injection molding by using artificial neural network and genetic algorithm - molding manufacturers

At eight locations on three continents, Utz produces solutions for in-house and external logistics. Recently, the company from Switzerland commissioned the largest injection moulding machine in the country to date. The new machine with a clamping force of 40,000 kN will allow the manufacturer to use stack and multi-cavity moulds and thus increase production volume. As a global player, Utz has over 1,350 employees and state-of-the-art production locations in Germany, England, France, Poland, China, the USA and Mexico. With an export share of around 40 percent, Utz Switzerland delivers its products primarily to Italy, Austria, Eastern Europe, the Scandinavian countries and Oceania.

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The new model features a sophisticated two-story automation system that implements the subsequent process steps such as the application of RFIDs, IML barcodes and logos plus post-processing and quality assurance within the cycle time. The two Krauss Maffei LRX robots right at the machine have twelve-meter-long Z-axes and thus a particularly large working radius.

Founded by Otto Röhm, the company’s portfolio evolved slightly over the years and was widened in the 1999 all-German merger of former owner Hüls with Degussa. With the 2007 merger of Degussa-Hüls into the newly created Evonik, the name Röhm fell by the wayside, but under the agreement with Advent has been restored.

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Utz is currently using another of Krauss Maffei's digital products to develop a predictive quality solution in collaboration with the Institute for Materials Technology and Plastics Processing (IWK) of the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences. The DataXplorer can save up to 500 signals per second from the machine and other sensors and display them as curves. The goal now is to determine how many of these are needed in order to predict good components reliably.

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In late 2017, Evonik announced a new process for MMA, which it branded as "LiMA" (Leading in Methacrylates). At the time, the Essen group said the process combined established steps with its own developments. Due to considerably lower energy consumption, it is claimed to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 40%.

“With the support of Advent International we are now able to initiate important investments in our technologies and the expansion of our production facilities,” Pack added.

With the transfer of Evonik’s methacrylates business to private equity investor Advent International, Röhm, one of the world’s leading producers of methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer and PMMA molding compounds, is now called Röhm again. The company based at Darmstadt, Germany, also has a new logo.

The percentage of recycled material is currently 35 percent and Utz operates its own recycling sites for this purpose, for example a mill in Switzerland with a throughput of 1.2 tons per hour. Plans call for the percentage of recycled material to increase to 80 percent as part of the Utz Group's global climate strategy. This is where one function of Krauss Maffei machines plays a special role: APC plus. Based on the melt viscosity, APC plus controls the changeover point and the holding pressure level and thus ensures parts with extremely consistent weight. This balances out batch fluctuations that result from different raw materials and percentages of recycled material.

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The company, which also produces adhesive resins as well as cyanide for the mining industry, reported sales of €1.9 billion in 2018, and management estimates that 2019 revenues will be at a similar label. In PMMA sheet and molding compounds, Evonik counted itself among the three leading players, with a last reported market share of 19-20%.

The heavyweight machinery traveled on a total of 22 trucks from Munich to Bremgarten (about 15 kilometers west of Zurich): one for the machine bed, each platen, one per two tiebars and one each for many other components. After twelve weeks of set-up, the MX 4000 went online on the requested target date and replaced an older machine with a clamping force of 27,000 kN that was energy-inefficient, offered limited technical options, had only a simple linear robot and had insufficient energy efficiency.

Containers for today's logistics have to be stackable, feature IML barcodes, integrated RFIDs and, of course, the logo of the company that owns them. Switzerland's Georg Utz company has specialised in this application, and for this reason it has commissioned the country's largest injection moulding machine, a Krauss Maffei MX 4000-75000.

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Now headed by Michael Pack as CEO, the old and new Röhm has some 3,900 employees globally at 15 production sites. Its biggest sites for production of its iconic “Plexiglas” brand acrylic glass (PMMA) are at Darmstadt and Worms, Germany. Its website lists altogether eight sites in Germany, also including Hanau and Wesseling, along with three in the US, two in China/Taiwan and one each in Russia and South Africa.

The family-owned company runs three shifts at its plant on the new MX 4000, producing approximately 20 different products with weights of up to 50 kilograms, including pallets, boxes and Paloxes. The material is usually a polyolefin such as PP or HDPE, but ABS or technical plastics are also sometimes used.

This latest purchasing decision is based on a long-standing relationship based on mutual trust. The group already operates a total of 50 injection moulding machines from Krauss Maffei, 22 of which are running in Switzerland at clamping forces starting at 800 kN.

According to Andreas Schlegel, Head of Operations/ Managing Director at Georg Utz, the important factor is that this new investment opens up a wider gateway for material purchasing. In the case of regrind, for example, it is also possible to buy different quality grades or polyolefin blends that are more readily available. APC plus has been used on the smaller machines for two years, and in this time, scrap has decreased significantly.

The deal with Advent was announced in March of this year as part of Evonik’s “consistent strategy to focus on specialty chemicals.”  The private equity group is taking the business for an enterprise value of €3 billion – eight times EBITDA.

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With the introduction of an innovative process to produce MMA, Pack said Röhm is also targeting global technology leadership. “It is our goal to keep driving the growth of our business and to further strengthen leading market positions through investments and targeted expansion,” he said.