All-electric machines fit a more sustainable future

Injection moulding technology is continuing to move ahead at a rapid pace. Connectivity, automation, AI – injection moulding machinery manufacturers have been quick to perceive the benefits these can bring to their customers, and have embraced and integrated these new capabilities into their products. Here, Dave Raine, managing director of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag UK, and Anatol Sattel, Chief Sales Officer at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Machinery talk about the ongoing advances in the injection moulding field.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag has a roadmap in place to support processors in their aim to increase efficiency and production output. What does that involve?
The company’s roadmap for the future is focused entirely on optimising production processes for manufacturers, in the most cost efficient and sustainable way. From a practical perspective, this requires an unwavering focus on decreasing cycle times and addressing machine downtime and providing the platform and digital support to processors to make even more components at less cost, with fewer defects. All of which uses less energy, requires less labour and generates less material waste.
This isn’t something that can be approached in isolation. The biggest transformations in the circular economy will occur through collaborations across the entire plastics processing value chain. It’s not just about ground-breaking innovations. As many processors will testify, even the best technologies can be compromised by lack of coordination. A big part of prudent vertical manufacturing investments involves ensuring complete production line synergy and connecting all moulding periphery equipment to a standardised communication platform, with localised support.
The shift to all-electric injection moulding machines and OPC-UA connectivity provides a prime opportunity for processors to review their vertical integration and optimise the entire value chain. Processors also benefit from the economies of scale and risk mitigation. 

Can you quantify the progress made in increasing efficiency? How much more efficient are today’s machines compared to 5 years ago? How was this achieved?
Companies frequently cite cost pressures as a reason for not investing in new machinery. However, the biggest error moulders can make is discounting high-performance all-electric machines on price alone.  The price difference between hydraulic and all-electric injection moulding machines has dropped considerably over the past 15 years. When considering the potential energy savings, productivity improvements and prolonged reliability, significant total cost of ownership savings can be realised.
Factoring in the rising energy prices, ROI for processors investing in all-electric injection moulding machines has improved drastically over the last decade. This makes all-electric machines not only affordable, but now absolutely future-proof. Even to SMEs.
Numerous challenges exist in fast-paced manufacturing. When measuring efficiency, higher wages, labour shortages, electricity prices, and high inflation costs, along with other financial considerations, all play a big part.
Calculating the real value in polymer processing really comes down to machine reliability, looking beyond the explicit costs and weighing in all the likely expenses you may incur across the lifespan of equipment. The best way to think of it is every product that comes off the line after processing and finishing has a value attached to it. If a machine goes down, no value is being produced. Yet, operational overhead costs continue to grow - directly impacting the bottom line.
Aside from energy efficiency, which tends to be a given on today’s all-electric machines, there are so many features now that, when used correctly and repeatably by moulding operatives, result in reduced cycle times and faster start-ups, even before any process optimisation steps have been introduced and expert setting knowledge has been imparted.
For example, reducing a 10 second cycle time by just 0.55 seconds can equate to an additional 2,274 cycles every day. Multiplied, this productivity improvement alone can potentially add up to 14.3 extra production days a year on one machine. Some customers switching from hydraulic to all-electric and utilising on site field test training have seen their cycle times improve by over 10 seconds, equating to weeks of extra manufacturing capacity without extending their machine park or production footprint.
Achieving all this is essentially a marginal gains program which combines to unlock accumulative enhancements that can increase profit margins and reduce processing waste.

Sumitomo Demag is one of the frontrunners in Europe in terms of electric machines. Can you explain that success? Have the prices of the electric machines come down?
Sumitomo (SHI) Demag has achieved an excellent market position in recent years, which we attribute almost entirely to the development of our all-electric machine portfolio, but most importantly our high level of expertise in engineering electric direct drives in-house.
These aren’t off-the-shelf drives. Designed by our Japanese parent company and built purely for the injection moulding process by experts truly dedicated to motion control, our high-torque drives are more reactive and reduce the risk of inertia. In certain conditions, moulders can achieve energy savings exceeding 70% and even faster cycle times than conventional moulding.
We manufacture and install about 7,000 machines a year, over 90% of which are all-electric. By 2025, the company, which is now under new leadership, is confident it will reach over 25% share in the all-electric European market.
There have, of course, been a number of hurdles to overcome to create a full all-electric portfolio for every market sector. Until recently, matching the motion force of hydraulics in larger tonnage machines was regarded as inconceivable. However, indicative of the innovations in electric drive technology and powerful injection units, we continue successfully delivering high-speed processing benefits and expanding the application spectrum in the medium to higher clamp force ranges. The PAC-E packaging machine launch is a testament. Other fields of applications include medium clamp force packages for multi-component moulding, LSR and MuCell. At Fakuma 2024, we unveiled a 910 injection unit for a 180-ton medical machine which has been designed to further increase processing flexibility and production capacity.

How big is the company’s market share in electric machines in Europe?
Our market share in all-electric machines worldwide has more than doubled in the last 10 years. We currently account for around 20% of the European market, but with the Introduction of the IntElect S and PAC-E series, accompanied by a clear product strategy, efficiency messages and customer testimonials, we expect to see this market share increase significantly in the next 18-24 months.
Like EU manufacturers, we carry a small selection of standard-spec machine models for rapid shipments and emergency call-offs. However, approximately 90% of injection moulding machines made by Sumitomo (SHI) are built to defined customer specifications. Some of the subsidiaries, including SDUK, are now offering agile local configurations, working with trusted industry partners to provide cost-effective solutions to improve efficiency, reduce build time, cost and maximise OEE for customers.
This new approach of customising stock machines allows us to react to potential projects by drawing upon the expertise of our in-house engineering and design teams and leverage well-established OEM partnerships. It enables us to develop connected, automated systems that can strengthen UK manufacturing and increase productivity for plastic processors.

What are the focus markets for your machines next to packaging? Does the company plan to continue to expand into new market sectors?
We remain present in all of the main market sectors. These include the medical, electronic, automotive and consumer market. Our target is growth within these sectors through technology. For example, LSR technology is used in any of those sectors, and one where Sumitomo (SHI) Demag has secured a leading position.

Processors must not only produce efficiently, today they must also produce as sustainably as possible. How is the company helping to do that?
Sustainability and efficiency are integrated into every aspect of our processes.
To effectively implement our sustainability strategy and cover the Basic Sustainability Policy, we have certified management systems aligned to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001, and VDA ISA. These systems provide a solid foundation for integrating sustainability into our operations and driving continuous improvement. We also engage with external rating platforms, such as the EcoVadis Platform, to measure our sustainability performance and benchmark our business against industry standards.
In our reporting, we adhere to the guidelines of the DNK (Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitskodex), a framework that enhances the credibility and transparency of our sustainability efforts and demonstrates our commitment to responsible and sustainable business practices. Fostering accountability, while simultaneously ensuring continuous alignment with industry developments and stakeholders’ expectations.
Furthermore, the use of digital product passports can leverage benefits to many areas of our daily business. Digitalisation is key and provides the necessary transparency to support the different process steps in the value chain.  Sumitomo (SHI) Demag plans to use this digital product passport technology to provide detailed transparency about the footprint of our machines in the future.

How important is automation in today’s manufacturing environment?
Automation and digital tools are critical for productivity and the future Net Zero environment. Like most EU machine manufacturers, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag has an in-house automation division that offer scalable units, which are typically standardised pick and place automation systems for normal handling operations.
However, of the automation concepts quoted for by the SD Group in FY 2023, almost 50% requested more customised and complex solutions. This is where customers benefit from having access to automation partners. We work with a number, each of which are specialists in their respective sector and have a detailed understanding of how to apply specific configurations within the available footprint, such as IML insertion, pipette tip removal, or multi-tasking assembly, etc.
For many moulders today, automation is assisting processors to address the skills and recruitment challenges. Acute staffing shortages continues to be a real pain point. Even smaller UK firms are now recognising how automation, even in its simplest form, can help to maintain production continuity, with minimal human intervention.

The newest buzz word is AI. Does AI factor into the R&D at Sumitomo Demag?
Absolutely, digitalisation is one of the biggest drivers that will enhance efficiency and support sustainability. The latest development from the company is activeMeltControl (aMC). Automatically adapting to the injection moulding process, aMC adjusts the holding pressure and corrects the switch over position to compensate for a number of processing variables. These could range from viscosity fluctuations to drying differences, dosing variations or the use of additional additives.
The background for this development was driven by changing quality of plastics due to fewer virgin materials and more recyclable content. Using aMC, processors are able to use a broader range of post-consumer and post-industrial recycled material types. Even customers with defined processing references benefit, as aMC instantly addresses any variability to maintain absolute processing precision and stability.
Another digital example is the development of myAssist. To provide greater processing transparency and to help run machines at their most efficient, this tool, summarised by the company as the ultimate ‘digital process companion’, presents easy-to-read dashboards, consumption data and KPIs, all defined by the end user. The ability to connect and oversee digital data across multiple machines in a single production facility is also available.
This level of high data transparency makes it possible to spot deviations, aggregate data captured from all OPC-UA filtered sources and react to changes in production processes at the earliest stage. The ability to merge data from multiple sources facilitates complete digital mapping of all production and environmental factors, including historical data. Adding Human Virtual Interface (HVI) and an Expertise module also enables users to put data findings into context by adding labels and more detailed annotations.
On top we are currently investigating how we are able to use AI in our internal processes where one of our goals is to make the application experience we gathered over years more easily accessible, not only for our own employees but also for the customers. This is a significant step in order to preserve know how during the currently ongoing generation change.

What can we look forward to in terms of innovation in injection moulding technology in general, and at Sumitomo Demag in particular?
Users can expect to see more digital features and with it the potential to optimise processes in more state-of-the-art and sophisticated ways. In the near future we anticipate it will be used to model production processes, adjust parameters autonomously, trace the disposal of plastic waste more efficiently. AI as a tool offers so many opportunities to optimise processes. Providing control (and security) is maintained, it will become the processing enabler of the future.

There is some talk that Europe is ‘deindustrialising’. Is this something that you recognise as a trend? Is it a concern for you as a manufacturer of machinery for the plastics industry?Indeed, the market is undergoing significant changes and challenges. Mirroring consumer patterns and rapid urbanisation, many of the key manufacturers are instead looking to fortify their regional market positions. Their investments in machinery is indicative of their confidence. Smart buildings, electric vehicles, packaging for personal care products, and home testing devices are among the many forecast growth categories.
Based on our global footprint we do have good and early access to global trends, especially in Asia. Actually, the current situation helped us to move closer together with our international colleagues as we are capable of handling those challenges jointly.
As a company that has a lot of industry-orientated specialists, as with all-electric, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag will inevitably be at the forefront, developing solutions that cater to these evolving trends.