Officials of Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH will announce a new injection press unveiling at K 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany, later this month, and the machinery maker has opened a subsidiary in Trencin, Slovakia, to intensify its activities there.
At K, Wittmann Battenfeld will present the first press in its EcoPower Xpress series — a high-speed, all-electric injection molding machine aimed at packaging and thin-wall molding. The drives for injection, closing and opening movement are designed for fast movement and control accuracy.
At Düsseldorf, an EcoPower Xpress will mold polypropylene lids on a 4.7 second cycle mold, running an eight-cycle mold supplied by Greiner Packaging. A W837 side-entry robot inserts the foils for in-mold labeling, removes the molded lids, presents them to a vision inspection system and then separates the good parts from rejects.
Juraj Majersky, a sales representative who has represented Wittmann Battenfeld, has been appointed managing director in charge of the new subsidiary, which opened in September. He is supported by Michael Slaba, who is managing director of Wittman Battenfeld CZ in Pisek, the Czech Republic.
Majersky is responsible for technical customer support and spare parts, in addition to sales activities. The machinery manufacturer plans to recruit a salesperson and a service engineer in 2017.
Wittmann Battenfeld officials said there are about 250 injection molding companies active in Slovakia, and Majersky expects that to grow since automotive suppliers are expanding rapidly there.
Michael Wittmann, managing director, said: “The positive economic development in Slovakia and the increasing demand for injection molding technology in this region call for a more targeted development of this market than was required in the past.”