SHANGHAI — German machinery maker KraussMaffei Group is pushing for more equipment from all three of its brands to be made at its expanded plant in Haiyan, China, while beefing up service and development collaboration with Chinese customers.
KraussMaffei has delivered 50 made-in-China MX injection molding machines since it started making this series in China early last year. Chinese electronics giant TCL recently ordered nine MX machines for the production of TV casings.
With MX's success, the company now plans to add the production of KraussMaffei GX machines, which are in a larger clamping force range, in Haiyan “later.”
KraussMaffei Berstorff, which started making extrusion equipment in China as early as 2006, made another step forward at the end of 2013 when it started manufacturing compounding extruders in Haiyan.
The third member of the KraussMaffei family, Nestal, is planning to localize the manufacturing of its PET line presses in China, Nestal CEO Hans Ulrich Golz told Plastics News.
This week, KraussMaffei is hosting an open house at its Haiyan factory to celebrate the inauguration of its second production hall. The factory now has a total of 20,000 square meters of production space.
The Haiyan expansion also includes the addition of two new Nestal labs and testing centers, one for PET and the other one with clean room condition to produce medical products.
This week's open house highlighted an all-electric ELION of a 220 metric tons of clamping force that makes PET blood collection tubes with cycle time of 6.5 seconds. The 48-cavity mold is supplied by Taiwanese company Pass Card, while automation equipment comes from Germany's Hekuma GmbH and material handling from Motan Colortronic in China.
Complementing its PET business, Nestal is also touting caps and closures applications with high-speed in-mold-labeling technology. Golz told the press that IML is taking off in the Chinese market in the next few years.
Nestal is also expanding its service program by increasing spare part stock, which enables the delivery of parts within as short as 10 hours. It also offers a Chinese-speaking hotline that's available 24/7.
KraussMaffei's reaction molding technology is also gaining traction with Chinese customers. It recently sold a high-pressure RimStar Compact 8/4 RTM machine and a RimStar Compact 8/8 for making structural and visible components with composites that are reinforced with carbon fiber or fiberglass.
Ningbo HuaXiang Automotive's R&D department General Manager Karsten Brast said in a statement: “We have already noticed great interest in lightweight components from OEMs and expect to start to use these in series production, step by step."
