Engel's flexseal injection molding machine sets new industry standards

Engel’s (Schwertberg, Austria) new flexseal 300 T horizontal machine with a clamping force of 3,000 kN has been designed specifically for the needs of international O-ring and flat gasket manufacturers and sets new standards for the industry with its features.

The size of the machine was critical during development, because the machine footprint is growing in importance as an efficiency factor and has already become a deciding factor for purchasing new production equipment. This new machine is significantly shorter than other injection molding machines for elastomer processing in its high clamping force class, and with its heating plates sized 550 by 650 mm still provides more room for the mold, for automation and for accessing the machine nozzle.

“The trend worldwide is towards higher quality, which leads to the use of high quality production equipment and a higher degree of automation,” Leopold Praher, Sales Manager Elast/LIM, Engel Austria, told PlasticsToday.  “At the same time, the pressure on pricing is increasing. With the new Engel flexseal machine, we now make mass production competitive even in high-wage countries. To achieve this the machine combines the highest energy efficiency and highest reproducibility with an easy automation and a very compact machine design,” added Praher.

The hydraulic tie-bar machine is equipped with a screw injection unit that ensures very high precision for production with small and mid-sized shot volumes. The plasticizing units for rubber, solid silicone, LSR and TPE can be changed out very easily. Each injection unit comes in two cylinder diameters with up to 2400 bar injection pressure. In addition, several options are available, such as custom-sized heating plates or a greater distance between plates.

Standardized interfaces are available for the integration of conventional brush and part removal modules as well as other automation features and peripherals. The peripheral systems can be operated comfortably via the CC300 control unit of the injection molding machine.

As a standard, the Engel flexseal 300 T comes equipped with the servo-hydraulic Engel ecodrive, which helps limit the energy consumption of the machine greatly because the heating phases in the production of O-rings and flat gaskets are often long.