Haitian International and the IKV – Institute for Plastics Processing in Aachen, Germany, have agreed, to develop alternative possibilities for the plastification unit as part of a joint project and to look for completely new approaches. The primary goals are new application fields, energy and material savings. The project started in August 2019.

Haitian International, one of the world’s leading companies in research and development as well as in the production of modern injection molding technology, has initiated an exciting research project together with the IKV – Institute for Plastics Processing in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University to “rethink” the topic of plasticizing.

The IKV stands for scientific and practice-oriented research and is a European leader in the field of plastics technology. Around 300 employees, including 80 scientists and 180 student assistants, develop new solutions for the plastics technology of the future based on a holistic approach.

Prof. Helmar Franz, Director of Haitian International, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, head of the IKV, have initiated the promising research project and are continuously involved.

In the eyes of both initiators, plasticizing has enormous development potential. On the one hand, material preparation has a considerable influence on part quality (keyword homogeneity); on the other hand, it represents one of the most complex mechanical components (keyword resource saving). “Depending on the application, about 50% of the total energy consumption in injection molding is in the plasticizing process, sometimes significantly more,” says Dipl.-Ing. Gao, project manager and deputy director of R&D department at Haitian International.

The main objectives of the joint R&D project are therefore to save energy costs and resources in plasticizing, to improve the processability of existing and new plastics, to simplify the processability of compounds or to make it possible in the first place, and thus to open up completely new areas of application for injection molding technology.

Therefore, it is not only about optimization, but also about the development of completely new concepts. “From our point of view, this is absolutely necessary in order to supplement or perhaps even completely replace the screw plasticizing process that has been in existence for more than 60 years. This is a high requirement and we will see what comes out of it, but we all together, Haitian International and IKV, are of the opinion that it is high time to try this,” says Prof. Franz, and continues: “We see the IKV as the best possible partner worldwide to decisively advance the future topic of plasticizing. We are particularly pleased that Prof. Dr. Hopmann could be won over and enthused for this project”.

The tasks are clearly distributed, the project work is carried out in three stages. After the IKV team under the project management of Dr.-Ing. Malte Röbig Malte Röbel, head of department injection molding, initially concentrates on the analysis and conclusions, the joint concept and design phase follows. In the realisation phase with prototypes and tests, the R&D team of Haitian International is again in greater demand.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, Head of the Institute for Plastics Processing: “For us, the project is an exciting challenge to contribute to the improvement of fundamental principles of injection molding technology. We are looking forward to a creative collaboration with the engineers of Haitian International and are highly motivated to develop innovative approaches”.

Cover photo: From left: Prof. Helmar Franz, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, Zhang Jianming

Press release from HAITIAN Germany