Haitian bucking the market trend

While the general mood among plastics machinery manufacturers across the board at Fakuma 2024 has been distinctly lacking in jollity, at the Haitian booth, the story is different.

The Chinese industrial heavyweight sold more than 39,000 machines in 2023 and expects to well exceed that number in 2024.

The company reported that the year has been "quite stable," despite the difficult economic situation in the European region. By contrast, other countries delivered a strong performance, said Dominik Wiesner, marketing manager at Haitian International Germany GmbH.

"We are seeing good activity in Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand or Vietnam. Both are countries in which we also have Haitian subsidiaries. Also, the Indian market is showing good potential. But Europe has been particularly difficult in recent years, with ongoing problems and companies who are slow to invest," Wiesner said.

It is a markedly different tone from the one heard elsewhere at booths across the show.

Wiesner explained the reason behind Haitian's figures: "Our backbone is still our domestic Chinese market. Globally, we are having a very positive year, with a year-on-year plus of 33.7 percent in the first half of 2024 domestically, in China, and an increase of 13.2 percent in the overseas markets over the same period in 2023."

The company is looking toward 2025 with confidence, and as always, expansions and investments are on the agenda.

"For example, in Europe, we will open our production center in Serbia in the middle of next year. By the end of next year, the first servo-hydraulic machines will leave our factory," he confirmed.

That said, all-electric machines are a growing trend, with currently almost every second machine the company sells in Europe being an electric machine.

"Because they bring important benefits that converters today are looking for: precision, efficiency, energy savings and cleaner operation," he said.

Purchasing decisions today are still mostly dictated by the bottom line — efficiency, durability, after-sales and service costs, Wiesner said. As Haitian increasingly transitions from a machine builder to a more holistic solutions provider, able to supply a full range of peripheral equipment, machinery, software, service and automation at a competitive price, the brand has gained a strong foothold in Europe, garnering a growing market share.

"Because we make everything ourselves, we can keep our prices at very competitive levels," Wiesner said.

And what about sustainability?

"Our customers — and we — feel the rising importance of that. However, due to the economic situation, we also see customers only looking for the basic requirements without going the extra mile. Cost savings is still top priority," he said.

At Fakuma, Haitian's recently launched fifth-generation machines are on show, both at the company's booth and at booths of various partners. The machines are all equipped with the interfaces needed to be easily integrated into the production environment.

They also, said Wiesner, represent the biggest leap, in terms of technology, until now.

The difference with the machines of the previous third generation — in China, four is generally considered an unlucky number — is that these machines are much smarter, combining hardware with digital intelligence for self-optimizing production.

"The HT·Xtend features are designed to provide easy operation, so no training required, and to improve process stability, and are all available in the standard machine configurations. We develop and program all the software in-house ourselves. The new features include, for example, HT Inject that optimizes the injection process in real time, automated lubrication and automated energy control. There are 12 in total. And they are all standard on our machines," Wiesner said.

"This generation provides exactly what we have observed our customers are looking for: precision, intelligent machines and energy savings.

He said that among their customers, demand for easy-to-use automation has risen steadily, which is why the company has provided the necessary interfaces and developed its own robots and automation. The company will continue to enhance and develop in this area in the future.

The fifth-generation machines achieve energy savings of 20-40 percent compared with the machines of the third generation on the entire process, he added, and offers electrical charging as a standard for all servo-hydraulic machines with clamping forces under 1,200 tonnes and a full hard screw as a standard on all machines smaller than 2,400 tonnes.

At the booth, a new-generation Mars 200t machine is producing flying discs in a production cell built completely by Haitian. The discs are composed of 90-95 percent recycled Systalen PP supplied by Der GrünePunkt, with 5-10 percent Vistamaxx provided by ExxonMobil.

The smart machine feature HT Inject guarantees a stable injection process and part weight despite the 100 percent regranulated material.

Also, a Zhafir Zeres Series ZE1200V with integrated hydraulics is demonstrating the production of 1-milliliter syringes with polypropylene provided by ExxonMobil, in an eight-cavity mold supplied by Ruhla Material. The HTOptiForce feature automatically regulates and reduces the clamping force from 500 to 80 kN in order to save energy. The machine is equipped with a laminar flow box and quality flap from Petek Reinraumtechnik, ensuring optimal production conditions for medical-grade parts and a hot runner system from Meusburger.

A Zhafir Zeres Series ZE1500V — the most popular model in Europe — is molding cable holders from nylon 6 GF30 in a 16-cavity mold supplied by Oerlikon; peripherals from Haitian Smart Solutions have been completely integrated into the new Generation 5 control. The exhibit, with its real-time monitoring and process optimization features, demonstrates how through the intelligent integration of advanced peripherals and real-time data analysis can enhance production efficiency and product quality.

Three other Haitian machines are running at partner stands Gollmer Formen, Nonnenmann and TST DE.