Netstal Maschinen AG (CH-8752 Näfels) at the "Plast 94" exhibition (Milan, May 2-7): The demonstration of the N 580/150 MP moulding machine shows the suitability of the well-established fast-cycling N range for the production of tin-walled packaging containers. Controlled take-out and stacking of the cups are a valuable contribution to the safety and cleanliness of production. The 4-cavity hotrunner mould is from Schöttli; the take-out and stacking devices are from Rascher. The high-performance machine HP 1000-220 is demonstrated with a 4-cavity hotrunner mould (made by Dutch mould maker GPT-Axxicon) for the polycarbonate housing of the "Mini Disc". All auxiliary equipment (material drying and conveying, take-out robot, stacking, mould temperature control) is from Piovan. This narrow-tolerance moulding calls for high process quality and allows a short moulding cycle.

As from February 1994 Netstals HP moulding machines are equipped with the new DSP multiprocessor control. Based on advanced RISC technology with digital signal processing DSP sets new standards for user-friendliness. The HP machine is demonstrated with the "Graphtrack" user surface. It releases the operator from the time-consuming effort of entering numeric process variables for the mould filling and hold pressure phases. By means of a trackball the operator generates these profiles directly onto the colour graphics screen. The unique "Graphtrack" option has already found wide acceptance. Compared with conventional programming it provides superior process visualization and allows fast and safe programming.

READER SERVICE: "Netstal at NPE Chicago" (June 20-25): PIE-No. 35840.