Mr. Lino Pastore, current President of UCISAP has welcomed the audience at the workshop “Innovate to compete in mould manufacturing and moulding of plastic materials”. The opening speech of the president pointed out the responsibility of the association to create a strong sense of cohesion among Italian mould makers.
Afterwards, Eng. Bertacchi, the Director of UCISAP, introduced the 4 speakers of the day.
AgieCharmille. Integrated processings that improve precision and automatism in the mould manufacturing
The first speaker was Eng. Faccio from AgieCharmille. His speech was dedicated to tuff EDM, Wire-cut EDM (Doutech) and above all OilTech, the exclusive technology that replaces oil to water in order to avoid the corrosion of metals and improve precision. Secondly, the speaker has expressed a few considerations about graphite and copper electrodes. Experience has led AgieCharmille to prefer graphite electrodes, that give the best results. This statement has been also confirmed by Mr. Lodetti in his turn.
ML Engraving. Digitalized processings for 3D superficial textures on moulds
The schedule has been partly modified and the microphone has been passed to Mr. Lodetti, who has presented ML Engraving and its exclusive
laser photo-engraving technology. Mr. Lodetti made the audience curious about ML Engraving most important technological innovation: the
D.R.E® - Design Rendering Engineering, that allows the complete digitation of the entire workflow: from planning the superficial texture to engraving it on the mould. Andrea Lodetti exposed the advantages of D.R.E® - Design Rendering Engineering by means of a specific Case History that showed the application of two different
3D textures on moulds for
Ariete handles. This work is particularly complex and concerns a geometric texture (with an anti-slipping effect) taken from the catalogue of ML Engraving, a fake-leather texture and the logo of the Client all engraved onto a cylindrical surface. Afterwards, Mr Lodetti has spent a few minutes explaining the new patent of ML Engraving:
Air-Off®. This patent has been developed in order to solve the problems of thermoforming. This particular type of moulding requires the complete evacuation of the air inside the mould, but in case of elaborated textures, air remains trapped inside. The result is a defective adherence of the plastic sheet on the mould that compromises the correct thermoforming. By means of Air-Off, ML Engraving is able to engrave every superficial texture, even
3D textures, on thermoforming moulds: the grid of micro-grooves engraved on the mould allows the correct evacuation of the air without compromising the final moulded result.
Engel. The added value in multi-colour and multi-material moulding
Mr Passalaqua from Engel described the 5 Business Units of the Company (automotive, packaging, teletronics, medical, technical moulding) and then he enumerated the most relevant technological innovations of Engel: