Exhibiting partners EHLEBRACHT Plastics Technology, IMPACT COATINGS AB and pi4_robotics GmbH will operate a complete and fully automated production cell for metallized plastic parts. The cell includes an ENGEL injection molding machine, PVD vacuum metallization equipment, robotic visual inspection and packaging of produced components.

The integrated solution has many advantages over operating injection molding and metallization as separate processes. These include lead-time reduction, improved quality, and reduced costs for non-value adding activities, the essence of Lean Production.

Impact Coatings provides compact and short cycle PVD metallization units suitable for lean integration. Production cells with injection molding and PVD are for example used for metallized plastic reflectors, helping manufactures reduce lead-times and costs, and drastically improve scrap rates.

In addition, the Swedish company has introduced a small footprint solution for UV-cured lacquer, to be integrated with molding and metallization. Result is very compact, cost efficient and eco-friendly production solutions for decorative metallized plastic. This helps automotive, home appliance and other industries choose PVD vacuum metallization to replace chromium plating on plastic, when phasing out hexavalent chromium from the industry.