DUESSELDORF, Germany—Although aimed at showing technical competence, live demonstrations on plastics machinery producers' booths at plastics industry fairs sometimes result in large queues for practical items such as large buckets and crates.
Probably the most popular demonstration at K 2016 in Duesseldorf was production of complete watches on the booth of Lossburg, Germany-based injection molding machinery producer Arburg GmbH + Co. KG. This involved a production cell molding 2-component watchstraps in two different colors of liquid silicone rubber, followed by application of watch cases (with a dial bearing the Arburg name) and buckles to form ready watches.
The watches went like hot cakes to trade fair visitors who were prepared to stand waiting up to two hours as they came off a conveyor belt, with 100 or more people lining up for them.
Arburg's turnkey production cell was based around an electric drive 200-metric-ton Allrounder 570A 2000 Alldrive injection press. The cell was designed together with Kiki Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH in Malsch, Germany. The two differently colored LSR materials both came from Momentive Performance Materials Inc. in Leverkusen. Germany: harder Silopren 2670 for the main strap component with Shore A hardness of 69 and the softer secondary strap component in Silopren 2620 with Share A hardness of 24. Silopren 2670 was the first 26XX series grade, launched in 1996.
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