Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
November 06, 2019 10:48 AM

Bekum marks 60 years with new concept machine

Catherine Kavanaugh
Staff Writer
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Plastics News photo by Caroline Seidel
    Bekum shows its blow molding machinery at K 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

    Düsseldorf, Germany — At K 2016, Michael Mehnert had just joined the upper management ranks of Bekum Maschinenfabriken GmbH, an extrusion blow molding technology business started by his father, Gottfried Mehnert, in 1959.

    He was 34 at the time and faced a lot of questions about what his leadership would mean for the Berlin-based company, focused on packaging for the food and beverage, consumer goods and pharmaceutical markets.

    "There was talk about the shift of generations," Michael Mehnert said. "I said change would come in incremental steps. It may be in design. It may be in software. Of course, we did that and more."

    Three years later, Bekum launched and sold a sleek, new machine dubbed the Concept 808 just before the company's 60th anniversary booth celebration.

    Nobody is comparing the cladding of this eighth-generation blow molder to a school bus like its predecessors. The Concept 808 makes selective use of the company's eye-catching yellow color at the top and base but has wide polycarbonate windows to show off the inner workings.

    The modern exterior houses numerous technical improvements to produce containers from 250 milliliters to 3 liters for consumer packaging, such as laundry detergent, personal care products and automotive lubricants.

    First, there's an optional magnetic quick mold-change system that makes it possible to swap out molds and adjust the blow pins in 30 minutes, or about 15 minutes per clamp. This is an important feature for processors that often do production changes, said Gary Carr, vice president of sales for Bekum America.

    "A mold change for a machine of this size with a standard quick-change system would probably take two to four hours," Carr said. "This is a really significant development."

    The Concept 808 also has a new extruder option — HiPEx36D — that provides a homogenous high melt while reducing energy use by 20 percent.

    "The key development here allows us to do a more gentle melt of the polymer over a longer time, and by doing that, you use less torque, which uses less power," Carr said. "It's a great innovation. I think the market will be very interested."

    Plastics News photo by Caroline Seidel
    Bekum Chairmen Michael Mehnert is the second generation leader at the blow molding machinery company started by his father.

    Then, there's the new 24-inch operator panel with a touchscreen — Bekum Control 8.0 — to check throughput values and energy consumption.

    "We did a lot with Industry 4.0," Mehnert said. "There are data sensors for temperature, energy usage, air consumption and water cooling. We programmed a new dashboard accessible from every internet browser from your smartphone or tablet or laptop if you give access to it. And, there are time filters, for example, to match cooling water temperature to energy consumption in one diagram to analyze the data over a period of hours or a week."

    To spur the circular economy, Bekum officials say the machine's triextrusion technology offers a cost-effective solution for recycling single-origin polyethylene and polypropylene scrap. The post-consumer material can be sandwiched between layers of virgin material, which reduces the cost to manufacture containers.

    Bekum exhibited the Concept 808 show machine at K 2019 with a three-layer application for 1 liter HDPE bottles made with post-consumer material in 16 cavities.

    "Post-consumer resin is being mandated for a lot of consumer products," Carr said. "Our whole industry is under pressure to be more responsible in handling and managing materials. Three layers is a wonderful solution with an inner layer of virgin and an outer layer that's colored for package aesthetics. There's no need to pigment the whole bottle. It's very prevalent in the personal care market as a way to recycle and have some economies of scale by pigment savings."

    The Concept 808 is the same size machine as the one Bekum showed at NPE, and it has the company's patented C-base frame clamp, but the similarities will end there going forward.

    "I have a new series in mind, and it will have all these Concept 808 technologies, but it may take two years," Mehnert said. "That's why we say this is a concept machine. It shows where we are going."

    In addition to the company's 60th anniversary, Bekum is celebrating the company's 50th year in Traismauer, Austria, and 40th year in Williamston, Mich., where Bekum America had a record year of sales for 2019.

    "They are so busy building machines their lead time went up," Mehnert said. "We are seriously planning an expansion of the company to have a big new assembly hall. It's in the late planning stage."

    Bekum has installed some 18,000 machines worldwide, and about half of them are still in use, giving it "by far the largest" production of blow molders of any brand, according to the company. Bekum employs 350 globally.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    TI Fluid Systems building Michigan innovation center for e-mobility
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Redline buys Georgia-based Quality Holdings
    2
    Mattress maker Purple continues fight against takeover
    3
    Ineos workers in Ohio on strike
    4
    Redline's ‘outrageous cultural behaviors' retain top employees
    5
    Material Insights: Polypropylene production — both virgin and recycled — in the spotlight
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified