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October 14, 2015 02:00 AM

Engel recruiting new talent to stay ahead

Bill Bregar
Senior Staff Reporter
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    Friedrichshafen, Germany — Engel Holding GmbH generated record sales of 1.07 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in fiscal 2014-2015, and the company's top sales official is predicting a solid gain this year — although sales growth could even out in the coming years.

    “The past two years were — from a global perspective — the best we have had for a long time,” said Christoph Steger, Engel's chief sales officer, said at Engel's Fakuma 2015 news conference Oct. 14 in Friedrichshafen.

    “The growth of the industry in the last two years was enormous. But we expect this growth will slow in the next few years. We're not talking about stagnation — just slowing of the level of growth,” Steger said.

    CEO Peter Neumann said robust demand for plastics processing machinery in recent years has led to some supply-chain problems and longer lead times for machine delivery.

    Engel is showing lots of technology at Fakuma. But Neumann outlined how Engel — which already employs more than 5,000 people — is trying to train and attract new people. Engel is adding a childcare center at its headquarters in Schwertberg, Austria. That is part of a 9,300-square-meter expansion for more space for sales and service and an apprentice workshop.

    Engel has 140 people in its apprenticeship program in Schwertberg. Neumann said 98 percent of the apprentices stay to work at Engel. Neumann called it “a major success factor for our company.”

    Now the company is expanding its efforts beyond its home country of Austria.

    Engel's subsidiary in Hagen, Germany, began its own training program in 2012.

    Engel also built a new apprentice workshop at its plant in Shanghai, modeled after the one in Schwertberg. In the spring of 2014, the first 10 apprentices began training as technicians for computer numerically controlled machining.

    “We have a program that is based on the role model of Austria,” Neumann said. The company is teaming with local schools.

    On Sept. 1, Engel started a training program at its component factory in Kaplice, the Czech Republic.

    Neumann said Engel's challenge to remain a leader in new technology, without becoming complacent as a big machinery maker, means the company will need a steady stream of new talent.

    At Fakuma, Engel is showing its technology to keep injection molding machines operating at peak efficiency — even if conditions change.

    Stefan Engleder, chief technology officer, said Engel has dubbed its smart factory concept inject 4.0 — a play on Industry 4.0. Inject 4.0 is based on smart machines, smart production with integrated data and smart services, including remote maintenance tools.

    Engleder outlined features such as IQ Clamp Control and vibration control, a feature that can reduce the vibration movement of Engel's viper linear robots. He said vibration is an issue especially on big robots used on large-tonnage machines.

    At Fakuma, Engel is molding parts for automotive, electronic switches, packaging and medical markets.

    To give car interiors a touch of luxury, Engel has partnered with HIM Trim Part Solutions in Bruchsai, Germany — a subsidiary of NBHX Trim GmbH and other firms to develop an economical way to make decor elements with real wood veneers. The process uses Engel's clearmelt process, back-injecting the veneers with a thermoplastic and coating the part with transparent polyurethane.

    This marks the first serial application of the method first introduced back in 2009 — and now, at Fakuma 2015, the process is making wood elements on a two-cavity mold, before the full production begins at HIM Trim Part Solutions.

    An Engel duo combi M injection molding press with a rotary platen molds the part. On one side of the mold, the wood veneers are back-injected with polycarbonate/ABS, while simultaneously on the other side, the base elements are flooded with PU.

    Read about Engel's plans to open a subsidiary in Vietnam.

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