- UPDATE: IMKS process awarded with Innovation Price
- Production on a single machine in injection moulding tool
- Focus on contacts between electrical inserts & different contact surfaces
IMKS process awarded with Innovation Price
The Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) and the Krallmann Group, Hiddenhausen, Germany have been awarded with the Innovation Price of the Zenit Network e.V. for the development of the IMKS process that allows the production of plastic/metal hybrid parts in a single process step. In cooperation with KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH, Krallmann has already realized the first production system for this process.
Production on a single machine in injection moulding tool
The project partners Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV), KraussMaffei, Krallmann Group and Osram have succeeded in casting plastic and metal together on a single machine and in a single process step. The result is a new hybrid processing technology called “Integrated metal/plastic injection moulding” (IMKS), that allows the manufacture of electrically conductive plastic/metal components on a single machine in an injection moulding tool without any upstream or downstream processing steps.
Focus on contacts between electrical inserts & different contact surfaces
The machine enables, for example, plastic housings for LED lights to be directly provided with the necessary conductive tracks. This not only shortens the production times, it also opens up new possibilities in product design. The new technology is based on a standard injection moulding machine equipped with an additional newly developed metal die-casting unit.
Main objective of the development was to evolve a strategy for integrating the low-melting solder into visible components. One particular area of focus was the contacts between the electrical inserts and the different contact surfaces and geometries.
Main Picture: Demonstrator component: A circuit board with contacts produced by IMKS for controlling different electronic components (photo: IKV)
