Silicone is one of the hot spots for innovation at K2016 and one in which smaller players often hold their own with the big materials suppliers in the development stakes:
Silicone Engineering Ltd. of Blackburn, England, is showcasing kSil V-0, a sheet sponge materials developed to improve safety and comfort for rail passengers. According to Steve Hadlington, technical and innovations director at Silicone Engineering, the material is "the complete silicone material" for sealing and vibration dampening within rail carriages. The material, he pointed out, has been approved and specified to rail industry standards, including EN 45545-2, BS 6853 Cat 1 and NF F-16-101 F0, and has generated considerable interest at the Duesseldorf show.
In Hall 6 Momentive is featuring two-component LSR on LSR molding with Silopren LSR 2670 liquid silicone rubber in cooperation with Elmet and Arburg. System supplier, Elmet, created a 4+4 cavity mold manufacturing egg-holders and built a fully automated turn-key cell by integrating an Arburg injection molding machine with its own peripheral devices and dosing system. The installed close-loop controlled color injection at the dosing system is a new feature that is being presented for the first time at K.
Sigma Engineering GmbH is displaying an “entirely new perspective” on its virtual molding technology—featuring the complete development chain, from part design, over-mold manufacturing up to serial production. Sigma furthermore offers a first outlook on future software developments, which include Design of Experiments and an optimization tool. These capabilities are being illustrated with displays including a bottle carrier mesh by CVA Silicone, presented in collaboration with Momentive, CVA Silicone and Engel.