According to Arburg, Chinaplas, held in Shanghai on April 19 - 22, 2010, was a complete success. The response of Asian visitors to the two high-tech exhibits was excellent, particularly because these perfectly reflected various current topics in the injection moulding industry. These topics ranged from packaging, high-speed applications and high performance to precision and automation — and always under the aspect of cost-efficiency. Great interest was shown by visitors in high-end injection moulding technology — an area that “Arburg covers to perfection with its hydraulic, hybrid and electric Allrounder injection moulding machines and the individual automation solutions,” explains Zhao Tong, responsible for the Arburg subsidiary in Shanghai. “Evidence of this was impressively provided by our two Chinaplas exhibits, involving a high-speed thin-wall application from the packaging sector and the automated production of a high-precision technical moulded part.” The energy-efficient high-performance Allrounder 570 H produced thin-walled shells in a cycle time of just 4.3 seconds with a material throughput of over 60 kg/h, proving the potential of the hybrid Hidrive series with regard to speed and productivity. If the machine is operated around the clock, around 14.5 million of these shells can be produced in a year. “This clearly illustrates that, in addition to the cycle time, high machine availability plays a decisive role in such applications” added Helmut Heinson. As an example demonstrating that Arburg machines fully meet these requirements, he points to a Chinese customer who used an Allrounder non-stop for 14 months to produce precision cogwheels and who only stopped the machine to change the product. Precision was also a key requirement with the second exhibit: A hydraulic Allrounder 420 C Golden Edition was used to produce a high-precision technical moulded part — a plug insert with thin-walled webs. The moulded parts were removed and set down by means of the Multilift Select robotic system, which reaches vertically into the mould and which is fully integrated into the Selogica machine control system. Four plugs were produced in each cycle and set down separately by cavity, enabling detailed quality assurance. This is particularly important in the automobile sector, which, like the consumer goods industry, is also flourishing in Eastern China.