Originally designed to be a medical moulding ‘powerhouse’, the Summit-Series by Milacron is said to be proving very versatile with customers using the stainless steel hot runner to mould premium packaging, personal care goods, teletronic parts and even small automotive parts.
Recent non-medical applications have included a support ring for a beverage application that used biodegradable resins.
The characteristics of biodegradable resins demand uniform temperature distribution and Summit-Series nozzles excel in this area, claims Milacron.
In consumer goods, a multi-material razor handle required the system corrosion and chemical resistance that the Summit-Series provides.
Hans Hagelstein, Mold-Masters president, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, said: “To date, nearly half of the applications using Summit-Series around the globe are non-medical, highly demanding and innovative part designs. Sales of the Summit-Series have been strong since the launch with systems in production in North America, Europe and Asia.”
The Summit-Series launched at NPE 2015 as the new premium hot runner line in the Mold-Masters brand portfolio.
The stainless steel hot runner system runs with four times less thermal variation from setpoint, compared to the typical thermal variation seen in a nozzle with a heater band.
With less than five percent temperature variation, the nozzle series is suitable for moulding shear and temperature sensitive resins like PC, POM and PBT.
The Summit-Series is clean room-ready and is said to be suited to “any moulder looking to reduce risk and optimise moulding process parameters with minimized variance and strong, repeatable results”.
It offers new valve gating methods using individual servo controlled actuators. “At Milacron we’re ecstatic that our customers are expanding Summit-Series uses beyond just the medical molding market. Customers are coming to us with applications that require excellent thermal stability, careful system balance and the need for pristine gate quality. They’re seeing fantastic results with Summit-Series,” said An Heid, Mold-Masters president, Americas and Asia.
Bruce Catoen, Milacron chief technology officer said: “Our customers call on Milacron time and time again to engineer and manufacture solutions to all their molding applications. Summit-Series is designed to address the applications that push the limits of today’s hot runner capability. Milacron continues to be committed to working side by side with our customer to find answers to their challenges and Summit-Series is another in a long line of innovations that Mold-Masters has brought to market.”
