ENGEL at Arabplast 2015
High performance with a small footprint
Schwertberg, Austria – November 2014 – ENGEL at Arabplast 2015, Hall 4, Stand No. G-110
Sustainable, clean and powerful: at the Arabplast 2015 trade show from January 10 to 13 in Dubai, ENGEL, together with Uni-Cap and other partners, will be presenting its high competence in system solutions. One area of focus will be the packaging industry. An all-electric ENGEL e-cap injection moulding machine will be producing 1881-type caps live at their exhibit. As a pioneer in the field, Uni-Cap is bringing this innovative lightweight cap to the Gulf States using ENGEL injection moulding technology.
“Sustainability is very important when it comes to investment decisions in the Arab countries,
and the significance of environmentally friendly technology will continue to increase,” says
Andreas Leitner, Sales Director Middle East at ENGEL AUSTRIA. “All-electric injection
moulding machines are becoming increasingly popular for the production of beverage caps.”
Uni-Cap in Dubai is also a pioneer in this area. The largest cap manufacturer in the Gulf States has been producing on ENGEL e-cap machines since 2009. In addition to the high energy efficiency of the machines, Bassam Hajjar, the CEO of Uni-Cap, is particularly interested in cleanliness.
“The bottlers expect to receive absolutely hygienic products from us. With all-electric machines, we can definitely rule out any contamination with hydraulic oil. Thus, the usage of hydraulic oil is superfluous and cooling capacity is saved at the same
time, the carbon footprint can be decreased significantly.”
While the one-piece 1881 cap for carbonated soft drinks has already become established in most parts of the world, the GCC countries has long remained the exception. Only the newest, state-of-the-art processing technology has allowed one-piece caps to also be used in regions with extreme temperatures of more than 50 °C. Uni-Cap will be the first manufacturer in the region to produce this type of cap. They plan to achieve an annual capacity of 300 million caps with the ENGEL e-cap machine presented at the Arabplast. Currently, Uni-Cap produces altogether 4.5 billion caps per year.
50 percent less overhead for cooling
It is above all the melt flow rate of as low as 1.5 g/10 min of the poor-flow types of HDPE required to achieve the specified cap characteristics that define the high demands put on the injection moulding machine. Thanks to its direct drive unit, the ENGEL e-cap achieves the precision and performance needed for this application. Beyond that, its increased ejection and clamping force help it attain very short cycle times.
Outstanding process stability and precision maximise the number of good parts. This is due to the servo drive units, among other things.
“With the ENGEL e-cap, we were able to markedly reduce the overhead for mould maintenance,” says Bassam Hajjar.
During the trade show, a system from IMDvista (Brügg, Switzerland) for the fully automatic 100 percent quality control will be employed for cap inspection. Even with such impressively high performance values, the ENGEL e-cap achieves considerable savings on energy and cooling water, thereby cutting unit costs significantly.
“In comparison to hydraulic machines, we need 50 percent less resources for cooling,” says Hajjar.
Finally, a third decisive criteria – after sustainability and performance – for the Uni-Cap CEO is the after-sales service.
“We achieve a high degree of machine availability. Spare parts are also made available on site very quickly.”
System partnerships are cornerstones of success
Service and training are integral elements of the ENGEL system philosophy. ENGEL delivers turnkey system solutions worldwide that are individually tailored to the specific needs of their customers and combine highest performance with maximum efficiency and sustainability. System partnerships with leading international companies and local suppliers are cornerstones for joint success. A point that will be underlined at Arabplast. In the area of packaging, one of the companies who will be presenting themselves at the ENGEL stand in Dubai is Corvaglia. The supplier for the international beverage industry with headquarters in Eschlikon, Switzerland, fabricated the 48-cavity mould for Uni-Cap, which together with the ENGEL e-cap will inaugurate new era in caps and closures technology in the Gulf States at Arabplast 2015.
