An injection moulding machine (also known as an injection moulding machine) is a machine that produces plastic parts from plastic in the form of granulate or powder. To do this, the required moulding compound is prepared in the so-called injection unit and injected into a mould, which represents a negative mould of the desired plastic part. Depending on the process used, various components of the machine are heated or tempered. Injection moulding machines basically consist of two assemblies: The injection unit or plasticising unit, which prepares the raw material and injects it into the tool (also known as the mould) under pressure, and the clamping unit, which holds the tool and opens and closes it.
A customer produces different types of plastic parts on their injection moulding machine. These plastic parts have to be transferred from a roller conveyor on the ejection side of the machine. Due to the large number of parts and to support the employee at the machine, a so-called manipulator was suggested after analysing the work area in detail. Due to the changing work area, this should be mobile. The workstation solution is a mobile, electro/pneumatic parallel arm manipulator of the MANTIS type from Sachs. It is equipped with a mechanical gripper and a vacuum lifter. The MANTIS has a unique selling point compared to other competitor products on the market thanks to its integrated scales. The MANTIS electronic scales eliminate the need for regular manual adjustment depending on the load weight using a compressed air valve.
Depending on the analysis and evaluation of the work area, an exoskeleton could also facilitate the handling of injection moulded parts.
Of course. The MANTIS has a wide range of connection options for load handling attachments for handling different loads.
Are there any other safety risks that need to be considered on an injection moulding machine?
There are indeed. For example, when changing the injection mould or during maintenance work, workers can get into an area where there is a risk of falling when climbing onto the machine. This makes the use of appropriate safety equipment necessary. Find out more in this solution article.