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York, PA—Opening its North American headquarters for its annual Medical Days event, injection molding machine and automation supplier Engel (Schwertberg, Austria) also used the gathering for the stateside debut of its new all-electric machine line the e-max. Concealed behind a curtain until the event’s second day, the machine’s unveiling was accompanied by champagne and an introduction from Engel North American President and CEO Stephan Braig.

Tony Deligio

June 27, 2008

3 Min Read
Engel launches all-electric e-max stateside, hosts Medical Days

York, PA—Opening its North American headquarters for its annual Medical Days event, injection molding machine and automation supplier Engel (Schwertberg, Austria) also used the gathering for the stateside debut of its new all-electric machine line the e-max. Concealed behind a curtain until the event’s second day, the machine’s unveiling was accompanied by champagne and an introduction from Engel North American President and CEO Stephan Braig. Braig told the assembled crowd of molders, medical device manufacturers, and industry suppliers that in a time of unprecedented energy price increases and with floor space at a premium, the energy efficiency and small footprint of the line (the 110-ton machine’s footprint measured 13-by-4-ft) make it a welcome addition to the marketplace.


Following the Medical Days event, Engel held a sales meeting with its North American representatives who will now actively begin selling the line. Initially, there will be four models available, ranging from 55 to 200 tons, and Braig told MPW that will expand to six sizes over the next year or so, going down to 35 tons, but not above 200 tons, with some launches expected at next June’s NPE2009. Above 200 tons, Engel will continue to promote its e-motion tiebarless all-electric machines, with larger presses featuring tiebars. To now, Braig told MPW that the North American market for all-electric machines below 200 tons, which he says constitutes a 44% share in terms of total units, was largely filled by Japanese machine suppliers.


“If you look at the all-electric machine market worldwide,” Braig said, “it’s a market that has been neglected by most companies that have European product development and engineering. Engel came, like most of our European competitors, a little late to the party for all electric. That has been a market that the Asian competitors really have exploited.” In its in-house newsletter, Engel estimated the global sales of all-electric machines in 2006 at 17,900 units, with 1500 sold in the U.S., and the company forecasts global sales of all electric’s will grow to 25,000 by 2010.


Beyond simply throwing its hat in the small-tonnage all-electric ring, Braig said Engel used that time on the sidelines to develop a machine line that fills gaps in the current offerings’ capabilities, specifically with regards to injection speed (up to 17.7 inch/sec), injection pressure (up to 40,600 psi), and accuracy. The machine’s moving platen rides linear rails instead of the tiebars, reducing the friction, heat, and grease that result from platens that rest on the tiebars. Braig wouldn’t reveal the lines’ costs, saying only that they’d be competitively priced and will be produced in Austria and at Engel’s South Korean manufacturing site.


Appointed president and CEO of Engel North America in June 2007, Braig also told MPW that his company is continuing the reconfiguration of its North American sites that began under his direction last year, expanding its York operation and adding technical centers throughout the continent while ceasing manufacturing in Guelph, ON. A week after the Medical Days event, Engel will break ground on a York expansion, which will eventually include added space for the manufacturing of automation systems, with that work shifting from Canada. [email protected]

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