Milacron leverages open-system connectivity

Cincinnati, O. – Milacron’s XTREEM injection molding machine control offers seamless integration of Avalon Vision Solutions’ new MoldWatcher II mold monitoring system. Offering camera adjustment and image viewing right from the control’s touch screen the integrated system eliminates separate controller hardware, reduces cost, and simplifies installation/training. MoldWatcher II is available as an option on the XTREEM control and can be ordered pre-installed on all Ferromatik Milacron North America injection molding machine lines.

MoldWatcher II increases uptime and overall production of ‘good’ parts by protecting expensive molds, detecting part defects, and eliminating redundant ejector strokes. With its camera mounted on the A half of the mold, it can ‘see’ stuck parts or runners, frozen ejector pins, broken cores, cam/slide misalignments, flash, short shots, and missing, broken, or misaligned inserts on vertical machines.

In a typical horizontal machine set-up, MoldWatcher verifies the presence of parts on the B side, allowing the mold to close only after confirmation of ‘good’ part quality, complete part drop, and proper tool alignment. The patented SkipEject feature shortens cycle time by stopping ‘insurance’ ejector strokes as soon as the mold is clear, then closing the mold. This provides cycle time reductions of 3-10% when using multiple ejector strokes. SkipEject also reduces operator intervention by automatically adding ejector strokes (to a preset limit) if a part hangs up.

Utilizing patented near-infrared (NIR) technology, MoldWatcher’s camera is unaffected by changes in ambient lighting which can cause ordinary cameras to ‘false trigger’ from skylights or loading doors. Light from the system’s DarkLight-IR light source is invisible to the human eye, eliminating operator complaints about hot, glaring lights.

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