LSR meets tie-bar-less technology: ENGEL's victory electric shows what's achievable

Hand-trimming flash, tools with uneven clamping pressure, batch variations nobody spots until it's too late – this is everyday life for many LSR processors. At Fakuma 2026, ENGEL proves there's a better way: the victory electric 1565/220 will be moulding a high-precision LSR seal live on the stand – flash-free, straight out of the machine, no rework needed. Less scrap, more time for what actually matters.

Rework is an accepted part of the job for many liquid silicone rubber (LSR) processors, especially when large components and correspondingly large tools push tolerances into the micron range. Uneven clamping force causes flash, while viscosity swings hurt quality and eat into uptime. At Fakuma 2026, ENGEL offers a different approach: a victory electric 1565/220 will be live-moulding a high-precision LSR seal for an inverter component right on the stand.

The victory electric 1565/220 on show is an electric, tie-bar-less injection moulding machine delivering 2,200 kN of clamping force, paired with a 1565 injection unit built for large shot weights. It made its debut at K 2025 running a thermoplastics application – now, at Fakuma, it's proving it can handle LSR just as well.

The real strength of the tie-bar-less design is near-perfect platen parallelism: clamping force spreads evenly across the whole mould surface instead of concentrating at a few points. That keeps the mould rock-solid and fully sealed throughout injection – vital when working with low-viscosity LSR, which will find and exploit the tiniest gap and turn it into flash. The payoff is a crisp, dimensionally accurate part that's ready to use straight from the machine, no rework in sight. The tie-bar-less design also frees up space around the mould, so extra process steps can be squeezed into a smaller footprint.

For processors, toolmakers and end customers, that translates into:

• Less scrap, less rework – flash-free parts straight off the machine

• Greater process reliability for safety-critical, traceable components

• All the classic victory strengths – easy access, low-maintenance design – now working for LSR too

Live on the stand, an LSR seal measuring 484 x 202 x 29 mm is moulded for an inverter component, with a cycle time of around 70 seconds. Its job is to keep sensitive electronics safe and dry. The tricky part is dimensional accuracy: contour tolerances sit in the hundredths-of-a-millimetre range – tight even by elastomer standards. To hit that mark, the tool itself has to hold tolerances down to the thousandth of a millimetre. The material is a two-component LSR grade, Shin-Etsu KEG 2003H-50 A/B.

Tooling partner ACH Solution supplies a mould with Servoshot technology, purpose-built for the quirks of liquid silicone: strong, vacuum-assisted venting, exceptional accuracy and a tight seal, plus a cavity surface tuned to the material so nothing sticks. Once the part is moulded, an ENGEL viper 40 fitted with a bespoke ACH end-of-arm tool lifts it out while still hot – fully automated, without a scratch.

A built-in early-warning system adds another layer of reliability: standard pressure monitoring on the metering unit's feed pressure. The problem it solves is a common one – when the material's viscosity or batch quality drifts, operators often respond by cranking up the dosing pressure, sometimes right up until the machine grinds to a halt. ENGEL's pressure monitoring sounds the alarm at just 50 bar, giving operators the chance to step in before things go wrong – a genuine profit-saver for production.

Rounding things off is iQ weight control, ENGEL's tried-and-tested iQ system, which keeps viscosity swings and scrap to a minimum.

If you'd like to see this combination of precision, platen parallelism and process reliability for yourself, come and visit us on the ENGEL stand:

Visit us at Fakuma: Hall A5, Stand 5203.