New toy - Arburg injection moulder

[Robin Hewitt]

New toy, 20 ton Arburg injection moulder. Vintage 1985 but low mileage and didn't cost a lot.

Next job is to see if I can CNC a mould for it. The parts for making moulds seem very cheap compared to the price of moulds, it must be difficult :beer:


http://www.robinhewitt.net/arburg.jpg

[irving2008]

oooohh nice :D are you going to rent time on it by any chance or do you think it will be 100% utlised?

[Robin Hewitt]

Hi Irving

I don't think anyone in their right mind would trust me with their tooling.

This thing has a squidzillion knobs, buttons, switches and sliders to contend with. I have reading to do.

OTOH if you want to make a mould, this is where you get the bits...

http://www.dms-diemould.co.uk/

best

Robin

[Lee Roberts]

Nice addition to the tooling Robin !

[irving2008]

Hi Irving

I don't think anyone in their right mind would trust me with their tooling.

This thing has a squidzillion knobs, buttons, switches and sliders to contend with. I have reading to do.

OTOH if you want to make a mould, this is where you get the bits...

http://www.dms-diemould.co.uk/

best

RobinIt looks fun to play with... all those buttons to push, knobs to twiddle :D

Anyway, just an idea I had but wouldnt be practical/economical to machine but Inj. Moulded might be worth considering, it would be a very small run so not economical for a commercial operation (I already asked the guys who cleaned up my lathe spindle as thats their other business, machined plastic prototypes then moulds to make them). Would be interesting to look into making a mould once my mill is CNC'd

[progomez]

Looks good. Looking at buying one myself but need to understand some terms?

I guess the tonnage relates to how much plastic you can push?

What is the platen? Also how can you work out the size of object you can make. ie. can you make a bucket with your machine?

thanks

[gavztheouch]

Tonnage is the force applied to clamp the mold together. The bigger the mold the more tonnage you need to hold the mold together and prevent the plastic from running out of the shut lines ( flash). This machine is too small to make a standard builders buckets, a limiting factor for the part size is the distance between the tie bars. If the bars are too close together you can't get the mold into position. The machine would need to open up wide enough to eject the bucket.

Injection pressure is another factor, bigger machines can squirt more plastic before the liquid plastic begins to solidify. If you have thin walled parts this is even more important as the thin areas will cool faster and block any more plastic getting in to fill the mold.

[JAZZCNC]

It's also a 5yr old thread and probably in a scrap yard now. .:hysterical:

[progomez]

Hi,

thanks for the answer. I am looking at buying a machine, any chance you are available for a call one day for some advice?

Thanks

[Robin Hewitt]

bigger machines can squirt more plastic before the liquid plastic begins to solidify.

You don't have an injection speed control? How passé
:friendly_wink:

Hi Progomez

You want to make sure you get a copy of the manual with your moulder, without that you are totally screwed.

Depending on the diameter of the plasticizer screw fitted the manual will give you the shot volume. I have an 18mm screw which gives me usable shot volume of 19cc's.

good luck

Robin

[gavztheouch]

Do you still have this machine Robin, did you ever make a mold for it?

[Robin Hewitt]

I still have it, I vastly underestimated mould making but I have not given up yet :beer:

[magicniner]

How much stuff do you have stored on top of it?
:-)

- Nick

[Robin Hewitt]

How much stuff do you have stored on top of it?

You probably won't believe this, but last time I looked, one dust sheet.
I bought a box full of spare parts for it off ebay last week so I haven't given up yet :hysterical: