How to produce injection moulded plastic parts without defects despite the skills shortage

Whether it's tool setting, process optimisation or troubleshooting – today, there is often one thing missing at crucial interfaces in injection moulding production: experience. This is because the shortage of skilled workers hits precisely where know-how is indispensable.

ENGEL is responding to this change with two digital assistance systems in production that come into play when it counts:

• The Process checklist – for systematic and traceable optimisation

• The SolutionGuide – for confident action in the event of alarms and component errors

Both tools bring expert knowledge directly to the machine – for smooth processes, even when an expert is not always on hand. This means that even with less experience, plastic parts can be injection moulded without errors.

Production halls are running, tools are changing, new components are arriving. And this is exactly where success is decided.

In times of a skills shortage, one is often faced with the following challenging questions:

• Was the injection moulding tool set up correctly?

• Have all the process optimisation steps been followed?

• When a machine malfunction occurred, was the correct response taken – or was it simply re-started?

In the past, experts routinely caught such errors. Today, there are less skilled workers available – and with them, often the knowledge of what is "right" and "wrong". The consequences: scrap, tool damage, production delays.

The digitisation of knowledge is becoming the key to closing this gap and continuing to produce injection-moulded plastic parts without defects.

The process checklist is your intelligent roadmap through every optimisation at the injection moulding machine. Directly within the machine control system, it guides you through all the relevant steps – from initial setup to final fine-tuning:

• Which digital iQ products are active?

• What has already been optimised – what is still missing?

• Which measures lead promptly to stable series production?

The process checklist adapts flexibly to company-specific standards, offers transparent documentation and is ideal for shift changes or series launches under time pressure.

Real-world example: A sampling technician starts the optimisation – and his colleague can pick up exactly where he left off a few days later. No paperwork. No lost production time.

The result: less production time lost, more repeatability, greater reliability in the injection moulding of flawless plastic parts – even without experienced personnel.

The Solution Guide is the smart answer to typical problems encountered in everyday production.

• Which alarm has occurred and what does it actually mean?

• What steps must be taken now?

• Who is the correct contact person? Setup personnel, an expert or a shift supervisor?

• What happens if the expert is not available at the moment? Does the machine stop, or can production continue safely?

• What information or Documentations are available directly on the alarm?

• What are the risks when the machine is simply restarted without a proper inspection?

• How can we ensure that good parts are produced immediately after restarting?

• How can we prevent tool damage or production downtime caused by incorrect start-up procedures?

These are now a thing of the past. The solution guide links alarms to specific instructions and recommendations for action. Costly mistakes are prevented. The machine only restarts once the defined work instruction has been confirmed. Component defects from quality control can also be integrated.

Real-world example: A new employee is standing at the machine and notices: the part has not been fully ejected. However, they do not know what to do. Instead of simply restarting the machine, they can a message via a button labelled “Component error – not ejected”. on the control system The machine detects the error and automatically creates a component error alarm. The appropriate instructions appear immediately in the solution guide troubleshooting. The operator works through a Check list, carries out the recommended measures and restarts production correctly and safely. This prevents someone from simply acknowledging the error, the machine restarting and thereby causing mould damage, rejects or production downtime.

The result: Standardised error elimination, informed action – and error-free injection moulding of plastic parts, even without years of experience. Users’ knowledge is protected, and ENGEL now offers this capability.

Next to the process checklist and the solution guide, ENGEL supports you with further digital assistance systems and solutions in your production – to counteract the shortage of skilled workers and enable rapid process optimisation.

iQ weight control plus significantly reduces the complexity of settings. The new pressure-controlled injection with iQ weight control plus reduces over 40 process parameters to two simple values: pressure and time. Less experienced employees in particular benefit from this, as the control system automatically takes over complex control tasks and stable processes become repeatable. This makes it possible to start producing precise, error-free plastic parts even without specialist knowledge. This makes it possible to start producing precise, error-free plastic parts even without specialist knowledge.

iQ process observer shows deviations before they become a problem. iQ process observer analyses up to 500 process variables simultaneously and detects deviations at an early stage – before rejects occur. For companies with limited staffing levels, this is a real game changer: the digital assistance system thinks for itself, suggests improvements and provides a continuous overview without the need for a permanent expert to be on hand.

Parameter-Limits ensures that processes remain stable – even without constant monitoring. With Parameter-Limits, permissible tolerance ranges for process parameters can be precisely defined and stored directly in the control system. The function prevents unwanted changes by inexperienced operators and ensures that critical settings are not accidentally overwritten. This is a real safety anchor, especially in times of skilled labour shortages in production. Parameter knowledge is protected, process stability is guaranteed and plastic parts are injection moulded without errors, even with changing personnel.

What used to be based on experience is now backed up by software. What used to be individual knowledge is now made available to the whole team. ENGEL brings knowledge to where it is needed: to the machine. In production. At night. At the start of series production. In the event of a breakdown. During setup.

Digitalisation creates a new level of security – so that plastic parts can be injection moulded without errors, even when there is a shortage of skilled workers.

Then read the blog article Digitalisation as the key to skills shortages and energy efficiency to learn about further digital tools, or discover our injection moulding training courses, which will help you build up expert knowledge and practical experience.