At Plast 2026, ENGEL will present innovation for not only technologies, but an integrated ecosystem of solutions, digital assistants, AI-based systems and automation designed to deliver value, efficiency and quality across manufacturing processes.

At its booth, the company will demonstrate its innovation pathway through two fully automated production cells, designed to translate the principles outlined into concrete applications.

High-tech cell for lightweight design

The first one is dedicated to lightweight design, featuring a system for manufacturing rotor blades for drones made of thermoplastic composites using tape-sandwich technology.

At the core of the system is a tie-bar-less ENGEL victory 120 injection molding machine, with a clamping force of 1,200 kN, equipped with an easix articulated arm robot. The robot manages all production steps in a continuous in-mold cycle through to the extraction of the near-net-shape part. At the heart of the process is a structural sandwich design consisting of carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic tapes and an injection-molded short-fiber compound.

Injection molding cell with tie-bar-less ENGEL victory and easix six-axis robot.

Automated handling in the mold area: precise process steps directly in the injection mold.

The tapes form the load-bearing outer layers of the rotor blade and are positioned precisely in the mold and secured using vacuum fixation. This allows the reinforcements to be aligned exactly along the load paths – material is used only where it is needed for structural performance.

In the next step, the core material made of a short-fiber thermoplastic is injected between the pre-positioned tapes and bonded to the outer layers to form a near-net-shape component structure.

To further increase the lightweight potential, the core is foamed chemically, reducing component weight while maintaining structural performance. The result is a lightweight yet highly durable rotor blade in which shaping, structural function, noise-reduction and material bonding are realized in an automated cycle, eliminating the need for secondary machining operations.

The tie-bar-less design of the ENGEL victory improves accessibility in the mold area, simplifies the integration of automation. It is also possible to choose a smaller machine size, reducing investment costs. The optimized automation access enables cycle times of less than 60 seconds per rotor blade in this production solution.

Rotor blades for drones made of carbon-fiber-reinforced composite, produced using tape-sandwich injection molding technology.

Alongside the drone propeller blades, another component produced using tape-sandwich technology is featured: a cover for high-voltage automotive batteries made of flame-retardant thermoplastic material, measuring 1.3 × 1.8 meters. Selected as a finalist for the JEC World Innovation Awards 2026, this application confirms the scalability of the process, which can be extended from small-sized components to large-format structural parts.

Pragmatism and accessibility: Standardized two-platen machine concept

Another demonstration will be a WINTEC t-win 5500 with a clamping force of 5,500 kN, equipped with an ENGEL viper 40 linear robot and a single-cavity mold.

WINTEC t-win 5500 two-platen injection molding machine.

The machine produces transparent crates in Borealis RJ378MO random polypropylene, with a part weight of 232 grams in a cycle time of approximately 11-12 seconds. The application demonstrates how a standardized two-platen machine concept, short cycle times and integrated automation can support high output in packaging and logistics applications.

Expert Corner “Your Industry. Our Solutions”

Through a focused selection of real cases and application configurations, visitors are taken inside the processes, gaining a clear understanding of how machines, automation and digital intelligence interact to deliver consistent and measurable results.

Every project shown in the Expert Corner is built on an integrated optimization approach that involves the entire production system, from plant design through to the dynamic management of process parameters, entrusted to the digital assistants within the inject AI framework.

At Plast, visitors will be able to test performance of the ENGEL autonomous production cell live through dedicated sessions and one-to-one meetings with an ENGEL Italy Master Trainer.

Digitalization thus becomes a true enabler, simplifying machine operation while at the same time extending its performance capabilities. Intelligent assistants act directly and automatically on the process, these include iQ weight control, iQ clamp control, iQ flow control, and iQ process observer.

Combining vision, application and accessibility to technology

For ENGEL, innovation is not merely a response to current needs. It is the ability to anticipate scenarios, interpret change and create the conditions for it to happen. A journey that evolves with consistency and vision and that finds its expression in the combination of engineering expertise, technological evolution, and industrial culture.