Trade fair highlight 24. August 2023

Efficient processes and short lead times are becoming increasingly important in the course of Industry 4.0 and the same applies to the injection moulding production. But removing sprues often means the loss of valuable time. With increasing automation, sprue pickers are often used to remove the sprue directly from the injection mould by gripping pliers. But this process step also costs cycle time – about 1.25 seconds each time, since the new cycle can only start once the picker has moved out of the mould area. In order to further advance automation and increase productivity, the Cologne-based plastics specialist igus has developed a compact sprue separator suitable for BOY XS and BOY XS E injection moulding machines. With this automation solution, articles and sprues are separated from each other directly at the machine - without extending the cycle time.

The sprue separator is positioned under the ejection chute. From there, the injection-moulded parts fall onto a separator which is a rotating disc.
An integrated camera detects the sprues on the separator and a gantry robot picks them up with a gripper. If the sprue and the article still have to be separated from each other, the article is separated by a device and falls into a box, while the sprues are ejected separately.
Meanwhile, the injection moulding machines can continue production without any restrictions.