On the initiative of Arburg, Ems-Chemie and Uvex, producing protective goggles to protect the eye and conjunctiva tissue from contamination will be started, intended for specialist personnel such as doctors, nurses and emergency responders.

The production of an initial batch of 20,000 pairs of goggles at Arburg's parent plant in Lossburg will begin as quickly as possible in order to remedy the immediate shortage. "Because all three partners know what plastics can do, especially in medical technology," says Gerhard Böhm, Managing Director of Sales at Arburg, the German plastics machinery manufacturer.

At the plastics trade fair K 2019 in Düsseldorf, Arburg demonstrated, together with the German safety eyewear manufacturer Uvex and the Swiss specialty chemicals group Ems-Chemie, the fully automated production of sunglasses as trade fair demonstrators.

Thanks to the unbureaucratic coordination between the parties involved, it was quickly decided that the already very dense sunglasses could also be transformed into protective goggles, using the same tools and also the same design. From there, everything else went quickly.

A trade fair demonstrator becomes a highly useful pair of protective goggles.

After Ems-Chemie had agreed to the use of the tools and Uvex was willing to make the goggles usable for the new application by means of a quick certification, Arburg set up the production system with removal robot in the new training centre in Lossburg. 

That's where, from the week before Easter, the goggles are mass-produced in a simplified injection moulding process, they come out of the machine ready to use. They are then packed individually with safety and information data sheets in tubular film bags by hand for final distribution.

The material for the first batch of goggles, around 500 kilograms of transparent Grilamid TR (PA12), is provided free of charge by Ems-Chemie.

Uvex protective goggles in the latest design, as they come ready to use from the injection moulding machine.

The goggles are produced in one piece on an electric Allrounder 570 A with a closing force of 2,000 kN and Gestica control in a cycle time of around 50 seconds. Handling and depositing are carried out by a six-axis robot. Bad parts are sorted out and good parts are deposited on a cooling station. The packaging is done downstream by hand.

The packaging is carried out downstream manually by a packaging station of the packaging machine manufacturer Packmat from Villingendorf, which also entered the production chain completely unbureaucratically.

Once the eyewear packaging has been CE-marked and assembled, "it's quite likely that the distribution can already begin at the beginning of May," says Thomas Walther, Head of Application Technology at Arburg.

Arburg and Ems-Chemie share the first 20,000 pairs of protective goggles and, according to Magdalena Martullo, CEO and main shareholder of EMS, distribute them free of charge via official channels to hospitals, nursing homes and civil defence organisations in Germany and Switzerland.

On the initiative of Arburg, Ems-Chemie and Uvex, producing protective goggles to protect the eye and conjunctiva tissue from contamination will be started, intended for specialist personnel such as doctors, nurses and emergency responders.

The production of an initial batch of 20,000 pairs of goggles at Arburg's parent plant in Lossburg will begin as quickly as possible in order to remedy the immediate shortage. "Because all three partners know what plastics can do, especially in medical technology," says Gerhard Böhm, Managing Director of Sales at Arburg, the German plastics machinery manufacturer.

At the plastics trade fair K 2019 in Düsseldorf, Arburg demonstrated, together with the German safety eyewear manufacturer Uvex and the Swiss specialty chemicals group Ems-Chemie, the fully automated production of sunglasses as trade fair demonstrators.

Thanks to the unbureaucratic coordination between the parties involved, it was quickly decided that the already very dense sunglasses could also be transformed into protective goggles, using the same tools and also the same design. From there, everything else went quickly.

A trade fair demonstrator becomes a highly useful pair of protective goggles.

After Ems-Chemie had agreed to the use of the tools and Uvex was willing to make the goggles usable for the new application by means of a quick certification, Arburg set up the production system with removal robot in the new training centre in Lossburg. 

That's where, from the week before Easter, the goggles are mass-produced in a simplified injection moulding process, they come out of the machine ready to use. They are then packed individually with safety and information data sheets in tubular film bags by hand for final distribution.

The material for the first batch of goggles, around 500 kilograms of transparent Grilamid TR (PA12), is provided free of charge by Ems-Chemie.

Uvex protective goggles in the latest design, as they come ready to use from the injection moulding machine.

The goggles are produced in one piece on an electric Allrounder 570 A with a closing force of 2,000 kN and Gestica control in a cycle time of around 50 seconds. Handling and depositing are carried out by a six-axis robot. Bad parts are sorted out and good parts are deposited on a cooling station. The packaging is done downstream by hand.

The packaging is carried out downstream manually by a packaging station of the packaging machine manufacturer Packmat from Villingendorf, which also entered the production chain completely unbureaucratically.

Once the eyewear packaging has been CE-marked and assembled, "it's quite likely that the distribution can already begin at the beginning of May," says Thomas Walther, Head of Application Technology at Arburg.

Arburg and Ems-Chemie share the first 20,000 pairs of protective goggles and, according to Magdalena Martullo, CEO and main shareholder of EMS, distribute them free of charge via official channels to hospitals, nursing homes and civil defence organisations in Germany and Switzerland.