Today, two-color, multi-color, multi-material injection molding products, because they are very beautiful, durable, comfortable, easy to combine functions, and are more conducive to automated production, etc., they are more favored by consumers and have been perfectly detonated entire industry, from high-end to aviation, aerospace, military, medical industries, low-end to daily necessities, fast-moving consumer goods industries, all of which are madly introducing this technology. Many companies have sold old products for more than ten years, using spray paint or injection craftsmanship to increase color of their products. Plastic parts in them are all changed to two-color crafts for production.
In China, large-scale application of two-color products is in past ten years. In 1984, FCS developed the first-generation two-component injection molding machine. This time may also be the earliest time that China's two-component injection molding machine was manufactured. At present, Haitian, which has the largest sales volume of domestic injection molding machine brands, as well as many domestic and foreign brands such as Engel, KraussMaffei, Milacron, Sumitomo, Huaqin, Zongwei, Bochuang, Yizumi, etc., have successively carried out R&D and innovation of injection molding machine technology, thus laying technical foundation for development of China's two-color mold injection industry.
I believe many people want to know when was the world's first two-color injection molded product manufactured, what did it look like, and what brand of injection molding machine was produced?
As a pioneer of multi-component injection molding, Arburg researchers have been committed to machine, mold technology and processing technology. Prerequisite for global success is patented Allrounder principle in 1961. With it, it is the first time to use two injection units on a machine: a rotatable clamping unit and a pluggable injection unit.

 

The first multi-component injection molded part produced was a typewriter button with ARBURG company logo "A"-this research has also obtained a patent for mold technology. In 1962, telephone dial was automatically produced by rotating mold inserts. Enthusiastic response from this dial has extended to Asia, especially Japan.

 

 

In next few years, market demand for our multi-component products surged. Since then, process has been rapidly popularized worldwide, basic technical solution has not changed in principle.
With further development of this technology, more and more high-quality products are produced in batches. And can use ALLROUNDER principle to use up to six injection units to produce products. During this period, we also developed insert die technology, turntable machines with multiple stations, alternate injection molding, sandwich technology, and rotary die technology.

In process of developing multi-component technology, processing of liquid silicone rubber, use of rotating molds using core-pulling technology, and introduction of special procedures for control system are all important milestones. SELOGICA control system launched in 1992 is of great significance. Dr. Eberhard Duffner, Director of R&D, said, “With this control system, up to eight core pulling and four injection units can be integrated in a common process, which greatly improves flexibility. “Nowadays, auxiliary systems can also help simplify setup and operation of complex production processes.

 

At the same time, all processes of multi-component injection molding are usually realized by automation, including pre-processing and post-processing. Take turnkey project of a toothbrush classified by color and injection molded as an example. Can be combined according to four colors and a combination of hard rubber/soft rubber.
Innovation in all industries is increasingly dependent on turnkey systems. Christian Homp, head of application engineer consulting team, emphasized: "Flexible placement of injection units is becoming more and more important. Our scope ranges from classic horizontal-vertical layouts to L and parallel positions, as well as back-to-back designs."

Arburg's expertise is embodied in guidance for specific applications, such as how to make full use of time advantage when using rotating mold technology with a mobile injection unit, how to perform assembly, how to ensure operating safety and accuracy at the same time. A recent example is Reversecube technology developed by Foboha, which can only use our Allrounder cube mold special machine.

 

Nowadays, sandwich injection molding has regained more and more attention: saving resources by using recycled materials, such as high-quality "high-sensitivity tactile appearance" and "internal" products made of recyclable materials. These products are commonly used in automotive industry.
Other hot topics in the future include integration of automation in machine's control system, use of two micro-injection units for multi-component injection molding, which can control injection weight within one gram, production of complex multilayer lenses. There is still great potential for these technologies to be discovered.

As former technical director of ARBURG, Herbert Kraibuhler also added a very interesting point: "Importance of multi-component processing so far can be found only on Arburg APF (unique 3D printing technology). The first freeformer already has two unloading units. Now new printer can even process three materials, such as a combination of soft and hard rubber containing finished materials. At 2019 formnext exhibition, even this technology was used to produce fiber-reinforced products Therefore, no matter in which region, ARBURG is a leader in multi-component processing.