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情熱と技術の関係は？カスタマーマガジン第 2 号をお読みいただくとわかります。
今号の BEYOND SURFACES では「技術と革新」に焦点が当てられています。エリコンバルザースとエリコンメテコのスタッフはお客様のニーズに応えるため、日々常に新しい技術やソリューションの開発に取り組んでいます。この情熱はどこから来るのか、我々はそれをどう、市場が求める革新に結びつけているのか、ぜひお見せしたいと思います。
産学連携による未来のコーティング技術の開発、インテリジェントなコーティングソリューションによるレーシングカーの高速化、世界最大の鍛造プレスのための熱処理ソリューションの開発 - 表面処理ソリューションに命を吹き込む物語をぜひお読みください。
The sound of the name Gigaset is renowned in the communications industry. Europe’s market leader for DECT telephones stands out through top quality and design. Tools treated with BALITHERM PRIMEFORM ensure perfect, high-gloss surfaces on finished plastic parts and shorten production cycle durations as well as the time required for maintenance.
An exceptionally elegant appearance marks the new Gigaset ‘Sculpture’. Its surfaces are resplendent in immaculate white or black. The production facility in Bocholt, Germany, expends a good deal of effort to bring this about. The injection moulding tools for forming the plastic parts mustn’t have even the slightest scratch. “You would see that immediately on the finished component – especially in the colour high-gloss black,” explains Stefan Schlottbohm, Head of Toolmaking at Gigaset.
The risk of scratch formation was greatest during retooling as well as during the regular polishing required by the steel mould inserts (material: 1.2343 ESU). In the worst-case scenario, this meant: remove the tool, allow cooling, strip down, re-polish and then remount – a process which can take up to a week, for example, if the mould needs to be sent out for reconditioning. That is an unacceptable situation for the high-performance production facility in Bocholt, because speed is essential. “A good 90% of customer orders require delivery already within three days,” says Stefan Schlottbohm. Immaculate results and speed – in light of these challenges, the suggestion made by coating partner Oerlikon Balzers to treat certain tools with the innovative BALITHERM PRIMEFORM method was spot on.
The BALITHERM PRIMEFORM approach creates a wear and scratch resistant diffusion layer with high surface hardness in the base material using a plasma-assisted process. Because this is not a deposited coating, but rather a ‘depth treatment’ of the surface, the tool can subsequently be polished to high-gloss with no difficulty. This significantly reduces the maintenance effort required because the moulds no longer have to be sent out either for re-polishing or for stripping and re-coating.
The demouldability as well as the injection and flow behaviour of the plastic material, in this case ABS, are also improved. This facilitates the manufacture of products which have nearly invisible weld lines and thus solves a ubiquitous problem faced by high-end suppliers in the industry.
A further perpetual challenge is the reduction of the production cycle duration. In an initial step, BALITHERM PRIMEFORM delivered a reduction of about 10% at the Gigaset facility in Bocholt. Further improvements over the total product cycle of around four years with a projected quantity of approximately 570’000 parts appear to be possible. Up to this point, the single-cavity mould for manufacturing the charging cradle of the ‘Sculpture’ telephone as well as the two-cavity moulds for the charging cradle cover and the upper shell of the handset have been treated – all three are high-gloss components. Previously, moulds for structured elements were protected by a TiN coating which required additional maintenance work if damaged. “With BALITHERM PRIMEFORM, this, too, is a thing of the past. And if all goes as planned, the way will be clear for further high-gloss products,” predicts Stefan Schlottbohm, taking a look at future developments.
Gigaset AG with headquarters in Munich is Europe’s market leader for DECT telephones and has a market presence worldwide in approximately 70 countries.
