Showcasing eight all-electric machines under a striking neon banner Today. Tomorrow. Electric, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag quietly celebrated another landmark: 15 years of its all-electric IntElect machine, featuring the company’s proprietary Sumitomo drive technology so critical to its energy efficiency and high performance.
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Launched first at K 2010, the IntElect series has been through multiple iterations to deliver power savings and increased processing precision without compromising speed for every market segment. IntElect product manager Peter Gladigau reflects on what has made the series one of the most popular and energy-efficient all-electric injection moulding machines on the market today.
Originally developed for the medical and electrical precision markets, the IntElect’s exceptional torque, smooth dynamics and cutting-edge direct drive motors engineered by the Group in Japan helped to set a new standard for energy-efficient injection moulding.
The first generation all-electric IntElect earned industry acclaim for its repeatability, speed, precision and efficiency. From the beginning, it addressed some of the key obstacles that previously deterred plastic manufacturers from switching to all-electric. Today’s latest models are more technically mature and very often pay for themselves in less than two years through precision and repeatability, claims Peter.
Initially, the IntElect standard models were intended to handle tasks typically managed by hydraulic machines, while a high-performance variant was created to meet the demands of the more challenging and fast cycle moulding applications.
Midway through the decade, the company unveiled its smart NC5 colour touchscreen. A range of technology hardware and software modules badged under the Active series were launched around 2015 to maximise efficiency and output. Among them was activeLock, an actively closing non-return valve that increased machine precision. Yet, one of the most innovative and popular technologies that continues to be utilised globally by processors today is activeFlowBalance. This was specifically designed to balance pressure levels when polymer is injected into multi-cavity moulds, helping to reduce the underfilling of moulds and consequently rejects.
Peter reflects: “Maintaining continuous quality throughout the entire life cycle of the machine has been a critical advantage of the all-electric IntElect series.”
Next followed the launch of the next generation of motors. This new IntElect drive, unveiled in 2017, contributed to the improvement of the platen design, which helped to increase process stability but, more importantly, reduced the overall footprint of machines. Developed in cooperation with the parent company Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI), performance tests showed that energy consumption at 1.5 kW/h was less than boiling a household kettle.
Design innovations reduced space requirements and improved machine accessibility, ergonomics and precision. The installation footprint was approximately 10% smaller than comparable all-electric moulding machines on the market at that time, notes Peter. “The ability to use larger moulds on smaller tonnage machines was a significant leap forward for processors and contributed hugely to reducing energy bills and supporting greater production flexibility.
“Each iteration of the all-electric IntElect has focused on continuous improvements, refining the control systems in order to open up the opportunities for all-electric machines into more applications and improving machine performance to succeed in the fast cycling markets,” emphasises Peter. These developments led to the launch of the mid-size IntElect S is targeted at high volume packaging, medical and automotive applications requiring the highest processing precision in the fastest cycle time.
“Counteracting the impact of rising manufacturing costs, especially high energy costs, became increasingly imperative for competitiveness, especially in the past five years,” emphasises the product manager. As well as energy efficiency, Peter also notes that the R&D team has simultaneously focused on fine-tuning the braking recovery system to extend the lifespan of electrical components and capacitors.
The IntElect S series addressed all these elements with optimised tool movement, injection and ejector movements and metering speed. The S model even went on to outperform previous generations of IntElect machines.
To mark the next era, at K 2019, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag unveiled an LSR and multicomponent version, plus a medical machine that enabled processors to combine the use of large moulds with a small injection unit. “The ability to install small screws matched with a large mould space introduced another game-changer for medical processors. This improved the dosing and injection performance, which is so critical when moulding small components like pipette tips,” clarifies Gladigau.
Adhering to the explicit ISO 13485 medical device quality management and validation standards, the IntElect S 180-ton also introduced new user parameters. This was to ensure adjustments could not be made to processes without authorisation.
With the unveiling of its new Today. Tomorrow. Electric slogan, K 2025 unsurprisingly presented the next shift in all-electric adoption. Among the eight exhibits, three LSR IntElect machines demonstrated the complete synergy that supports processing scalability and leads to better energy, waste and sustainability outcomes for customers. Additionally, the main booth presented an all-electric 2K multi-component IntElect 350t machine with a second R-position injection unit to accommodate a top entry robot.
However, the biggest shift for the product expert is witnessing the development of PAC-E. “As we celebrate this 15-year anniversary, we should also recognise that all-electric is no longer just confined to specific applications or machine sizes. By fusing the company’s all-electric IntElect processing insight with our expertise in high-speed packaging and medical processing, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag continues to present itself as a master of all-electric innovations,” concludes Peter.