ELMET NEWS

 
Oftering, Austria, May 2024 – In the run-up to the official market launch of the new TOP 700 LSR dosing system, Elmet was able to win over its long-standing customer Trelleborg in Switzerland as a development and test partner. Trelleborg received the new system two months before the planned market launch in order to subject it to comprehensive practical testing under real conditions in Stein am Rhein (Switzerland).

The close cooperation between Elmet and Trelleborg proved crucial in fine-tuning the system, which was finally presented to the public at NPE in Orlando, Florida, on May 6, 2024. Harald Wallner, CEO of Elmet, was very positive about the cooperation and emphasized the importance of Trelleborg's feedback for the continuous improvement of Elmet's developments.

The TOP 700 marks a groundbreaking innovation in the areas of compactness, process stability, energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Specially designed for demanding applications in the medical technology, food and optics sectors, the system meets the strict requirements of the FDA and EMA.

Its compact design positions the TOP 700 as the smallest 20-liter system on the market, while meeting the industry's complex needs for efficiency and process stability. The emphasis on high precision when dosing silicones and additives is in line with the high standard that Elmet has already established with its flagship TOP 7000 Pro dosing system.

Elmet's ambition to drive the future of dispensing liquid silicone rubber and other materials is in line with its commitment to always set the highest standards in terms of safety, ease of use, quality, precision and efficiency.

f.l.t.r.: Oliver Hafner, Engineering Director, Trelleborg, Harald Wallner, CEO Elmet, Gerd Reichenbach, Senior Development Engineer, Trelleborg; © Elmet
 

The ELMET dosing system SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro has been awarded "product of the year 2023" by the readers of german "Kunststoff Magazin".

Among 40 nominees in five categories, ELMET has been voted second best in "periphery". The dosing system SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro convinced with the smallest footprint, its new pump unit and the fully automated drum change.

The winners in category "periphery" are:

1. Motan, swift by motan
2. ELMET, SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro
3. Coperion, Seitenbeschickung ZS-B MEGAfeed

CEO Harald Wallner und project manager Raphael Stöttner received the award during the ceremony in Haar/Munich.

Photo Credits: WEKA Business Medien GmbH, Andreas Schebesta

Read more about it in Kunststoff Magazin (German only).

At K 2022, ELMET presents their new dosing system SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro, the smallest liquid-silicone dosing system for 200-liter container units on the market.

Together with the all-electric ELMET SMARTshot E valve-gate cold-runner system the SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro is part of an innovative production cell, which manufactures four different covers for beverage and food cans. The system is a collaborative project by ELMET, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, Shin-Etsu, and Mettler Toledo.

It will be presented for the first time at K 2022 at the exhibition booth of Sumitomo (Hall 15, Booth D22).

Learn more in the latest press release.

Learn how the ELMET team together with the experts from Dow Performance Silicones show how the production of complex highly transparent optics made of liquid silicone can be made more productive. The combination of innovative ELMET mold (SMARTshot) and dosing technology (SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro) paired with the latest generation of liquid silicones for adaptive driving beam systems (SilasticTM MS-5002) resulted in new ways to increase production efficiency.

In 1996, Karl laid the foundations for the success of Elmet Elastomere Produktions- und Dienstleistungs GmbH together with Kurt Manigatter, Christian Reslhuber and Paul Fattinger.

He supported the company with his expertise for many years. And until the end, he played an active part in shaping it with his ideas as a co-owner. We have lost a person, a friend and a colleague who was appreciated by everyone for his thoughtfulness, commitment and dedication.

Karl unexpectedly passed away on September 12, 2022.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

His spirit and vision will live on at Elmet.

Harald Wallner takes over operational management of ELMET. The previous managing directors retain ownership.

Since ELMET was founded in 1996, Kurt Manigatter and Christian Reslhuber have headed the company as managing directors. Now, the two silicone experts will focus on their role as proprietors of the Upper Austrian company.

Since March 1, 2022, Harald Wallner has been the sole operational managing director. Wallner, himself from Upper Austria, was previously part of the management team at the foam division of the Greiner Group for over ten years and brings a great deal of industry expertise to the table. The change in management will have no effect on the ownership structure. The company will continue to be owned by the four founders: Kurt Manigatter, Christian Reslhuber, Karl Adlesgruber, and Paul Fattinger.

The press release can be found here.

Our ELMET sales-experts Stefan Musner and Michael Schaffer are very pleased to present our product innovations at Compamed 2021. ELMET is a full system & service supplier for high-quality and advanced medical products, such as seals for medical devices, membranes, valves, breathing masks and other components for respiratory equipment, diverse micro applications made of LSR, like syringe plungers as well as intravenous and infusion accessories.
 
We are continuously expanding the limits of what is technically feasible and are your strong partner for research, development, prototyping and series production in the field of medical technology and healthcare.

We grow and expand! The construction work at our headquarter in Oftering is progressing in leaps and bounds! Just a few weeks after the groundbreaking ceremony, the shell of our new production and office building is already in the home stretch.

We are excited to see how the work will progress in the coming weeks and can hardly wait for the new ELMET building to be completed.

In the new all-electric SMARTshot E cold runner system the needles are moved and positioned by a particularly compact servomotor, which maximizes flexibility, precision and controllability when injecting LSR into the cavities. The perfect synchronization of the needle movements also ensures optimum process stability. The small size of the drive unit makes nozzle spacings of only 44 millimeters possible and enables the construction of compact molds.
 
The ELMET SMARTshot E cold runner system is a perfect symbiosis of the experience of a market leader and the complex demands of our customers.

The new dosing system SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro sets new standards in terms of functionaliy, process reliability and ease of use. The completely reengineered pump unit has been further simplified and the number of parts minimized. Due to the more compact design, a significantly smaller volume of LSR is present in the system, which increases process reliability and reduces the purging volume. The reduced number of components facilitates cleaning and maintenance. With a footprint of only 1150x790 mm, it is the most compact of any commercially available dosing system suitable for 200 liter drums. The optimized and recently patented follower plate design enables material utilization of up to 99.6%.
 
With the SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro, ELMET is taking the next evolutionary step in dosing technology, raising LSR liquid silicone injection molding to a new level of development.

At the Fakuma 2021, the international trade fair for plastics processing, Elmet is presenting two new lead products of the company.

The centerpiece of ELMET’s presence in hall A5, booth A5-5306, is the new SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro dosing system, which sets new standards in terms of functionality, process reliability and user convenience.

Also featuring at the fair will be ELMET’s likewise newly developed all-electric SMARTshot E cold runner system with servomotor-driven needles which maximize flexibility, precision and controllability when injecting LSR into the cavities.

Further information can be found here.

We are pleased to present you our new company brochure as well as the new product brochures SMARTmix TOP 7000 Pro and SMARTshot at FAKUMA. The brochures in a completely new design will be available in German and English for the first time at FAKUMA.

Just a few weeks after the groundbreaking ceremony, there is already a lot going on at the construction site to expand our company. We are looking forward to more space for our innovative strength in the new production halls and in the new office building!

The construction work should be completed by June 2022. The production area will be increased by around 3,000 square meters and the office building by 1,300 square meters. The new building serves both to expand production and office space as well as to enlarge moldmaking and application technology in order to be able to cover the high demand for molds, production systems and dosing technology.

There was good reason to celebrate on July 23rd in Oftering. With the first turn of the shovel, Elmet officially launched the project to expand its existing company premises. The core objective of this major project is to increase production capacity and to create larger premises both for the Mold-Making division and for all the office staff.

Now ELMET is injecting fresh impetus into its expansion efforts with the construction of a new building. New production halls and a three-floor office are being erected over an area of some 22,000 square meters. On July 23rd, together with Member of the Landtag Mayor Christian Kolarik and Mayor of Oftering Dietmar Lackner, the company held a groundbreaking ceremony for the implementation of this forward-looking project.

Further information can be found here.

Our office team works from home to stay healthy. We are available by phone and email as usual, even in these challenging times.
Many thanks to our employees in the home office for their efforts. So they can be with their families and help protect people. That is a top priority at ELMET.

Stay healthy and take care!

COVID-19 Information

Due to the recent development in the spread of the corona virus and with regard to the decree of the Austrian federal government, we at ELMET will also implement a catalog of measures adapted to the emergency situation in Austria.

The catalog of measures provides that we will switch the company to emergency operation for the next two weeks (up to and including March 27, 2020) and partially close the manufacturing and production facilities.
All office employees who can work from home will be available for you during normal office hours. We kindly ask to contact your responsible sales person for further information.
Also our dosing-system support is available via email: dosing-system@elmet.com

We will do everything we can to meet the agreed delivery dates, but we must point out in advance that there may be delays because of the unreal situation.

In addition, we continuously evaluate the current situation and are in close contact with the relevant institutions at the state and federal levels, so that we can take further steps in accordance with the risky situation.

There is currently no suspected or confirmed case of coronavirus disease in our company. These tasks serve only to protect our employees and their families.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Multicomponent applications require a lot of experience from tool makers. If the application combines a thermoplastic with an LSR component a careful thermal design of the mold is essential to achieve a stable process. Today modern simulation approaches are used to support the mold design and to reduce iterations of the mold to a minimum. The article shows these possibilities with the example of the “Butterfly” – a mobile phone holder out of polycarbonate and liquid silicone rubber.

Handy holder „Butterfly“ made of polycarbonate (blue) and LSR (green).
Source: Sigma Engineering

When a Butterfly holds a smartphone → VIDEO
Turning an original idea into series production: a combined team from university and industry has been jointly developing an innovative design and production concept for a car smartphone holder. The rigid-flexible combination is produced by cost-effective multi-component injection molding. 

What if a few industrial companies that are leaders in their particular field were to get together with a university institute to pool their creativity and expertise in a joint project to create a product that is not only practical but can also be manufactured cost-effectively by combining highly advanced processing methods with state-of-the-art materials? 

The idea came about during a discussion about multi-component injection molding between experts from Momentive Performance Materials, ELMET and Wittmann Battenfeld.

Momentive took care of the LSR technology (LSR = Liquid Silicone Rubber), ELMET and Wittmann Battenfeld assumed responsibility for the production cell including the needle valve cold runner mold and the LSR dosing system. On the material side they succeeded in getting on board Covestro as producer of polycarbonate (PC). For the rheological design and the simulation of the flow behavior, the team was able to count on the many years of cooperation with Sigma Engineering. Hasco assumed responsibility for the design and gating of the hot runner system for the thermoplastic injection molding process. Last but not least, the Kunststoff-Cluster Niederösterreich is also supporting the project, promising a high benefit for all involved through the intensive exchange of information on the latest technologies and offering the students a direct insight into the practical side.

It all started with a competition  
The students were asked to design a smartphone holder that could be fixed into any dashboard ventilation grille of a conventional car. It was to be rotatable for horizontal and vertical use (e.g. as a navigation system), and adjust flexibly to the typical dimensions of modern smartphones. 
The specifications called for the use of the two-component injection molding method and also specified the rigid and flexible components (PC and LSR). The full potential of these materials, was to be fully exploited. The brief also stated that the two-component part should have a high-quality surface appearance and, looking ahead to a possible market launch, naturally exclude any infringement of patents etc. 

Initial drafts with clear favorites 
The presentation of the draft designs finally led to student Georg Siegele emerging as the clear winner with his Butterfly design. It beat off the other contestants through its well-conceived, functional design from both the production and the application side and his convincingly presented arguments. 

Plastic-oriented design 
In line with the specification, the design consists of a single two-component part, in which the PC holder provides stability and allows the part to be mounted on the ventilation grille, while the flexible smartphone connection is made of LSR. 
"Butterfly" is suitable for the current smartphones and in the meantime, series production has started. 

New developments and enhancements in LSR dosing! Here you can find the whole article from "European Plastic Product Manufacturer".

Interesting article from "Publisher for the polymer industrie" about the topic "LSR dosing system with OPC-UA interface".

The "Open Platform Communication” enables the LSR dosing system to communicate in real time with the injection moulding machine and to exchange data.

This makes it possible to save recipes and parameters directly with the machine data and to set and change them in the control of the injection moulding machine. 

As a result, the dosing system can be easily operated from the injection moulding machine.

The complete article you'll find HEAR

A Video about "OPC-UA Interface" you'll find HEAR

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contac us personally or via e-mail!

Dosing in perfection!

Exciting practise report to our dosing system "TOP 5000 P" in the trade magazine "Austromatisierung"under the topic "Dosing in perfection".

From the edition 09 (release date 28.11.2017) - released in the print edition and on www.austromatisierung.at

The whole article (only available in german) can be downloaded hear!

More comfort and safety in liquid injection molding!

The magazine KGK (Caoutchouc, Rubber, Plastics) Rubberpoint released a very interesting article of our brand new dosing system "TOP 5000P" under the topic: More comfort and safety in liquid injection molding!

The new dosing system was shown for the first time at the "K 2016" fair.

The TOP 5000 P is very easy to operate and accessible from each side for a safety and comfortable drum change.

The whole article (only available in german) can be downloaded hear!