Hasco has clever ideas

Hasco has 3D printed plastic inserts in high-heat ABS

In this feature for Plastics News Europe David Vink reports on 3D printed mould inserts and other innovations from Hasco Hasenclever.

Hasco’s stand at Euromold featured a prominent display of moulds fitted with plastic mould inserts as part of the Hasco K3500 quick?change mould system. The inserts had been 3D printed “within hours” by the company in the Stratasys Ultra?tough Digital ABS 5161 and 5131 materials on Stratasys Objet 500 Connex inkjet equipment.

Dirk Paulmann, Hasco executive VP sales and business development, stressed the new plastic inserts approach as “providing moulders flexibility to quickly produce and switch inserts. This is the future of prototype and low volume production”.

The mould insert on display and its slides had been printed for moulding screw-threaded sealing plugs in several colours for mounting onto the stainless steel base plates of the Hasco A8001 clamping fixture system. Hasco printed the parts in six hours compared with 24 hours needed when machining metal equivalents. After optimization, Hasco had moulded plugs within four days from starting the printing of the mould inserts.

Hasco also displayed the A8001 modular clamping system onto which the plugs are mounted. The precisely bored positioning holes permit fast variable clamping of different mould sizes with repeat accuracy of around 10μm. The plastic plugs’ function is to prevent machined metal particles from entering unused positioning holes, reducing mould cleaning time during mould changes.

The company points out however that the plastic mould inserts served only as a basis for trials prior to producing metal insert tooling for serial production. Hasco is working here with the WI-SWF Werkzeugbau-Institut Südwestfalen tool construction institute in Lüdenscheid as part of the institute’s Course4 technology project.

3D printed plastic mould inserts were also featured by Dr. Boy on its stand at Fakuma. A Stratasys 3D printer was set up on the stand to produce the inserts. These were then installed in a mould holder on a Boy XS machine which moulded karabiner hooks made of various materials.

Hasco showed at both Euromold and Fakuma new stack mould technology involving a Z1545 gear housing and a Z1547 rack unit. Hasco says that aside from usual stack mould advantages, the Hasco components enable small distances between injection moulding machine tie bars, while diamond-like coated (DLC) slideways keep wear down and extend maintenance intervals.

DLC also features in new Z443 DLC-coated shouldered long-life ejector pins, enabling high surface hardness, and favourable tribological properties of friction, wear and lubrication. In fact, Hasco says that as the pins can be used without lubrication, they are well suited for cleanroom moulding of food processing and medical parts. There is a stepped diameter version with a fully hardened shaft ensuring high stability, despite small demoulding diameter.

Shown on a video screen at Euromold, new A4300 cylindrical permanent magnets retain metal inserts in cases where there are no other retention options. The magnetic core material of the brass-housed magnets consists of samarium cobalt (SmCo), a material that can withstand continuous temperatures up to 200°C and 300°C for short periods. The A4300 magnets are available in 6mm, 8mm and 10mm diameters. Hasco also talks about the possibility of contouring the front side by up to 2.5mm in order to align it to metal inserts.

To concentrate the magnetic force at the point where it is needed, the pill-shaped magnet is set in a brass housing.

New Z8021 valveless adapters for 9mm and 13mm mould and cooling system connections enable connection of system diameters on injection moulds. The connectors can be used for both water and oil cooled systems.

At the 2015 Hasco open house, Prof. Thomas Seul, president of the VDWF association of German mould and tool producers, talked about potential and application possibilities of what he called “Mouldmaking 4.0”. Hasco is also here making a contribution to corresponding Industry 4.0 principles in mould technology with, for example, a new A5800 mould USB 2.0 Mould Memory data storage device with 16Gb capacity, which archives individual mould and moulded part data. This provides full traceability by storing design, injection parameters and milling program data.