The customer:

Rowenta-Werke GmbH, Erbach/Odenwald, part of Groupe SEB, a home appliance company group located in Ecully near Lyons, produces high quality steam irons and steam generator ironing systems. The SEB group employs 14,400 employees worldwide and has annual sales of around 2.5 billion euros.

The task:

The body of a new steam iron consists of a transparent water tank, a through-coloured body and a handle with a softtouch zone. The aim was to produce this component in a single work cycle on a 3-component machine.

The problem:

Using a turntable would require a large mould and very high clamp forces, so the company looked for a more cost-effective production solution.

The solution:

Instead of a turntable solution, KraussMaffei recommended a spin-platen mould installed in a KM 650 - 1900/1900 WP injection moulding machine with a 650 t clamp. Two of the three injection units are in the machine's centre axis - one behind the moving platen, the other behind the fixed platen. The third injection unit is mounted vertically above the fixed platen. A robot demoulds the parts from the side and passes them to a post-processing station for sprue removal.

The result:

A spin-platen solution cuts the level of investment required, because it can use a lower tonnage machine than a turntable solution. Other advantages are the symmetrical application of force during injection and the relatively small footprint. A 90 ° mould rotation takes only 1.8 seconds, a time so short that the substrate cools down only minimally. As a result, the materials bond uniformly.