Milacron Elektron 400/500/600 Full Electric Injection Molding Machine On site Maintenance and Troubleshooting Complete Guide

Air injection test: Turn off the heater, manually retract the screw to the bottom, and then quickly inject. Measure the injection length and compare it with the set stroke; If the actual injection volume is less than 90% of the set value, it indicates that the check ring is leaking. Replace the check ring (remove the screw).

Check the tension of the synchronous belt: Same as the method in Chapter 3, but the tension of the injection shaft synchronous belt should be higher (deflection 6-10mm).

Problem 3: Unstable plasticization and large fluctuations in the material cushion (>2mm)

Reason: Poor back pressure control; Plasticized servo motor speed fluctuation; Differences in raw material batches.

handle:

Check if the back pressure setting value is too small (recommended ≥ 5 bar).

Check if the "actual screw speed" in Endura Touch matches the set speed. If the difference is greater than 10 rpm, it may be due to interference from the motor encoder signal.

Clean the feed inlet to prevent bridging.

4.3 Cleaning and maintenance of injection unit

The Elektron injection unit adopts frictionless linear bearing guidance, which does not require grease lubrication and avoids contaminating the product. However, it should be noted that:

Check the material dropping area for debris every month;

Remove the screw and check the wear of the surface coating every 2000 hours of operation;

When replacing the heating belt, it is necessary to use the original specifications (voltage, power, aperture), wrap it with insulation cotton and tie it tightly after installation.

Chapter 5: Driver System and Powerlink Network

5.1 Driver Architecture

All motion axes (locking, injection, plasticization, ejection) use high-precision servo motors, which communicate with PLC through Powerlink real-time Ethernet protocol, with a cycle period of ≤ 1ms. The closed-loop control includes three loops: position, speed, and pressure (through load sensors).

5.2 Common Driver Alarm and Handling

Steps for troubleshooting the meaning of alarm codes

E-5001 injection shaft overload check for mechanical jamming (whether the manual rotation of the screw is smooth); Measure the resistance of the three-phase winding of the motor; Reduce the injection speed setting value

Check if the synchronous belt is broken due to excessive tracking error of the E-5002 locking axis; Is the encoder feedback line damaged; Restart the controller and recalibrate the zero position

E-5003 Powerlink communication timeout check for network cables and switches (if there are multiple machines); Restart all drive power sources; Check if the terminal resistance matches

E-5004 ejection shaft position exceeds the limit, manual reset ejection; Check the limit switch signal; Re calibrate the zero point of the ejection stroke

5.3 Precautions for Replacing Servo Motors (Similar to Woodward Module Replacement)

When the servo motor is damaged and the original model (such as the B&R ACOPOS series) has been discontinued, follow the steps below to find a replacement:

Record the original motor nameplate parameters: rated torque, rated speed, encoder type (Resolver or EnDat), and brake voltage.

Confirm compatibility with alternative models with Milacron's original factory, or contact a third-party servo repair provider for refurbishment.

After replacing the motor, the "Motor Automatic Recognition" program must be executed: enter "Motor Parameter Automatic Setting" in the "Drive Settings" of Endura Touch, run for about 2 minutes, and the system will automatically match the current loop parameters.

Perform zero calibration and gain optimization for all relevant axes again (speed loop, position loop).

Chapter 6 Temperature Control System and Heating Fault Handling

6.1 Temperature Control Characteristics

Elektron comes standard with 4-stage drum heating and 1-stage nozzle heating (4/1 for 400/500/600 models). Equipped with automatic detection of heating strip failure and thermocouple open circuit, and a heat standby mode - set to automatically reduce the temperature of each section after several cycles of no production, saving energy consumption; Cool start protection (Soak Timer) - Injection is prohibited before the barrel temperature reaches the set value.

6.2 Common Heating Malfunctions

Fault 1: A certain temperature cannot rise to the set value, displaying "Heater and Failure"

Possible reasons:

The heating belt has an internal open circuit.

Solid state relay (SSR) is damaged or the triggering signal is lost.

Poor installation of thermocouple position.

diagnosis:

Measure the current of the heating strip in this section using a clamp ammeter (normally similar to other sections). If there is no current, check the power contactor and SSR.

Measure the resistance of the heating strip (disconnect the power supply): for example, the resistance of a 400W/230V heating strip is about 132 Ω. If it is infinite, replace the heating belt.

Thermocouple measurement: Use a multimeter in mV range to measure the two ends of the thermocouple and compare it with the calibration table. If there should be 0mV at room temperature but a significant deviation is displayed, replace the thermocouple.