IPF Japan: Sodick develops flexible manufacturing cell system; debuts first all-electric machine

Sodick has coupled its OPM350L linear motor-drive 3D metal printer with its MR30 manufacturing cell system to realize a flexible product system for tool building and injection molding of parts. Mold cavities/cores are fabricated with conformal cooling channels on the 3D metal printer and installed in cassette molds mounted on a linear conveyor that enables tool preheating. Tools are then automatically loaded into injection machines using pneumatic-clamping as needed for short production runs.

A typical system configuration might consist of six Sodick plunger injection molding machines arranged in line and between 20 and 30 molds mounted on the linear conveyor, each with an individual scannable Qr code. The system is particularly suitable for production of lot sizes of 300 to 1000 parts according to Sodic, which also offers the ICF-V scheduler for operating the system in an optimized manner through real-time scheduling.

Sodick also surprised IPF visitors with the debut of its first toggle-clamped all-electric injection molding machines; the MS series of 50, 100 and 200-tonne machines. Previously the company had only offered direct-clamped hybrid machines. The MS200 machine on show at IPF was molding PP cups in a conformal-cooled mold in a cycle time of 3.95 seconds.