The simulator has been designed and manufactured for the interactive and complete study of a molding process for plastic materials. It is composed of:
• A panel reporting the color silk screen diagram of a real industrial plant
• Multimedia graphical software enabling, via PC simulator connection:
– the control and supervision of the system
– the consultation of theoretical hypertexts and digitized images
The center of the simulator consists of the industrial press that produces the finished object via injection molding starting from solid granules of polymer. The simulator reproduces all functions and conditions of the molding plant enabling the analysis of many technological subjects such as:
• Molding polymers
• Operation and automation of an injection press
• Types of molds
• Cooling techniques for the press and the mold
• Safety on the molding systems
The presence on the panel of many potentiometers, pushbuttons, switches, LED diodes and graphic bars enables to easily manipulate the values of the process variables. These actions can be carried out from PC, too, with the help of the interactive software enabling at the same time the real time report of the process state by means of dynamic graphical objects. At last, the theoretical study, the exercises and the use of the simulator are effectively guided by a complete theoretical/practical set of handbooks provided with the equipment.
TRAINING PROGRAM:
The simulator enables the study of the following main subjects:
• Structure of a molding system
• Molding materials
• Structure, operation and automation of the industrial injection press
• Extrusion process
• Injection process
• Press cooling systems
• Types of molds
• Mold blocking systems
• Mold cooling systems
• Mold cooling times
• Quality control (QC) of the finished object
• Safety of the molding plants
• Emergency and alarms
• Monitoring and control of the molding process via PC
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
• Sheet steel structure, chemically treated and painted with epoxy paint
• Colored silk-screen panel representing the plant
• Setting and manipulation of the process variables via:
– Potentiometers
– Pushbuttons
– Switches
• Visualization of the process variables via:
– LED diodes
– Bargraph
• Electronic card for control of the digital and analog I/O on the simulator provided with USB interface for communication with PC
• USB cable for simulator/PC communication
• Power Supply: 230 Vac 50 Hz single-phase – 50 VA
