A partner we can rely on

Greater efficiency and productivity – this was the target set for establishing a new injection molding department at the São Paulo facility of Amanco Wavin in Brazil, a globally operating company of the Orbia Group. No easy task, since PVC is processed in large, bulky molds to manufacture pipe segments and fittings. Here, MacroPower machines from WITTMANN have proved to be the ideal equipment.

With a total area of 250,000 square meters, the São Paulo facility is the largest production plant worldwide belonging to Amanco Wavin. Here, PVC pipes are produced for the Brazilian building construction and infrastructure industries. During our visit to São Paulo, the local Production Director Adriano Perboni leads us past the long extruders into the completely new injection molding facility. Here, several injection molding machines from WITTMANN are standing in a row, all fully automated. 

In 2021, it was decided to extend the plant by adding an in-house injection molding facility – “a strong commitment to local production here in Brazil”, emphasizes Perboni. “We are strengthening our local production site with the extension of our product range”.

Two and a half times more productive

The injection molding machines were supplied by WITTMANN. In addition to the machines for the new injection molding plant in São Paulo, the scope of delivery also included a few additional machines for the Joinville production plant in the south of the country. The facility in Joinville houses a large injection molding production, which has already existed for a long time and served as a blueprint for establishing the injection molding shop in São Paulo, 600 kilometers away. But the production was not to be a one-to-one copy. Instead, the opportunity was taken to optimize the production processes with the new equipment. “We had set ourselves the clear goal to increase the efficiency of production processes compared to the existing injection molding shop in Joinville”, says Adriano Perboni. So, the Amanco Wavin team thoroughly analyzed the existing processes and exploited all potentials for more efficiency. “The new, fully automated production of fittings now is two and a half times more productive”, Perboni is pleased to sum up.

Production space determines the choice of machinery

The first consideration was a scale-up. For the São Paulo plant, the number of cavities in the molds has been increased. And with the molds the machines have also grown. While the equipment in Joinville includes numerous WITTMANN machines from the SmartPower series, the new machines in São Paulo are exclusively large-scale MacroPower models.

Although injection molding technology from WITTMANN is already being used in many places by the Amanco Wavin group of companies, this brand was by no means a foregone conclusion for the line extension of the extrusion plant. For – and here another efficiency factor comes into play – the footprint of the production cells was also an important criterion. “Floor space is at a premium in Brazil, and especially in urban regions extremely expensive”, explains Perboni. “Here, the production floor space is not determined by the machinery, but instead, the amount of production space determines the choice of machines.”

Enquiries were sent to a number of different injection molding machine suppliers. “Some suppliers were sorted out very quickly, simply because their machinery would have taken up too much space”, says the Production Director. The MacroPower machines from WITTMANN showed the best performance in this regard. Firstly, because their two-platen design already ensures a relatively compact machine footprint. Secondly, because the large distance between tie-bars enlarges the mold space. “With the MacroPower, we have a machine with a particularly large tie-bar spacing available”, emphasizes Cássio Luís Saltori, Managing Director of WITTMANN BATTENFELD do Brasil, the subsidiary of the Austrian WITTMANN Group located in Vinhedo, only an hour’s drive north of São Paulo.
What does the distance between tie-bars have to do with the machine’s footprint? “A lot”, explains Saltori. “Thanks to the generously dimensioned mold clamping plates, large, bulky molds can be clamped on smaller-sized injection molding machines.”

Optimal utilization of mold clamping plates

The new molds with higher numbers of cavities come with quite a sizeable volume. Added to this must be the many core pulls radially protruding from the steel block while the mold is open. This is why often larger injection molding machine models are used than would be needed for the clamping force required by the injection molding process. Not so with MacroPower machines: they make it possible to choose the machine size according to the clamping force actually required, rather than the volume of the mold.

Thanks to short tie-bars and a large platen stroke, the clamping system of MacroPower machines reaches a large distance between the ends of the tie-bars and the moving platen. This enables mold insertion and mold clamping laterally from the rear end of the machine, using a crane. Where the platen stroke is not sufficient to free the tie-bars for a mold change, a hydro-mechanical tie-bar pulling device integrated in the pressure pad is used. Pulling or pushing back the tie-bars are fully automatic processes taking only few minutes. All of this put together enables extremely fast set-up processes without having to remove the core pulls. This is an additional efficiency benefit, even though this particular aspect is of minor importance for Amanco Wavin in São Paulo. Here, set-ups are rare. Most products are manufactured in continuous operation. 

 
Processing different types of PVC

The distance between tie-bars was a convincing argument for Amanco Wavin. But before WITTMANN finally won the contract, still another hurdle had to be cleared. “Here, we are not processing standard PVC”, is how Perboni describes this further challenge. This is why the teams of Amanco Wavin and WITTMANN BATTENFELD do Brasil carried out extensive test series at the injection molding department in Joinville. Starting with the existing PVC plasticizing unit from WITTMANN, the attributes of screw and barrel were varied and finally adapted precisely to the specific types of PVC to be processed. In this way, the new machines are able to yield maximum performance. “The project was under time pressure. We succeeded in developing a customized screw in terms of geometry and surface attributes within only 30 days”, reports Marcos Cardenal from WITTMANN BATTENFELD do Brasil. The technical specifications were then transmitted to the WITTMANN factory in Kottingbrunn, Austria, where the production of screws was started immediately. The positive test results finally made it clear that the order would go to WITTMANN. “That was outstanding teamwork”, confirms Adriano Perboni. “When my colleagues informed me that the optimal screw had been found, we immediately broke off our negotiations with all other suppliers who were still in the race.”

Targeting the “no-touch machine”

Technical support is also a vital factor for high efficiency and productivity in injection molding production. Not only during the planning stage for new production cells, but above all in after sales service, as Perboni points out. “The first months after the start-up of new machines are like the honeymoon following a wedding. Everything is running perfectly. But the fine art is to make the partnership function until the end of life. With WITTMANN, we have a partner we can rely on throughout the entire life cycle of our machines, even if we need help late in the evening or on weekends.”

All new injection molding machines at the São Paulo production plant are now optimally run in. The new projects currently under way include the digitalization of injection molding processes. “The Internet of Things and networking via OPC UA help us to collect process data and use them for process optimization”, says Perboni. “Digitalization will give us the opportunity to become more independent of machine operating staff.” To achieve this goal, the automation of processes is not enough. Instead, Adriano Perboni has autonomous, self-optimizing production in mind.

“Naturally, this also has the effect of keeping the costs of human resources down. But in fact, we are finding it more and more difficult to hire skilled personnel “, says the Plant Manager. “So, the no-touch machine must be our target.”