MoldMaking Technology

OCT 2017

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40 MoldMaking Technology —— OCTOBER 2017 INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Zahoransky delivers molds and automated production cells, like the one shown here, for toothbrushes that are sold all over the world. Tooling Systems Squeeze More Production out of Each Mold By Barbara Schulz Approximately 3.5 billion toothbrushes are sold worldwide each year, and every other brush is made with a Zahoransky mold. Zahoransky (Black Forest, Germany) was founded by Anton Zahoransky in 1902. The company manufactures injec- tion molds that produce 140 toothbrush handles per minute. Zahoransky maintains industry-leading delivery times and builds intelligent systems that bring downstream insert and assembly operations to the tool without increasing cycle times. Although a pair of toothbrushes are sometimes sold for less than a dollar, the technology behind the toothbrush is complex. Manufacturing toothbrushes requires high flexibility. The chal- lenge lies in the wide variety of designs, topographies, filaments and colors. The manufacturer must change over the units quickly and must produce the toothbrushes cost-effectively and to the highest hygiene standards and in different quantities. Zahoransky accomplishes this with sophisticated mold designs. "You have to think outside the box to remain on top of this highly competitive market," says Michael Schmidt, managing director of Zahoransky Automation & Molds. "We offer manufacturing solutions for mass products with as many as 10 different styles in one tool. We develop our multi-compo- nent systems with modular tooling concepts, which have the ability to switch from one product style to the other by simply replacing the mold insert." Multi-Component Technology Eliminates Color Changes Using multi-component technology requires a high level of skill, even though the technology is not new. For example, a seven-component, 16-cavity injection mold that Zahoransky built in 2014 features seven injection units and one removal station that is located outside of the mold. Two different materials in the same color are processed in the first sta- tion, while two different thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) are used in the second station. One of these is injected in four different colors. The unparalleled advantage of this multi- component technique is that color change is eliminated. In the past, each color change meant a production stoppage of at least two hours. "This technology enables a product that is developed dur- ing the day to be in supermarket storerooms by the evening," Schmidt says. "However, we could not rest on our laurels. As competition from China grew, we decided to diversify from our broom and brush market involvement and develop other mar- kets and products to generate added value to our customers." Turnkey Production Systems After intensive research, the company decided to tap into the caps and closures market and the medical market, which accounts for 30 to 35 percent of its business today. About 80 percent of these applications involve needles and syringes. Turnkey production systems automate the manufacturing of pre-filled injection syringes, for instance. The system inte- grates the needle separation process (with speeds ranging to 400 needles per minute) and injection molding. The needles are processed using the first in, first out (FIFO) principle and are then immediately over-molded with the COP/COC (cyclo olefin polymer/cyclo olefin copolymer) syringe body. Schmidt says that hybrid parts like syringes, which have both a needle and plastic barrel, present unique molding challenges. "It's certainly not difficult to put a needle into a mold. The challenge is finding an innovative solution that guarantees the shortest possible cycle time for the whole process. Normally, assembly is a downstream process after the molds have been injection-molded (whether in medical, packaging or brush Images courtesy of Barbara Schulz.

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