Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH is expanding production capacity at its Kottingbrunn injection molding machine manufacturing facility to keep pace with surging growth in recent years across all the product lines of the PowerSeries machines, the company said in a May 17 statement.
The company is planning to invest some 15 million euros ($16.7 million) to extend and remodel both the production plant and the administrative area.
Sales of the company's machines are up, in Europe as well as the rest of the world, and with the extremely healthy development of the order intake in 2017, the trend is expected to continue.
“Our completely re-engineered machines of our PowerSeries, starting with the highly energy-efficient all-electric EcoPower and the servohydraulic SmartPower machines, as well as our large MacroPower machines are selling very well worldwide. Therefore, we need additional production capacity,” said Marketing Manager Gabriele Hopf.
Specifically, the assembly area will be expanded by an additional 2,200 square meters. This area will house the assembly lines for medium-sized and large machines from the EcoPower and SmartPower series, with clamping forces ranging from 180 to 400 tonnes, to complement the assembly line for small machines already in operation since 2015. Moreover, the assembly capacity for the large machines of the highly successful MacroPower series will also be increased.
The company is also modernizing and adding office space. Two more floors will be built on to the existing sales office building to accommodate a suite of ultra-modern offices and conference rooms.
Construction will start in June and is scheduled for completion before the end of 2017. Work on the extension of parking facilities for company staff is already under way.
Wittmann Battenfeld is planning further expansions in 2018 to provide additional space for designing and developing injection molding machines and another story will be added to the existing technology building, creating about 800 square meters of extra space.