each other, can be produced in a 1+1+1 fold mould from TRW Engineered Fasteners & Components in only one manufacturing step, according to the patented In-Mould Assembly process.

For this application three incompatible material components are injected into each other in such a way that a secure movable connection without any external assembly afterwards is produced already in the tool. The manufacturing cell has a cycle time of 40 seconds. This is the time needed to inject into each other the frame, the blades and the gate so that at the end of the cycle the finished part leaves the tool.

The part is manufactured on a hydraulic multi-component machine Sandretto Series Nove Multi with a closing force of 2,200 kN and a screw diameter of 50 mm in the standard injection unit and 33 mm in the second vertically situated injection unit, completed by a Windsor PlugXPress unit with a screw diameter of 20 mm which is also placed horizontally in L-shape on the opposite control side. So the three materials are injected from three different directions. First, the blades out of PBT Celanex are injected from the vertical unit in the first cavity, then the index plate is turned by 120 degrees and the small connecting gate out of PP Noryl is injected from the horizontal PlugXPress unit situated in L-shape in the second cavity. Afterwards the tool is turned again by 120 degrees and the frame is injected in the third cavity out of PP Noryl from the horizontal injection unit of the machine. At last the index plate is turned by further 120 degrees to the starting position and the finished part can be removed. For the production of this application all three injection units work parallel.

By using a standard 2K machine as well as a 2K retrofit unit the manufacturing cell is highly flexible and quickly adjustable to actual production needs in spite of its high complexity, as both systems can also be used independently from each other without problems. These various usage possibilities represent a significant flexibility as well as financial surplus value.

The presented manufacturing cell demonstrates clearly that the concepts of Sandretto’s series Nove Multi and Windsor’s PlugXPress are complementary to one another and can be combined without problems although designed for different needs. All used Windsor and Sandretto injection moulding units are part of the standard machine program. This secures the compatibility of all parts and aggregates and a variety of possible combinations of screw diameters and injection volumes and thus can cover a wide capacity range for both concepts.

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