"A large number of temperature control circuits come together in total for the cavities and mold platens, which makes things pretty complex," says Sailer.
Initially, the project managers were skeptical as to whether the four temperature control devices recommended by ENGEL would actually be enough. Today, it is precisely these savings that have helped iQ flow control to make inroads into other products and become the company standard in a growing number of areas.
Maximum dimensional accuracy without rejects
"We know that we have very good molds, but what was happening in the temperature-control channels was not transparent in the past", says Schlattinger, revealing the company's original motivation for getting involved with ENGEL temperature control technology. "When problems occur, finding the cause is extremely difficult if you are looking at a black box".
More than 10 years ago, ENGEL set out on its mission to shed light on the darkness of mold temperature control.
"Twenty percent of all reject moldings in the injection molding industry are caused by temperature control errors", says Klaus Tänzler, ENGEL's product manager temperature control, explaining the reason for this strategic decision.
Today, ENGEL supplies integrated solutions for smart management of temperature control processes from a single source. The basis in each case is the e-flomo electronic temperature control water manifold system. Based on the measured values determined by e-flomo, iQ flow control dynamically and independently adjusts the temperature control process to keep process conditions constant. The software from ENGEL's inject 4.0 program actively controls either the flow rates or the temperature differences in all individual circuits. Where e-temp temperature control devices are used, iQ flow control can also adjust the pump speed in the temperature control devices to reflect actual requirements. This interaction combines temperature stability with very high productivity and energy efficiency.