COLOGNE, GERMANY (Oct. 11, 1 p.m. ET) — The future of Germany’s Jacob Plastics Group looks more secure now that it has been acquired by HBW-Gubesch Kunststoff Engineering GmbH, R&D director Marcus Schuck said at a European Plastics News conference earlier this week.

Wilhalmsdorf, Germany-based Jacob had applied for insolvency in January.

HBW-Gubesch has acquired the entire Jacob Plastics group, including Jacob Kunststofftechnik GmbH, Jacob Deco Molding GmbH, Jacob Composite GmbH and Jacob Industrieformen (mold making) subsidiary companies.

At the Decorative Automotive Plastics conference, which took place in Cologne on Oct. 9, Schuck presented a paper covering not only the Multi-decomolding process developed by Jacob Plastics, but also the IMD-Pro and newer IMD Multi-K decorative injection molding processes developed by Wilhelmsdorf , Germany-based HBW-Gubesch.

These processes, now provided by the newly formed HBW-Gubesch subsidiary — HBW-Gubesch Thermoforming — have different cost and performance features, he said.

Asked about the prospects for lightweight selectively reinforced thermoplastic composite solutions, such as the FIT-Hybrid solution with the LKT plastics processing institute at Erlangen, Schuck told European Plastics News that this was still unclear.