Flexible turn-key solution for multi-component production

The hard components of the mask are made of polycarbonate. Apart from the sealing lip, the valve and the valve closure are made of silicone. Four parts of the premium mask are produced by injection moulding: the two filter housing halves, the valve and the valve closure, which is used wherever an even higher protection level is prescribed, or the regionally applicable pandemic law does not permit masks with an exhalation valve.

The most exciting part is the mask housing, the part that faces the face when worn. In a first step, the basic housing bodies are moulded from polycarbonate in a four-cavity mould on the e-victory machine with a clamping force of 120 tonnes. 

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The premoulded parts are fed to the second production cell via a separator and aligned with the aid of a camera so that the jointed-arm robot can pick up the parts in the correct orientation and transfer them to the centring station with four depositing positions. The viper linear robot takes over from there. It places the set of four in the mould of the 160-tonne machine, where the mask housings are fitted with the silicone lip in a second injection moulding step. The viper demoulds the finished two-Component Parts and removes them from the production cell via a conveyor belt.

Flexibility is the central requirement, not only in the design of the masks, but also in the layout of the new production cell. The two new injection moulding machines — an e-victory 120 and an e-victory 160 — are designed to process both liquid silicone (LSR) and thermoplastics and, if necessary, with other products or for mould sampling. 

"In less than 2 hours, we can convert the machines from one material to the other," says Andreas Penninger, head of application technology at ACH Solution. To do this, the plasticising unit is exchanged, and the control system is adapted.

Further demands on the injection moulding machines are high reproducibility and process stability. This also applies to both business areas, mould sampling and mask production. "We produce unmanned for many hours," says Penninger, "so we have to be able to rely on good parts leaving the machines shot after shot."