6.5 Boost and standby

Both functions shift the set temperature temporarily: the boost upwards, standby downwards. The controller continues to work unchanged – it merely gets a different target.

Figure 20: The boost ends by itself after the set duration. Standby remains until it is ended.

Boost

The boost raises the set temperature by a set amount for a set duration, ex works by 30 K for one minute. The typical occasion is a frozen plug: solidified material in the nozzle that the normal setpoint no longer melts because the heat flows away into the surrounding tool.

After the duration has elapsed the channel returns to the set temperature by itself. The boost can be ended earlier using the same button in the special functions.

NOTE

The boost only makes sense after the set temperature has been reached. On a channel that is still heating up it achieves nothing: the controller is heating at full power anyway, and a higher target does not make it faster. The boost duration set corresponds to one boost period; a further one can be started after it has elapsed.

Standby

When the machine is at a standstill, a lower temperature protects the material in the channel and saves energy. The advantage over switching off is the return time: from standby the tool is ready for use again in minutes, from cold in half an hour – and without another softstart, see Section 6.4, “Softstart”.

The standby temperature is an absolute value, not a distance from the set temperature: 150 °C ex works. All channels in standby therefore sit at the same temperature, regardless of how hot they are in operation. This is intended – the limit below which a material solidifies, or above which it decomposes, depends on the material and not on the operating temperature of the zone.

NOTE

Standby does not end by itself. It has to be ended actively, otherwise production starts up after the break with the channels still lowered.

Neither state reports “operational”

A channel in boost or in standby counts as not operational – after all, it is avowedly not at its set temperature. An output that switches the machine’s injection enable therefore drops out as soon as a channel is lowered or boosted. This is intended and not a malfunction; see Section 9.2.8, “Inputs and outputs”.