Despite hydrogen’s challenges, BMW thinks the only way to actually achieve a shift to zero-emissions transportation is through a mix of BEVs and hydrogen vehicles.

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To highlight the effectiveness of this feature, Ed outlines an incident when an apple was dropped between two surfaces of the mould: “Because of the accuracy of the AI-Protect, the apple wasn’t crushed. That shows the precision that we need on these moulding machines.”

Other automated features include Clamp Force Adjustment, which checks and adjusts the minimum clamp force to provide increased security, eliminating the need to manually modify this critical parameter. Optimising clamp force also minimises mould wear and increases machine life, cuts component defects, reduces energy consumption and compresses start-up times.

EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers.

The ROBOSHOT S450iA injecting moulding machine operates with a clamp force of 4,500kN, a double platen die height of between 350mm and 1m, and a clamping stroke of 900mm. Weighing 29.7 tonnes, it boasts a rated maximum injection speed of 180mm/s.

“Putting the ownership of waste and the collection back on the people that produce packages, you’re seeing a broad change in ESG goals,” he said. “It used to be, ‘OK, we’re going to be carbon neutral by 2030.’ Like, what does that mean? So we’re seeing real granularity in what that means now — is it packaging, is it energy use, what are the milestones, the two-year, three-year marks? That’s how you know they’re serious.”

“You literally can’t. Buying this extruder, it took 6 months,” he said, and even that was a miracle. “Can you imagine scaling a business if it took you two years to get one machine? You have to use the infrastructure that’s in place.”

The $18 million funding round was led by “global problem-solving organization” Helena, with participation from One Small Planet, Regeneration.VC, At One Ventures, and SoundWaves.

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The products Cruz Foam makes are generally compostable in the most broadly accepted sense — you could just throw them in your yard and they’ll be gone in a month or two (and might even give your plants a boost). But because it’s being mated with cardboard and other materials, the company continues to face the challenge of how to make these things mesh with existing municipal waste systems. Is it recyclable according to Sacramento’s definition of the word? What about yard waste — does it technically break the rule there, and does anyone care?

They got their first big break last year when Whirlpool tapped them to make a few pieces for their appliance boxes, and now, having proved out the idea, Cruz Foam is getting ready to break into half a dozen more industries.

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To find out more about FANUC’s range of ROBOSHOT injection moulding machines, visit the FANUC UK stand B13, Plastics Live 2022, 5-6 July, Coventry Building Society Arena

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As a result of the close integration of machine, robot and software, exceptionally fast cycle times can be achieved. As Ed Darling explains, this is a key benefit to Advanced Plastics: “I particularly like FANUC moulding machines because, being all-electric, they are economical to run; but mostly, I like them because we are a cycle time-oriented business.”

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The truth there, though, is that neither party has much choice. The manufacturers need to prepare for a greener future, and Cruz Foam doesn’t have even a fraction of the machines it would need to meet demand. Felts said they never intended to actually do the manufacturing.

The company, whose founder, John Felts, I met in Alaska during the Accelerator at Sea, has been scrappily humming along prototyping various ways to turn chitin and a few other natural ingredients into a material that can replace expanded polystyrene foam (EPS; like Styrofoam) and other common plastic packaging.

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“The combination of the FANUC robot and moulding machine allows us to seamlessly integrate our processes,” says Rob Anderson, Managing Director of Advanced Plastics. “This has resulted in a dramatic increase in our output from around 600,000 parts on a particular range up to a planned 1.3 million.”

“Out biggest focus is commercial production and revenue generation, until next year,” he said. “We’re filing tons of patents. A lot of growing the operational footprint of this company; we’re moving to new HQ, now up to 30 people.”

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The need to prototype and test these possibilities is one reason why the company is raising such a considerably sized round. They just bought a new extruder (foam like this is essentially printed using specialized equipment) and have been experimenting with all kinds of new form factors, driven by partners and potential partners across many industries.

Felts said that the company is in talks with several of the largest manufacturers of packaging foam, working with them on a deal that would see them actually making chitin-based materials and sharing the glory with Cruz Foam.

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Like all of FANUC’s offerings, the solution provided to Advanced Plastics has a range of intelligent, digital features. In this instance, one of the key smart benefits is the FANUC AI-Protect system for both mould and ejector. This provides unparalleled mould protection, which in turn neutralises an important potential cause of downtime.

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The M-20iD35 robot at Advanced Plastics is controlled via the latest R-30iB control system. This integrates more than 250 software functions to ensure industry-leading speed, accuracy and safety. This is all neatly packed into the FANUC A-cabinet, with a high-performance CPU and mainboard with increased memory, a compact and stackable design, and the user-friendly iPendant Touch control interface.

It helps that a number of laws and trends have steadily pushed companies toward eco-friendly alternatives to plastic or even cardboard.

“A lot of what we’re focusing on is those two initial areas — packaging that replaces polyethylene and polystyrene foam. But demand is growing in other avenues: cold chain, CPG [consumer packaged goods], e-commerce, etc. People asking about construction, or how we can do injection molding. It’s exciting to see so much potential,” said Felts.

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“The government needs to define standards for a new gen of compostable products — you’ve got to make it a no-brainer for customers,” Felts said. At least even if it goes in the wrong bin, it still degrades gracefully.

The WSJ reports that OpenAI’s next funding round, worth around $6.5 billion, could close as soon as the first week in October.

Based in Hull, Advanced Plastics undertakes everything from initial design concepts to volume production of plastic mouldings and assemblies, structural plastic components and technical automotive components. The company has almost 10 years’ experience of using FANUC equipment, as Rob explains: “Our injection moulding machines produce high-level engineering parts in various grades of plastic. Since we purchased the first FANUC robot back in 2012, we now have nine ROBOSHOT machines and over 40 FANUC robots. We are proud to be the first company in the UK to purchase the FANUC ROBOSHOT S450iA. We purchased this machine on the back of our experience with FANUC, as we needed a bigger machine that gives us the sensitivity to protect very delicate tooling. This machine perfectly fits the bill.”

The best way to remove plastics from the ecosystem is to make sure they never get there in the first place, and Cruz Foam is well on its way to replacing some of the worst ones out there with its naturally derived and compostable alternative — and the company just landed an $18M series A to do it faster.

By measuring the motor torque, AI-Protect immediately stops the machine if any restriction is detected, shielding the mould during the full opening and closing cycle while having no impact on clamp closing speeds. The same technology protects the ejector’s forward and reverse movement without affecting productivity. AI-Protect even alerts operators when greasing is required, or the mould is worn.

Whoever makes it, you’ll probably be seeing more of their products soon. The company showed me some prototypes and new verticals it was working on, though it can’t announce any of its new partners or customers until the contracts or agreements are finalized, or in some cases until the requisite patents are filed. Suffice so say that the company is going well beyond simply replacing a foam insert here and a molded shape there.

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The UK’s first installed FANUC ROBOSHOT S450iA injection moulding machine has doubled output on a key range of moulded products for Advanced Plastics Ltd, a supplier of precision-engineered parts to OEMs in the automotive, medical, packaging, defence and consumer goods industries. Installed in combination with the integrated FANUC M020iD35 robot, the success of the installation prompted Advanced Plastics to order a second machine-robot combination from FANUC UK, which has already been delivered and commissioned.

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“AI-Protect allows the moulds to open and close at fast speeds with full protection of the tooling. The tooling can often be just as expensive as the moulding machines so we must protect it,” says Ed Darling, Advanced Plastics’ Process Manager.

Suddenly, it seems, everyone from goods manufacturers to the people who produce plastic foam are looking for full-stack alternatives, even if there isn’t cost parity. They see the writing on the wall, and the idea of being caught unprepared when a, say, ban on EPS kicks them out of West Coast markets is a scary one.

For Rob Anderson, meanwhile, the success of the first system quickly led to the company placing an order for a second: “We went for the second machine due to the easy installation of the first. The short lead times offered by FANUC meant we could get products to market extremely quickly. At Advanced Plastics, we like to experience new technologies and look at innovative technologies where we can achieve better results for our customers. In essence, the FANUC ROBOSHOT S450iA was the only machine that could do the particular job that we needed it to do ­– and it does it very well.”

Drata, a security compliance automation platform that helps companies adhere to frameworks such as SOC 2 and GDPR, has laid off 9% of its workforce, amounting to 40 people. Founded in 2020, Drata integrates…

Cruz Foam creates materials out of chitin, which is what makes up the shells of most crustaceans, like crabs, shrimp, lobsters and many land insects as well. It’s strong, stable, totally biodegradable, and boy is it plentiful: there are mountains of this stuff for the taking outside every seafood processing plant.

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FANUC’s M-20iD35 robot, meanwhile, is a high-inertia, high-strength model with a hollow wrist and base that delivers fast and efficient movement in all six axes. Its maximum load capacity of 35kg is more than sufficient for the lightweight plastic injection moulded components produced on the ROBOSHOT S450iA at Advanced Plastics. Similarly, its reach range of 1,831mm means it can easily cope with stretching into the ROBOSHOT S450iA to extract components and load them into a collection point or pallet – regardless of the dimensions of the moulded part.

With Cruz Foam focusing on the creative and sales work and working with existing manufacturers to actually make the stuff, 2023 could be the year the company goes from niche to mainstream. Watch your doorstep for the trademark CF (or as I prefer to see it, interlocking crustacean claws) on or in your delivery.