In cooperation with KRAIBURG TPE, the company Mues Products & Moulds GmbH has put on the market a new type of logo plates for engine covers in the automotive sector. The application of the high-performance compounds HIPEX® allows the production with a 2-component injection moulding process. In comparison to a manual assembly of the hard component and TPE, this method shortens the cycle time significantly and reduces the error rate.

Waldkraiburg, January 2012. The logo plate is virtually the “figurehead“ on the engine block. It carries the brand of the car manufacturer and should be clearly and permanently visible. Mues Products & Moulds in Kolbermoor near Rosenheim, a company which is specialized in the development and production of injection moulds and plastic parts, has dealt intensively with exactly this part. TPE-bearings on the logo plate are important for being able to put it on the engine cover and remove it again. In cooperation with KRAIBURG TPE, specialist for thermoplastic elastomers in Waldkraiburg/Bavaria, the engineers of Mues have developed a method to produce the logo plate including the TPE-component in just one manufacturing process and to improve the properties of this part at the same time. This was made possible through the application of the high-performance compounds HIPEX®, which are extremely temperature and media resistant as well as suitable for thermoplastic processing, but which still retain their elastic properties with a hardness of 70 Shore A. „The decisive factor for me was that HIPEX® can withstand constantly high temperatures up to 150 °C as well as the contact with gear oil, lubricants and transmission fluids”, says Markus Seidl, CEO of Mues Products & Moulds.

A special challenge during the development of the new logo plate has been the construction of the anchorage of the TPE on the hard component. A bolt in the polyamid hard component has been provided with slots and teeth which are completely overmoulded and penetrated by the HIPEX® compounds. Thereby the TPE becomes anchored with the hard component mechanically and furthermore they are formed by means of an elaborate undercut construction: The cavity has been designed more voluminous in the lower area and therefore the rubber bearing builds a narrower part in the upper area, which allows to put on the logo plate on the engine cover similar to a press stud. Despite the undercut, demoulding does not cause difficulties thanks to the firm mechanical anchoring of the TPE-component and the high flexibility of the material.

HIPEX® can almost be compared to rubber, but has one major advantage: it can be processed with injection moulding. Thus, a multicavity mould also applies the TPE-bearings mechanically while the logo plate is injection-moulded. Up to now, rubber bearings have been fitted on the hard component manually in a second work step, which required much more time and held the risk of failure. Now, the hard component is produced in an injection moulding process, a robot removes the component from the cavity and places it in another one. Finally, it gets overmoulded by the HIPEX®-bearing, while a further hard component is already moulded again. Thus, the mechanical 2-component injection moulding process increases the production quality of this part and at the same time considerably reduces the cycle time, the error rate as well as the manufacturing costs.

The press release can be downloaded from www.kraiburg-tpe.com where you will also find further information and images for publication.

KRAIBURG TPE (www.kraiburg-tpe.com) manufactures thermoplastic elastomers based on HSBC (hydrogenated styrene block copolymers) and markets them all around the world. In addition to custom solutions, the company offers under the THERMOLAST® brand name a broad spectrum of standardized compounds to cover a wide range of applications. With its high-performance HIPEX® compound, KRAIBURG TPE is opening up the world of rubber for all the companies that process thermoplastics. The TPE specialist has production sites in Germany, the USA and Malaysia. The sales organization covers Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Taiwan and Brazil. In Japan KRAIBURG TPE is represented by a distributor.

Mues Products & Moulds GmbH is specialized in the production of complex injection moulds for plastic parts. Since more than 40 years, moulds weighing up to 15 tons have been produced and the portfolio also includes 2-component and gas assisted techniques as well as the injection mould film process. Most difficult geometries are realized within a very short time through most modern CAM-programming and 5-axis simultaneous machining. Due to a growing demand for high-quality plastic parts, Mues Products & Moulds also offers further processing possibilities such as infrared welding and pad printing in addition to sampling and serial production.The automotive industry constantly places new demands on its suppliers. Mues Products & Moulds meets these demands through competent consultation and realization of the required application. In addition to the automotive industry, its customer base also includes the electronics and medical industries. Mues Products & Moulds takes on new challenges and offers alternative solutions to its customers.