There’s a new machine on the Apple Rubber production floor that is increasing O-ring and seal production while taking some pressure off of one of our older tools.
The Maplan FIFO Rubber injection unit has been online since mid-July, and this press — capable of the “fully automatic production of O-rings, sealing elements, and moulded articles made of elastomers with dosing volume from 130 cm3 up to 8,600 cm3” — gives our team greater control over the speed and efficiency of the production process.
The new press from Maplan, a well-known manufacturer based in Austria, also relieves some of the workload from our Rutil rubber injection press, which has been in service for over a decade.
“Maplan’s been out there for a long time,” said Mike Tranquili, manufacturing manager at Apple Rubber. “So we took a look at (this machine), and it was a really good fit because it was really close to what we currently had. We just had to make a set of adapter plates that would allow us to fit our current tooling onto the plates, and we just had to do a little bit of modification to the bolt-downs and the tools — nothing big at all. That allowed us to take our current tools, our current library, and put it right into this machine without having to do a lot of rework.”
The Maplan FIFO rubber injection press has a Cool Drive II energy-saving servo-hydraulic system, customized brushing and ejection systems for maximum efficiency, and the PC5000 touch control screen to improve the injection moulding process.
“The nice thing about this machine is that it’s modular, so you can turn things on as you want it,” Tranquili explained. “One of the big things with this machine is that we added the closed loop circuit so that we have a constant feedback on where the injection unit is. That gives us greater shot-to-shot consistency.
“In some of the older machines, like the one we have now, (we) look at limits, inject to the limit, (and) it sends this signal back that says it’s set — but because of the delays, by the time you get your signals and reads, you’ve overshot. With this new machine, you always know exactly what’s going on. The machine watches itself, basically, and tells you, as you get close to its limits, slow down, don’t overshoot, don’t undershoot. You get more consistency.”
Also consistent is the usage of the Maplan rubber injection press — with the exception of a few hours between shifts daily, the machine has been in constant use since its arrival. Currently, the team is processing FKM, polyacrylate (ACM), and colored and standard rubber compounds.
“It’s been going nonstop,” Tranquili noted, “since it dropped on the floor.”