/> ARBURG supplies modular injection-molding machines, with control technology developed and constructed in-house. ARBURG is known the world over for very high quality standards. The foundation for this quality is laid at the development stage with Zuken's CR-5000 software for electronic design.

Despite increasingly challenging requirements in high-speed PCB design, ARBURG has managed to reduce development costs by saving time with CR-5000, while also achieving enhanced quality. The reuse of existing modules and assemblies from designs of tested and proven circuits has played an important part in advancing their design process.

Werner Faulhaber, head of the electrical engineering development department at ARBURG, stated that one of today's key challenges is being able to respond flexibly to both market and customer requirements in extremely short development cycles. It is rather unusual for a machine construction company to develop and produce its own control technology for its injection molding machines. But this has given us extensive know-how which enables us to devise the most efficient solution together with our customers in a practical and competent manner.

The use of new IC technologies results in more complex requirements. The control-based design process makes for a faultless process – from product development to production. This is implemented by parallel development and verification, co-simulation of analog and digital shift lever brackets and programmable components, as well as optimization of signal integrity, power supply, decoupling and EMC. Selected DFM techniques are also used in parallel with the design process.

CR-5000 has also delivered to ARBURG a rapid and reliable design process that links to mechanical development with CATIA. The key board geometries and enveloping bodies, which are important for collision checks, are imported using the CATIA interface Board Interchanger. In turn, the finished layout is exported as a 3D model to the mechanical design tool CATIA.