Perfect Dosing

Automation technology from SIGMATEK for Liquid Injection Molding

The ELMET Elastomer Production and Service GmbH from Oftenring near Linz (Austria), provides all relevant elements for silicon injection molding; right up to complete turnkey systems. The main focus is placed on the perfect mixing ratio of the two silicon components, which have different viscosities. The mixture is created using a patented system that ensures exact dosing of the ingredients, operates efficiently and leaves almost no residual material in the containers.

Karl Adlesgruber, partner and representative at Elmet, explains, “We serve customers in 42 countries around the world. It is not uncommon for a customer to come to us with a sample of the piece they wish to produce, and we provide them with a perfectly tailored one-stop shopping solution for it. We are highly experienced in integrating our own range of products with a suitable injection molding machine and other automation components into a complete system. We work with two closed control loops, measure the flow rates, as well as the fill levels and adjust them within the permissible mixture tolerances. Everything is fully automated – there is no manual readjusting. We thereby achieve a high quality.”

It was this demand for quality that led ELMET to SIGMATEK. The Upper Austrian company uses the compact control system S-DIAS, the programming is done with the all-in-one engineering tool LASAL. The projected capacitive ETT 1233-EL multi-touch panel with IP65 protection provides an intuitive 12” operator interface, designed with the visualization tool LASAL Screen. The whole process is automatically logged in the panel’s internal 512-MB data memory.

Kurt Mitzka, head of dosing technology and automation at ELMET, is convinced by SIGMATEK’s approach. “The fast counter inputs that the DM 162 digital mix module provides are very practical for our applications. We really appreciate the variability of the I/O cards – as well as the thin construction. Even the CPU fits in the 12.5 mm wide housing. […] Compared to other software tools, LASAL provides significantly more freedom and almost no limitations. The direct integration of the LASAL Screen visualization tool into the engineering system is also very advantageous.”