Friedrichshafen, Germany — Haitian International Holdings Ltd., China's biggest manufacturer of injection molding machines, is placing bets on an all-electric future.
The Ningbo, China-based company said during Fakuma 2018 in Friedrichshafen that its German subsidiary Zhafir Plastics Machinery GmbH, which makes fully electric injection molding machines, is “an essential pillar” of its overall winning strategy.
Annual sales figures for the Zhafir brand have been increasing year over year, the company said. At its Chunxiao factory in Ningbo, it delivered 2,300 machines to more than 60 countries last year. The company said Zhafir's European headquarters in Ebermannsdorf, Germany, is not far behind that figure.
In the first half of 2018, sales of all-electric Zhafir machines rose nearly 31 percent compared with the first half of 2017.
“Many of our customers are convinced that there are no obvious reasons not to buy an electric Zhafir,” Peter Mei, sales manager at Ebermannsdorf, said in a statement.
“Due to its extremely attractive cost effectiveness, our machines are today at the level of the European hydraulic solutions with clearly better performance and all the established advantages of electric machine concepts,” he said.
At Fakuma, Haitian showed a 190-metric-ton Zhafir Zeres series injection molding machine, available in clamping forces ranging between 120-650 tonnes. The press is designed for multicomponent applications, especially for the automotive industry, and uses a servo-electric drive for injection and mold movements.
The machinery maker also announced it was expanding Zhafir's Jenius series up to 3,300 tonnes. Clamping forces for the injection presses start at 40 tonnes. The company said its Jenius machines combine the advantages of two-platen technology with an electric injection unit and are well-suited for automotive applications, specifically high-quality, large-size or long injection molded parts.
Though not on display at Fakuma, the company said it will be showing the Jenius machine's capabilities with molding demonstration later this year at the Ebermannsdorf facility.