Prof Georg Steinbichler
VDMA, the plastics and rubber association, quizzed Professor Georg Steinbichler, Chairman of the Institute for Polymer Injection Moulding Technology and Process Automation at the Johannes Kepler University, Linz, and Head of Research and Development Technologies at Engel Austria on functional integration in the run up to Fakuma. Based in Schwerberg in Upper Austria, Engel produces injection moulding machines and automated system solutions.
Professor Steinbichler, how does the complexity of functional integration and sustainability fit together?
What we in the plastics industry really have to succeed in doing is to convert the plastic obtained from crude oil into new products as often as possible and recycle it as energy only later, at the end of the last product life cycle. We also need good ideas about how to achieve functional integration without closing the door to recycling. Because nowadays a complex component or product is often made of a large number of different plastics, which makes them harder to recycle.
As manufacturers of injection moulding machines, however, we are also examining the options that might make recycling easier. One possible route goes in the direction of single substance systems. Where different materials are currently being used for different functions in a component, this could in future be for example an outer skin, a foam layer and a substrate of the same plastic. That would make recycling much easier. By combining several process technologies in one production plant, we can often also reduce the amount of raw material used.
What role do fibre composites play in this context?
These materials offer tremendous possibilities. We are only just beginning to develop them. But development is proceeding apace. We still need more success in exploiting the directional dependence of their properties by aligning the reinforcing fibres with the direction of stress in automated manufacturing processes. Before long, we will have fibre composites with a thermoplastic matrix, created in the mould by polymerisation. But before then we will be making greater use of automated tape laying technology with its potential for resource conservation and energy efficiency in lightweight construction.
Here, tapes with unidirectional reinforcing fibres are consolidated into a web, possibly multi-layered, depending on the stresses to which they will be subject, and after heating are introduced into an injection mould for shaping and spraying of functional elements. That way, a component’s rigidity can be increased by 80 per cent for a weight gain of only four per cent, for example, or conversely the weight of a component can be greatly reduced while maintaining the same level of rigidity.
That opens up completely new applications for plastics.
Yes. And it also confirms me in my belief that there is further scope for fibre composites to increase their share at the expense of metals. But in sum there will probably always be material combinations, with their different properties used in synergy in specific places in hybrid constructions.
How much plastic is used in a car today and how much could it be in 10 or 20 years’ time?
Plastics already account for over 15 per cent of a modern vehicle’s unladen weight. It is entirely possible that the use of fibre composites for structural components will increase this to 50 per cent in the next 20 years.
There is a lot of talk of “Industry 4.0”. Is that not quite simply functional integration?
Of course our industry still has a lot of potential for doing things better by networking. It is for example still the case that an injection-moulding machine does not use any data from an upstream process simulation.
We began developing solutions for presetting an injection moulding production cell many years ago. But the industry has made no use of it so far. That is now changing. Today, anyone buying an injection-moulding machine gets a virtual machine with it, so to speak. That allows him to simulate and preset all operations as on the real machine or the integrated robot. That is what I understand by “4.0“: the greatest possible data continuity. The smart factories of the future will have a completely new production logic. Continuous engineering across the entire value-added chain will bring us decisive advantages.
What would be the direct benefits of such data continuity?
If plastic components and injection mouldings are designed using 3D CAD, that can be used to obtain a lot of information for the manufacturing process and the production plant settings, either on its own or in conjunction with process simulations. Very little use has as yet been made of these capabilities. We still have to do our homework on this in a number of respects.
Can you give an example of a functionally integrated process at Engel?
We have, for example, developed a technology to combine the components for a car’s interior trim, which otherwise require three or even five process steps in enormous production halls, into a single compact production cell. In other developments we are trying to integrate capacitive sensor systems into injection moulded parts using film insert moulding, thus creating novel control functions that can be operated even in the dark by touching or feeling for shapes; these could be used for household appliances, for example, and also for the car of the future.
But that greatly increases the complexity of the production cells.
Component and production increase in complexity at the same rate. Functional integration therefore means that the workforce must also have considerably greater knowledge than before. Better education and effective training are key factors in Europe’s success in maintaining its competitive edge over Asian suppliers. What is more, such complex processes with high functional integration paired with the expertise of the workforce are not so easy to imitate.
The Chinese now want to make high-tech machinery themselves. How long will we continue to have the competitive edge?
That does give me serious cause for thought. The Chinese, those who come to Austria from our factory in China for example, are extremely well trained and highly motivated. China also has a lot of university graduates with an outstanding level of education. If China makes full use of its young people’s potential, we will certainly feel the pinch. But I think it will be another ten years before that happens. We have advantages in certain ways of thinking, in process optimisation for example, in analytical and systematic problem solving. That is where we must focus and get even better ourselves. We must keep a step ahead.
Does growing complexity also bring more problems with servicing and maintenance?
Of course. You have to bear that fully in mind. If you look at some of the highly integrated production cells there are today, combining perhaps three or four plastic converting processes, their complexity brings entirely new challenges in terms of servicing and maintenance – it is another world. The production chain as a whole is only as strong as its weakest link. That is why you always need to make a sober analysis of what it means when there are weak points or outages in subprocesses and what that implies in terms of economic feasibility.
