Clean, reliable servo hot runners

Polyshot Corp. (W. Henrietta, NY) has debuted a servodriven valve-gate hot runner system. The iDrive System consists of two separate components: a servo control with a touch-screen interface, and a servodriven valve gate actuator for opening and closing the valve pins in the hot runner mold. The system can cycle as many as 128 valve gate pins in as little as 0.3 second. Further, because the system does not require air or oil pressure, it is well suited for high-cavitation tooling used in cleanroom applications.

“We’ve designed the iDrive to provide molders with a fast, reliable, and clean hot runner system,” says Doug Hepler, president of Polyshot. “Electric systems eliminate the need for the traditional pneumatic or hydraulically activated valve gates, which are more complex and require more maintenance.”

With this system, the valve gate pin forward position can be controlled in increments of 0.0001 inch on a dedicated Set Pin Position screen. An example of the usefulness of this feature is that the operator can now recess the valve pins into the part surface with a quick keypad entry vs. removing and grinding the actual valve pins, which was needed previously. Through the touch-screen interface, the operator can monitor and control critical items such as manifold temperature, cycles completed, units of measure, and valve pin open time. —stephen.moore@cancom.com