UPDATED: Husky to enter all-electric market at K with preform and medical machinesUPDATED: Husky to enter all-electric market at K with preform and medical machines
Long associated with fully hydraulic, and more recently, hybrid hydraulic and electric technology for injection molding machines, Husky (Bolton, ON) will unveil two new all-electric injection molding systems at the K, with one targeting PET preform molders and the other for medical applications.
September 15, 2010
(Bolton, ON) will unveil two new all-electric injection molding systems at the K, with one targeting PET preform molders and the other for medical applications. In the case of the PET system, John Galt, Husky's President and CEO, said that his company has applied its beverage packaging experience to develop a small, efficient, and low-maintenance all-electric press that is purpose-built for PET preform manufacturing, adding, "This system will more effectively meet the needs of customers in emerging markets and low-volume or custom producers in more mature economies."
Jeff MacDonald, Husky's VP of marketing, told PlasticsToday that Husky had spent nearly two years assessing different technologies and combinations of technologies for these specific markets, before settling on an all-electric platform. "With this announcement, we are broadening our product line to offer more options to meet customer needs," MacDonald said. "When determining the right technology to use for specific customer applications in our core markets, we evaluate all available technologies to select the one that will deliver the highest quality at the lowest part-cost to customers."
The H-PET AE system is intended to complement Husky's market leading PET preform product line, the HyPET, which is based on its hybrid Hylectric platform, saying it will offer a high levels of quality and performance, but in a smaller size. The machine will run Husky's Polaris, PC-based controls.
Also at K, Husky will premiere the H-MED AE (all-electric), which it's calling a new medical injection molding system. The company had long fought the perception that because of the possibility of particulate contamination, hybrid and hydraulic presses weren't suited for the cleanroom molding of medical applications, presenting studies on the matter, and like other machine makers, altering presses intended for clean-room use to minimize the opportunity for contamination. Now, the company has entered the all-electric ring.
"H-MED AE is a completely integrated, cleanroom compatible, all-electric system that will offer the speed, quality, and control demanded by medical customers," Galt said, "as well as the precision and repeatability they need."
Here too Husky stressed that the H-MED AE will offer the same level of quality and high performance as hybrid predecessors from the Canadian firm, but in a smaller size. It will also run Polaris Controls. The The H-MED AE and H-PET AE systems will be running in Husky's booth at K2010, Hall 13, Stand A59.
In a 2004 interview during the K show, former company CEO and founder, Robert Schad, told MPW's Matt Defosse that despite long-standing opposition, Husky would eventually offer an all-electric clamp as well as an electric injection unit, with some caveats. "But our lock-up will remain hydraulic," Schad said, specifically because that technology allows processors to operate core pulls and better utilize the full machine stroke. At the time he also added that hydraulics ensure that the clamp-up never changes. "With an electric toggle machine, it's tough to guarantee that," he said.
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