With a central material supply system from WITTMANN, elasto has reorganized material handling in injection molding production at its German site.

elasto, as one of the largest suppliers of promotional items in Europe, has an immense product portfolio from giveaways to high-quality household, lifestyle and sports articles. Most recently, the company has invested EUR 12.5 million in a new, resource-saving production and logistics center.

(From left) Marcus Sperber and Markus Rösel from elasto, and Wolfgang Prütting from WITTMANN BATTENFELD Germany.

Unlimited choice of color for large batch sizes

At the heart of the new production is a large central material supply system from WITTMANN.

Several large Drymax material dryers are standing on the platform, placed below them are 750-kg containers for the most frequently used materials and colors. Polypropylene makes up the major share. Via a closed pipeline system, the granulate is transported to the coupling station and from there to the individual processing machines.

The coordination of material flows with the machines takes place via bar code labels and hand scanners. The M8 control system of the central material supply system automatically checks whether the particular combination fits and only then releases the material transfer. A risk of confusion, such as existed previously, is thus excluded.

The M8 control system of the central material supply system.

Quick color change and regrind processing with thorough dedusting

With WITTMANN’s central material supply system, color changes can also be carried out much faster. Residual material is simply sucked back and no longer lands inside a handheld vacuum cleaner. The extremely clean materials handling increases occupational safety, process reliability and material efficiency.

The granulate is transported inside a closed system. Feedmax Clean material loaders are also used. In this way, dust generation is reliably prevented.

Dust generation has been completely eliminated, which is due to the closed pipeline system as well as the Feedmax Clean material loaders with their integrated dedusting function. WITTMANN’s Feedmax Clean reaches extremely high extraction rates of up to 80% of all particles below 1 mm in diameter.