Elmet offers a dose of automation for LSR sector

DUESSELDORF, Germany—For Elmet Elastomere, K 2022 represents a chance to showcase its long-standing business partnerships and new liquid silicone manufacturing components, as well as a production cell for beverage lids that highlights both.

Elmet, of Oftering, Austria, is a supplier of processing equipment for liquid silicone and production of LSR parts.

Partners in the production cell—which includes Elmet's flagship Smartshot E and Smartmix Top 7000 dosing system (an upgrade from the company's Top 5000 dosing unit)—include Sumitomo Demag (injection molding machine), Shin-Etsu (silicone supplier), SimpaTec and Mettler Toledo.

"Elmet has been a leader in these fields for more than 25 years," said Bob Pelletier, sales manager, dosing systems in the U.S. for Elmet. "One of biggest challenge customers face is dealing with a supplier that has knowledge, vs. one who does not.

"It is very important to deal with a supplier with experience with materials. And there are nuances to silicone that are very specific. It is very important to find a tool maker for LSR that can do this, and do it well."

The production system being presented at K 2022 manufactures four separately sized lids for the food and beverage business, intended to retrofit beverage cans after they have been opened to keep contents fresh.

The precise accuracy and stability of the injection process is made possible by a weighing cell, and a laser marks the finished lids to ensure traceability.

"The Top 7000 (dosing system) is new for us and a step forward from the Top 5000," Pelletier said. "They are automated systems. You load the buckets and the switch detects when the follower plate reaches the bottom of the bucket, and the system takes over. This takes potential errors away—the lid for 'A' won't fit on 'B,' and vice versa—and improves potential contamination issues."

And this, in turn, eliminates the dreaded down time for processors. There is less volume to change with the drums (as the follower plate reaches almost to the bottom, using up to 99.6 percent of silicone material) and there is less to clean up.

In the production cell, the lids are manufactured by an Elmet injection mold, featuring the all-electric Smartshot E cold runner system.

Enter the Top 7000 for material provision (the silicone material provided by Shin-Etsu), which offers the precise dosing of the platinum cure and secondary material.

A Sumitomo device, in conjunction with an Elmet additive, are then used to remove the parts from the mold, and they are transferred to a weighing device constructed by Mettler Toledo.

It is at this point after the Mettler Toledo device that the parts are marked by laser for traceability.

"The new system is not only innovative in term of the perfect symbiosis of technology-leading Elmet elements," according to Elmet, "as the magic of this innovation unfolds in the interaction between the high-tech contributions from the five partner companies [including Elmet]."

With automation comes efficiency and improved environmental stewardship through energy savings, Pelletier said.

"Our systems produce less waste and fewer labor costs—and for the medical industry, less handling of actual parts [with Elmet's turnkey systems]," he said.

While the medical space is the biggest driver for Elmet's LSR processing systems, the company also works in automotive, health care, consumer goods and bake ware.

Within automotive, Pelletier noted that Elmet is working on thermal management and flame-retardant processing for the electric vehicle industry.

"It is similar to the airline industry," Pelletier said. "When you are getting out of the car (during a "thermal event"), seconds could mean lives. This is where thermal management through additives comes in. You have to be able to put that additive in in very low percentages—anywhere between one and six percent. This is a critical performance characteristic that the equipment has to be able to measure and work with."

The entirety of Elmet's manufacturing footprint is in Oftering, Pelletier said.

Elmet's new, all-electric cold runner for LSR injection molding is the Smartshot E, which features servo-driven nozzle needles.

This allows both flexibility and precision for multi-cavity, two-component LSR molding, Elmet said.

An 18.5-inch color display helps operators to use the servos to position the needles during nozzle opening and closing to an accuracy of .002 mm.

"We developed some new equipment with the cold runner system which includes direct control over the bins and nozzle, and this provides valuable feedback," Pelletier said. "The screw and runner are gone, and this provides a significant cost reduction."

Pelletier noted that the Smartshot E saves time, as well, by allowing for convenient assembly and disassembly.

And the Top 7000 dosing system "is the new benchmark for dosing systems," Pelletier said.

"It shows what is possible in the field today," he said.

What is immediately evident is the system's relatively compact size. Elmet boasts that it has "the smallest footprint of any dosing systems suitable for 200-liter drums on the market."

The system simultaneously maintains a "significantly smaller" volume of LSR—resulting in a reduction in the volume to purge.

Fewer moving parts means less maintenance and cleaning, Pelletier added.

While Elmet started as a tool maker in 1996, its recent innovations have propelled the company—and by association, downstream industries—into the future.

The company expanded in 2016 and 2021 at its Austrian campus, and Elmet remains nimble as the EU energy crunch and sustainability regulations (different by continent and country) take hold.

"We are doing fantastic," Elmet CEO Harald Wallner said. "There is a lot of interest so far in the new dosing system.

"And the new build [expansion, in Oftering] serves not only to extend the production and office facilities, but represents an investment in all areas … to meet the high demand for molds, production systems and dosing technology."