Sustainable production

Unit costs are a key factor in the production of plastic parts using the injection molding process. The cycle time plays a key role in calculating the unit costs and is therefore reduced as much as possible. Although electricity costs or the waste heat generated during the process are taken into account, they have been less significant to date.

This is currently changing with regard to the negative environmental impact of all manufacturing processes. With this in mind, a consortium consisting of the IAI, ITES and IAM-WK institutes has been formed at KIT to optimize the behaviour of industrial injection moulding production in the electricity and heat network. To determine the energy balance, the area around the plasticizing unit must be thermally decoupled from the environment.