Arburg: more efficiency, higher productivity leads to excellent results

Friedrichshafen — At an upbeat conference here at Fakuma 2014, Arburg was extremely positive about developments to date. Managing Partner Michael Hehl said he was "highly satisfied with the business trend and our incoming orders in 2014." According to Hehl: "Utilization of production capacities and delivery reliability are very good. Thanks to numerous measures, we have increased the efficiency of order processing, production and assembly, resulting in higher productivity."

Smilingly, he added that the company was looking forward this year to sales figures that are expected to be "above €500 million." "We don't usually conjecture about figures," he said.  "But it will be well worth mentioning."

The positive results were not limited to sales alone - Hehl also mentioned that the number of staff had also increased, that various sites - including the company's headquarters in Lossburg  - were being expanded and that completely new buildings were currently under construction in Poland and the U.S.

"Also, we have enlarged our Chinese subsidiary in Shenzhen. Our move into new premises will make 1,250 m2 of floor space available, allowing us to cater even better to our customers' needs," said Hehl.

Managing Director of Sales Helmut Heinson said that he was extremely pleased with the results achieved by the company's three locations in the U.S. The U.S. continues to be Arburg's strongest foreign market, despite the strengthening dollar against the euro. "We have a bigger headache from the competition with the yen," he said, although he emphasized that sales in Asia had demonstrated healthy growth in recent years and were expected to continue to develop further in the future, with China at the forefront.  He also mentioned that the Central and Eastern European markets were doing extremely well, while the top performer in Western Europe, was the UK. "We are profiting from the reshoring trend there," he said.

Arburg also disclosed its schedule for the start of sales of its additive manufacturing machine, the freeformer. The market response to this machine has been overwhelming since its launch at K 2013, Hehl noted, adding that Arburg is still "the only manufacturer to cover the entire range of industrial production tasks: from the additive manufacturing of single-unit and small batches through to the injection molding of medium and high unit volumes." The machine currently can be used with PC, PP, ABS and TPE. According to Arburg, two sectors that have shown the greatest interest are the medical and the automotive industry, mainly because of the individualization trend seen in both these branches. Heinson noted that the medical industry could profit, for example, by customizing mass-produced injection molded products for individual patients. "This could be done by adding a layer made of a different material, with other haptic properties. For example, a a TPE soft touch material, that would also improve the appearance and individualize the product for the patient in question."

Delivery of the pilot series machines sold to development customers in 2014 began this summer. From the Fakuma onwards, the freeformer will go on general sale in Germany. From March 2015, the first series machines will be delivered here. Sale of the freeformer will begin in the rest of Europe on April 1, 2015, in the U.S. from the NPE in Orlando in March 2015 onwards, and in Asia from the Chinaplas in Guangzhou in May 2015 onwards.