Wittmann nabs moldmaker to increase packaging market presence

In a move to boost its presence in the packaging market, robot and auxiliary equipment manufacturer Wittmann (Vienna, Austria) has acquired 100% of French moldmaker Regal (St. Claud). The moldmaker''s previous owner, Michael Zaegel, will stay on to manage the operation, said Werner Wittmann, president and founder of Wittmann, during a Sept. 1 press conference at his firm''s headquarters in Vienna.

"Internationally, we''ve seen that many firms, especially in developing lands, don''t have the in-house moldmaking knowledge (to help integrate automation and other equipment). So we realized we needed to integrate a moldmaker into our business," said Wittmann. Plus, as the time between customers'' orders and their expected delivery dates decreases, "having a moldmaker in-house will help us to better meet these short delivery schedules," said General Manager Michael Wittmann.

Regad''s customer base has to now been primarily French packaging molders, with the moldmaker specializing in molds for thinwalled products and inmold labeling, but Werner Wittmann says his firm plans to offer the molds to customers globally. Regad now has about 30 employees and is focused on smaller molds (to 16 cavities). At next month''s Fakuma exhibition, Wittmann intends to exhibit a Regad mold/Wittmann robot combination for processing inmold-labeled cups.

The acquisition also helps Wittmann better compete with some leading injection molding machine manufacturers as they place greater emphasis on their own robot/automation-building capacity.

The deal gives Wittmann a chance to boost its stature in the molded packaging market, one in which its presence has been very minimal, said Werner Wittmann. St. Claud is about 20 km (12 miles) from Wittmann''s facility in France, with both near Oyonnax-the heart of France''s plastics processing sector. Michael Wittmann said the company will collocate its facility, which manufacturers granulators, and the Regad moldmaking shop in a new facility situated between the two. Regad to now has no molding machines of its own and has always proofed its tools at customer''s facilities, but Wittmann intends to make room at the new facility for presses.

Michael Wittmann said the firm''s 2006 sales should hit about €125 million, an increase of €10 million from 2005. He attributes the increase to better business in North America, Mexico, China, and, somewhat surprisingly, he said, Germany, already the firm''s best market. The company has expanded on six continents in the last two years, but Werner Wittmann said the pace was necessary. "We committed to being a global supplier, and customers'' demands were such that we had to do a lot, quickly. For instance, we had planned to enter India in 2008, but customer demand made us move this forward," with a new facility opening there in October.

The company''s press conference took place during an open house at which Wittmann displayed many developments recently introduced at NPE, as well as some very new equipment including its W7*5 side-entry robots for use with thinwall molding, including cell phone and packaging markets. Typically paired with molding machines sized to 150 tonnes, these robots optimize SCARA kinematics for injection molding applications, explained Michael Wittmann. The model is equipped standard with a servo-driven linear kick-stroke of 300 mm and a rotational horizontal axis of 890 mm. SCARAs (selective compliant assembly robot arms) are generally faster and more precise than comparable Cartesian systems.