, supplied not only the machine and the automation but also undertook project planning for the mold as general contractor. The project is for molding of a range of Reliance's newly designed pipe end pieces.

By having Engel (Schwertberg, Austria) take on the complete delivery and installation, the processor and its customer both realized some advantages, they say. "Having a single point of contact for everything from the injection molding machine and automation to the mold was important to us," commented Jeremy Gledhill, senior project engineer, plastics at Reliance Worldwide. "By cutting down on the number of interfaces, we were able to save time and minimize the risk of errors." He added, "We have been able to simplify the overall process by taking an holistic view, and as a result, we are in a position to carry out production in Australia more cost-effectively than our competitors in China."

Both Reliance Worldwide and Technical Moulders Australia are located in Melbourne. The processor already serves Reliance with more than two million moldings each day, across all of Reliance's product ranges, with those parts molded on the 15 Engel presses already installed at Technical Moulders.

The plug-and-play molding cell provided by Engel for the new fittings comprises one of its victory 200/80 tech molding machines, the mold, an Engel-made viper 20 linear robot and a conveyor belt for the finished products. Making the mold is Thieltges, based in Lüdenscheid, Germany (which, in a bit of irony, on its website claims molding machines from two of Engel's top competitors for its own mold testing).

The molding cell is required to produce pipe end pieces in two different installation sizes. To facilitate rapid conversion from one diameter to the other, the experts from Engel and Thieltges opted for a two-in-one solution; for the eight-cavity mold, there are two cavity inserts. The inserts, fitted with bayonet catches, can of course be exchanged faster and more easily than the full mold. "In the past, we had to allow an entire working day for changeovers", says Henk Schoenmakers, managing director of Technical Moulders Australia. "Now we can swap the inserts in less than an hour."

Engel's mold technology team at its Schwertberg headquarters coordinated the project; just a few years ago the company also built many of its customers' molds for technical applications such as pipe fittings. Although the company no longer runs its own moldmaking unit, it still retains the expertise in-house.