Product category:
Injection moulding
News Release from: Milacron | Subject: Mosaic control for injection moulding machines
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 12 May 2006
Injection moulder control improves
set-up
For injection molding machines, a global controler's ergonomics account for line-of-sight positioning of the display for eyeglass wearers and easy positioning for optimum view of the mold area.
For injection molding machines, a global controler's ergonomics account for line-of-sight positioning of the display for eyeglass wearers and easy positioning for optimum view of the mold area Milacron's new global control for injection molding machines will debut in the USA at NPE on Cincinnati Milacron injection molding and extrusion machines in the booth, as well as on demonstration panels in the Technology Center and throughout the booth
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 12 Jul 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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"From the ergonomics to the screen icons, this control is everything a setup person could want," Strickley said.
"The ergonomic design accounts for line-of-sight positioning of the display for eyeglass wearers and easy positioning for optimum view of the mold area, as well as physical separation between data entry and machine-movement buttons.
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On the interface side, the graphics use intuitive icons, color and text for a logical appearance.
Any screen can be reached in one or two touches and a permanent status bar at the bottom of the screen constantly displays critical machine parameters.
It is the next best thing to a heads-up display." He added: "And the setup screens complement all this with programming wizards based on input from injection set-up specialists around the world, making the control almost human-proof." "Just because it is easy to use, does not mean that the Mosaic control is limited in its functionality," added Mike Litten, manager of controls development.
"We have enhanced the injection setup capabilities to include more fill stages, plus the ability to transfer each stage on multiple parameters.
The clamp set-up now includes up to six closing stages, including three for mold protect, and up to five opening stages - all user selectable.
If a mold only requires a couple of injection stages, only those stages need to be set.
The unneeded parameters are not even seen." The operator station consists of a thin-profile industrial 15in TFT touchscreen display that is surrounded by a keyboard and mounted on a swing arm.
Sealed to IP65 (dust and sprayed water), the panel is driven by an industrial computer with a 600MHz Intel Celeron processor and a 1GB flash drive for data storage, so no hard drive or uninterruptible power supply is required.
Operator buttons are arranged logically to correspond to machine functions, and there are provisions for additional hardwired buttons, if needed, to eliminate need for secondary panels.
Digital linear position feedback devices are used for accuracy and repeatability, providing resolution of up to 0.0015in.
Two USB ports and an Ethernet port are available for network communications and data upload/download.
The control has an integral web server, allowing remote viewing of machine status over a network using any standard browser.
Machine data can be viewed on demand across a Local Area Network for purposes of production monitoring or process troubleshooting.
The Mosaic control includes multi-lingual support and selectable English/metric units.
Context sensitive help is just a soft key press away, i e, if the operator is setting injection parameters, the help menu for injection is front and center.
A set point overview page displays all critical setpoints on a single page, and tabbed pages allow rapid navigation through all functions.
Direct group access keys speed machine setup.
Once set up, mold data can be saved locally on the control, to a USB memory stick, or to a network drive.
The control provides 5-stage extrusion profiling with graphical setup, 10-stage injection profile and 10-stage pack and hold with real-time graphing, simultaneous monitoring of 16 user-selectable process parameters, and process graphics with 13 time/position-based graphs that include cursor and zoom control.
Other helpful features include multi-level access control for 20 operators, mold data storage with data comparison, sticky notes, change log of last 200 setpoint changes with tracing information, fully configurable I/O and I/O diagnostics, and SPC tracking of 16 selectable parameters for last 100 shots.
The Mosaic control is standard on all new Cincinnati Milacron injection-molding machines, and is now available as a no-cost option on Cincinnati Milacron twin-screw extruders and for additional cost on single-screw machines.
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