OFTERING, Austria—Elmet, a manufacturer of equipment for silicone and rubber parts, has released a new, all-electric cold runner for liquid silicone rubber injection molding.
The Smartshot E cold runner, with servo-driven nozzle needles, allows both flexibility and precision for multi-cavity, two-component LSR molding, according to the company.
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 0.002 millimeters, and provides constant feedback about instantaneous position."
"Thanks to opening and closing times of the order of hundredths of a second, needle movements can be perfectly synchronized and precisely balanced during injection into up to 16 cavities," Elmet said.
The company also boasts that the Smartshot E cold runner saves time by allowing for frequent and convenient assembly and disassembly.
Each nozzle in the Smartshot models can be calibrated so the filling behavior is sharply defined.
"The innovative cooling system and thermal isolation of the cold runner from the mold side ensure process stability," Elmet said. "The molding principle ... ensures almost complete elimination of production waste such as sprues and runner scrap."