Mold Monitoring System Provides Real-Time Mold Performance Monitoring

At the K Show, Arburg’s booth highlights the company’s role in resource conservation through highly networked, digitalized manufacturing. In addition to eight hydraulic, hybrid and electric Allrounders and two Freeformers for industrial additive manufacturing (AM), the injection mold machine manufacturer is displaying a hybrid packaging Allrounder 630 H. In this “smart” exhibit, the Allrounder is in communication with the mold, hot runner controller, dryer and automation via Gestica control and application of OPC UA communication protocols. The 32-cavity also features Austrian toolmaker Hack Formenbau’s Moldlife Sense mold monitoring system launched in 2021.

The Moldlife Sense system is a fully integrated, automated standalone computer system that uses sensors to constantly monitor the lifecycle of the injection mold, providing instant feedback on technical faults, production downtime and maintenance. Notification options include visual and acoustic alerts.

Hack says Moldlife Sense uses OPC UA communication protocols to send validated and preset parameters to a Gestica machine control system. In addition to a digital counter and alignment aid for mold setup, Moldlife Sense features optical monitoring via high-res cameras and the ability to record and study tool “acoustics” as it operates. In addition, the package uses sensors to monitor tool breathing, platen parallelism, cavity surface temperature, plate temperature and tool centering. 

Two cameras take pictures or videos (e.g., of mold separation and parts ejection). Hack says there are also four displacement sensors and four knock sensors for the tie-bar guides. In this way, mold breathing and variations in position can be detected during close or separation. The data is passed directly to the machine controller via an OPC UA interface, enabling malfunctions as well as a mold’s performance-dependent maintenance to be clearly displayed.

The Moldlife Sense system will be deployed at the show by Engel. It will be directly interfacing with a combi M dual-injection unit’s central CC300 control panel with the help of Webviewer technology.

The K Show runs October 19-26, 2022 in Düsseldorf, Germany.