ARBURG Ltd held its latest openhouse on the 5th and 6th May at Warwick.
The first day concentrated on packaging and with the second day focusing on the important topic of automation through an automation forum. This automation forum is one of a number of events being held throughout Europe in ARBURG subsidiaries with specific machine technologies and presentations given this year.
The objective being to show the unique possibilities ARBURG have to offer in terms of our own SELOGICA software interface installed in a 6 axis KUKA robot and the ease of operation of the ARBURG Multilift robot systems with the 'teach in' software.

The presentations started with an overview of thin wall moulding technologies from Matthias Pasurekof of Otto Hofstetter tools. This was followed up with a lively presentation from Dr. Robin Kent of Tangram Technology who discussed the operational areas where companies could seek to save energy usage in their daily operations and thus strive for cost savings. The presentations continued with ‘In Mould Labelling’ (IML) technologies from Harald Klein of Swiss Robotics and concluded with Andreas Reich of ARBURG GmbH giving a very detailed overview of the latest packaging production technologies from ARBURG. 

The second day was given over to the very important and relevant topic of automation through the ARBURG automation forum. Presentations commenced with an overview of 6 axis technology from Karl Heinz Maeder of FPT. This company has worked closely with ARBURG to integrate the SELOGICA Direct software into a KUKA 6 axis robot, this feature is unique in the marketplace to date.
Gary Blackett, technical support engineer ARBURG Ltd presented 'successful automation through ARBURG' demonstrating real solutions attained through automation and the day's presentations drew to a close with Andreas Armbruster of ARBURG GmbH automation project team, presenting 'Economic aspects of automation' a study of how automation can give a good return on investment on its investment
Throughout the day delegates could see the six machines on display including a 50 tonne, 150 tonne and 200 tonne hydraulic machines from the GOLDEN EDITION range, the last of these machines being equipped with an ARBURG MULTILIFT SELECT robot system. A 200 tonne HIDRIVE hybrid machine working with the Swiss robotics IML system in a cycle time of 3.4 seconds producing a six impression yoghurt pot.
Also included was a 375V 50 tonne vertical machine integrated into a cell working with a KUKA 6 axis robot was producing a toy buggy and demonstrating a high level of dexterity in insert loading metal parts, removing them and assembling the components. A further opportunity to gain a practical insight into the programming was through a 6 axis KUKA simulator.
All delegates had the opportunity to use both the 6 axis KUKA simulator loaded with ARBURG software and the 200 tonne GOLDEN EDITION machine equipped with the MULTILIFT SELECT in order to see how easy this was to set up and operate. The main advantage with this integration is the potential savings in terms of training for operators negating the need to have two lots of training, one for the robot system the other for the Machine's control.