Page 8 - ahp.magazin 2023 EN Final Einzelseiten

HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS

Patrick Mussler

The introduction of the product electrohydraulic linear actu- So what could be more obvious than to further expand this
ator “E-AHP” initially turned out differently than initially ex- know-how now available at AHP Merkle in terms of personnel
pected. and “pass it on to the customer”? Here are a few examples of
implemented projects in 2022:
At the beginning, we had concentrated on the mechanical and
hydraulic part of the E-AHP unit. On the assumption that, as
with our hydraulic cylinders, our customers would take con-
trol and regulation technology in their machines into their own Test unit
hands. Our previous knowledge in the area of control and
regulation technology was very manageable at that time. We The requirement here was to be able to test 4 hydraulic circuits in-
looked around for possible partners in this area. dependently of each other. It was important to be able to run at low
pressure initially and then increase this to 250 bar/ 3.626 Psi if required.
This immediately gave us the idea of contacting a partner whom
we had already had for many years as a house and yard supplier For this task, it was not important to pay increased attention to
for our test benches. energy consumption, since this test unit did not require continu-
ous operation. Therefore, it was possible to place more emphasis
As the incredible coincidence would have it, it turned out on low-cost components. Also, this application basically has only
that exactly this partner was looking for a new challenge at an electrical control, but no control in the sense.
that time: Dirk Wiebeck, (already introduced in ahp.magazin
1.2022), a proven expert in hydraulics. We took this chance
and since April 2021 he is an energetic member of the AHP
team in Gottenheim. Since the beginning, he has mainly taken Add-on unit for all-electric injection
care of the E-AHP in order to work on exactly the topics men- molding machine
tioned at the beginning. Since July 2022, we have been offer-
ing more and more of this expertise, which is now available at All-electric injection molding machines certainly have their advan-
AHP Merkle, to our customers as well. tages. The disadvantage, however, is that the hydraulics on the
machine are often omitted and thus the possibility of hydrauli-
The whole thing fits wonderfully into today’s world. Our custom- cally actuating core pulls, for example. And here, hydraulics are
ers’ requests for hydraulic systems and problems have increased massively superior in many cases, especially with higher forces or
noticeably. The know-how in hydraulics is decreasing more and other alternative drives.
more, the shortage of skilled workers is also becoming increasing-
ly apparent in this specialized area. For this reason, we have now supplied the first auxiliary units that
can close this gap. This means: We develop a complete
A lack of expertise is also increasingly affecting the reputation of hydraulic unit including an interface for the elec-
hydraulics. At trade shows, we very often hear: “Yes, hydraulics tric injection molding machine. The machine
always leak”. The fact that this is often due to incorrect design then tells the auxiliary unit what it has to do.
on the part of hydraulic developers is often kept quiet. Energy This then controls the core pulls, ejectors or hot
efficiency is often mentioned as a further argument. This state- runners, depending on what is currently being
ment is also often based on half-knowledge. It is little known that hydraulically driven. This auxiliary unit has the
there is no other form of energy that can be stored as effectively potential to be standardized by us.
as hydraulics. Here, as always, we are very open to customer input.

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