Husky

ORLANDO, FLA. — You've heard of a self-cleaning oven. Now, Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. has come out with a self-cleaning mold.

The mold was in action at NPE 2015.

Husky is offering the self-cleaning feature as part of its reduced-maintenance package for the HyPET HPP5 PET preform injection molding system. The company claims it can extend cleaning and greasing requirements to approximately every 500,000 cycles.

At the push of a button, the system uses a controlled flash to the tool to collect and remove dust built up in vents.

“With cycle times getting faster, one could expect shorter maintenance intervals, more maintenance and shorter mold life,” said Nicolas Rivollet, Husky's director of business development. “Instead, HyPET HPP5 overcomes the contradiction between cycle times and mold maintenance.”

Rivollet said self-cleaning can cut up to 400 hours in maintenance time a year.

At NPE 2015, Husky focused on hot runner systems.

Husky generates about $300 million a year from about 20,000 hot runner systems a year, according to Dave Morton, vice president of service and sales of hot runners and controllers for the Americas.

Husky is investing in hot runner manufacturing around the world, Morton said in a news conference.

The company recently expanded hot runner production in Shanghai, to directly support customers in the consumer electronics market. Morton said Shanghai can build hot runners in six or seven days.

Husky has expanded its Chennai, India, operation and added hot runner manifold production.

In Luxembourg, Husky has added a fully automated manifold line.

And, Morton said, “We're pouring significant millions of investment into Milton, Vt.” Husky is investing in new technology for component manufacturing, to go with its already strong manifold and plate production there, he said.

The Milton investments are to support new products, such as the ones Husky showed at NPE 2015, and to support growth in existing products.

The UltraHelix valve gate comes as close as possible to zero gate vestige on the part.

“We're seeing in many cases perfect gate vestige,” Morton said. Husky did research to understand fundamentals of valve gate wear, dynamics and quality. The manufacturing process guarantees concentricity and high precision, he said.

That means you can qualify molds faster, he said.

Husky also displayed new options for its Ultra SideGate and Unify pre-assembled manifold system. Morton said the Unify system is designed for the automotive market, and other customers.

In hot runner controls, Husky is promoting its new Altanium Servo Control that enables servo motors to replace mold hydraulics or pneumatics.

Morton said the Altanium H-series card packs more features in a smaller package — the hot runner control version of a smartphone.

“We want to make a controller as easy to use as your iPhone. That's our goal,” he said.

At its booth, Husky also showed two medical molds — a 64-cavity syringe barrel and a 192-cavity medical hub mold.

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