Purchasing new Electric Machine

[tommygolf85]

Hello There,

My company is looking to purchase a brand new electric Molding machine, The bosses have narrowed the group from 9 brands down to 4 based on what we need. Cost is not a huge factor, these presses will be running 5 to 7 days a week 24 hrs a day. I think we are looking at 500 to 600ton. The molds will all be valve gated, hot runner molds running mainly GP. I was wondering if anybody has had any experience with any of these brands of presses, Good or Bad, Any input would be greatly appreciated, Thank you for your time!

TOSHIBA (EC500SX) is the quoted machine we are looking at.

MARUKA (Si-750-6) is the quoted machine we are looking at.

MILACRON (Elektron 600-26) is the quoted machine we are looking at.

JSW (J550AD) is the quoted machine we are looking at.

[brentb]

Toshiba=Good

KOM
brent

[rickbatey]

Isn't Milacron really a Fanuc in disguise? Unless it's a Milacron from Europe then I think they're all their design. No experience but it seems there may be other open points here. How are you running the valve gates? Pneumatic, hydraulic, electric? Any cores and if so how will they be powered?
We've looked into large tonnage machines but they're hybrids with electric mold open, ejection, injection and recovery with hydraulic tonnage generation. These are Engel's and it seems to be our next step.
Rick.

[tommygolf85]

Isn't Milacron really a Fanuc in disguise? Unless it's a Milacron from Europe then I think they're all their design. No experience but it seems there may be other open points here. How are you running the valve gates? Pneumatic, hydraulic, electric? Any cores and if so how will they be powered?
We've looked into large tonnage machines but they're hybrids with electric mold open, ejection, injection and recovery with hydraulic tonnage generation. These are Engel's and it seems to be our next step.
Rick.

We have 2 Fanuc presses that are about a year old, from what I was told they don't make a 500 to 600 ton machine. Valve gates are pneumatic, electric press, no core pull needed, will be eject on the fly. We have currently 20 400 to 450 ton Engel hydraulic machines in house that are getting old, and for our bigger molds that we have, we need more spacing in between the tie bars, so we need bigger and wider platens, Parts containment is a issue with the bigger molds, Engel didn't make the cut for whatever reason this time. We are trying to get away from Hydraulic machines, bosses want the room quieter so they are going electric on every machine we replace if possible.

[3NGLENN1889]

We've had good luck with these guys http://www.niigata-us.com/

[rickbatey]

So are you using tie bar less Engel's? They used to build them to 650t US but I think they now stop at 500t US. If you ever get one of the TL's you'll not buy anything else in small tonnage range.
I used older Niigata and I think ~2005 they went all electric machines. I really loved those 300t machines with Fanuc m20I robots mounted on top of stationary platten.
Keep us posted on what you guys do and how it works out.
Rick.

[tommygolf85]

So are you using tie bar less Engel's? They used to build them to 650t US but I think they now stop at 500t US. If you ever get one of the TL's you'll not buy anything else in small tonnage range.
I used older Niigata and I think ~2005 they went all electric machines. I really loved those 300t machines with Fanuc m20I robots mounted on top of stationary platten.
Keep us posted on what you guys do and how it works out.
Rick.

We have 2 older 400 ton tie bar less Engels they are Hydraulic ram, I myself like the toggle better but thats just me , we bought them used and 1 of them we have had alot of problems getting parts for it, No tie bars sure makes installing bigger molds easier and we have some fairly big molds, and I agree so far those Fanucs run great, we also have a robot on both presses, our only issue with one press is we needed Hydraulic Core Pull so we had to buy a Hydraulic unit to sit beside the press to run that, and leaked oil alot, BUT that was not the presses fault. Thank you for your response.

[Josue]

you also should consider the support and response from the mach supplier ( technical service), spare parts and maintenance cost, now you can't see it, but will be an issue In the future

Currently We have several Good brands of machines in our facilities, however some brands doesn't have a local service people, some have local but the service its not good or expensive etc...

B.Regards

[tommygolf85]

you also should consider the support and response from the mach supplier ( technical service), spare parts and maintenance cost, now you can't see it, but will be an issue In the future

Currently We have several Good brands of machines in our facilities, however some brands doesn't have a local service people, some have local but the service its not good or expensive etc...

B.Regards

You bring up a excellent point sir, we have taken that into serious consideration, from what we know from experience and others like you. We have presses now that we have trouble getting parts in a timely manner, and they lack experienced service techs so we will not be buying any new presses from them, I put this post up to possibly find out more from people who have worked with these machines or companies because I have not worked on any of the listed machines before, I appreciate the comment everybody should try and take your points into serious consideration when buying new equipment.

[iautry1973]

I have had good luck with Arburg electrics. Currently the place I work at has all electric Sumitomos. Good machine, but service is a train wreck. So just can't recommend Sumi based off of the horrible service I have received at 2 different companies. We are looking at replacing them with a different machine now.

[brentb]

Just went to see JSW. Was impressed! Solid, no frills,well built! Nice!

KOM

brent

[joeprocess]

We have had good results with Toyo (Maruka.) Toshiba not a bad company either, but I'm not sure how long they have been selling large tonnage Electric presses. I know Toyo has been for a longer time.