Wittmann Battenfeld Celebrates 10 Years with Cutting‑Edge Technology Showcase

In June, more than 1,400 guests from 48 countries gathered at Wittmann Battenfeld’s headquarters in Kottingbrunn, Austria, to celebrate the merger that formed Wittmann Battenfeld. The two‑day event showcased the company’s diverse portfolio—from injection‑molding machines and robotics to chillers, TCU’s, dryers, blenders, hopper loaders and granulators—and highlighted the latest advancements in production facilities and technology.

Wittmann Battenfeld used the occasion to unveil its expanded and modernized manufacturing footprint. Two facility expansions completed last year added 23,130 ft² of new production space and a new development technology centre, slated for completion this summer. This year’s renovations focus on streamlining production, including clock‑driven assembly‑line production of EcoPower all‑electric and SmartPower servohydraulic presses up to 400 metric tons, expanding the MacroPower large‑machine area from seven to 12 stations, and introducing assembly‑line production of injection units.

Since 2018, every machine carries a QR‑coded ID plate that technicians can scan to access complete production, startup and service history. Future plans for the Kottingbrunn site include a 28,000‑ft² three‑storey office building for engineering, production control, quality and personnel, due next June, and a 32,275‑ft² production logistics centre for vertical and specialty machines, scheduled for completion in June 2020.

EXPANDING MACHINE LINES

Wittmann Battenfeld announced several new injection‑molding models at the event, including a 400‑mt SmartPower line and a 500‑mt EcoPower Xpress high‑speed, all‑electric press for packaging and thin‑wall parts. The company also introduced smaller 160, 210 and 300‑mt variants, with a 650‑mt unit on the horizon. Demonstrations featured a 400‑mt SmartPower machine moulding 2.8‑L PP buckets in a four‑cavity mold in 7.95 seconds.

The flagship 2,000‑mt two‑component MacroPower Combimould press, built for BSH Home Appliances, moulded a 750‑g PP refrigerator door panel measuring 1,120 × 512 mm with only 0.8 mm thickness. A 2,000‑mm servo‑driven rotary table was also showcased on a two‑component MacroPower 1,300 machine.

A highlight of the show was a 160‑mt prototype of the new VPower vertical, servohydraulic line, which will range from 120 to 300 mt and is slated for commercial release in October. Key features include a low, ergonomic working height of under 1 m, a two‑tiebars design that frees the centre of the turntable for media supply, and high clamp speeds of 300 mm/s. The system can convert between vertical and horizontal injection units, providing flexibility for complex parts.

New robotic and auxiliary equipment was also presented. The Primus servo‑robot line expanded with larger and smaller models, while the “Feedmax basic” hopper receivers and S‑Max screenless granulators were introduced.

SMART MACHINES & SMART FACTORIES

Industry 4.0 remained a central theme, with keynote speaker Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Schilp emphasizing “data as the raw material of the 21st Century.” He outlined how smart products generate data throughout production, enabling new business models and predictive maintenance.

Wittmann Battenfeld’s Condition Monitoring System (CMS), a core element of its Wittmann 4.0 program, was demonstrated on the new EcoPower Xpress 500. CMS tracks oil temperature, level, moisture, particle count, water quality, flow, temperature, hydraulic‑pump pressure, vibration, and leakage, using colour coding to indicate acceptable ranges. Additional sensors monitor injection unit stroke, vibration, metering torque, clamp‑joint stretch, gearbox contamination, electrical cabinet temperature, humidity, airflow, and smoke detection, while overall energy consumption and ambient conditions are logged.

Users can view real‑time data graphs, set job‑specific limits, and drill down into any time period. Centralised control of all cell components is a hallmark of Wittmann 4.0; forthcoming digital mold data sheets will automatically generate a list of auxiliary equipment—chiller, dryer, blender, etc.—required for each job.

Integration with MES systems—MPDV in Europe and IQMS in North America—supports mass‑customisation. At the event, a demo of the Airmould gas‑assist technology produced on‑the‑fly printed coat hangers with visitor names, demonstrating how digital inkjet printing can be synchronized with robot speed and linked to central quality data.

Wittmann Battenfeld also highlighted the evolution of its HiQ control suite. HiQ Melt measures screw torque to detect viscosity changes, while HiQ Flow adjusts high‑pressure levels in‑shot to correct for material variations. HiQ Metering ensures uniform shot size by pre‑injecting a specific screw movement to close the check valve.

AUTONOMOUS INJECTION MOLDING

Dr. Gerald R. Berger and Dr. Dieter P. Gruber presented a three‑year, €1 million research project on Inline Quality Control in Injection Molding (InQCIM), funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency and industry partners including Wittmann Battenfeld. The project aims to enable injection presses to perform real‑time quality assessment and self‑adjustment, eliminating the need for post‑molding QC.

By continuously monitoring melt pressure, temperature, and velocity, as well as mold‑wall temperature, the system—referred to as the “intelligent mold”—communicates bidirectionally with the press to enact process corrections. Initial work uses external acoustical sensors to detect defects such as sinks, weld lines and flow marks, with the goal of predicting and correcting issues within the same cycle or even anticipating errors several cycles ahead.

To achieve this, researchers are developing a machine‑learning‑based Fault Detection and Classification (FDC) system. The first step involves Design of Experiments (DOE) testing to correlate part weight, dimensions, surface quality and mechanical performance with sensor data, ultimately training neural networks to recognise and rectify process deviations.