New European partnership enters US thermoforming market

Integrated Forming Solutions (IFS) is a new partnership between four European companies — WM Thermoforming Machines from Switzerland, T2 and MacDue from Italy, and Ausil Systems from Spain — being launched at NPE.

Plans for the partnership were set in motion two years ago and have culminated in the opening of a technical service, training, and service center in Houston.

Operating out of that center, IFS will now be able to offer existing and new U.S. customers thermoforming machines which weren't until now readily available, Luca Oliverio general director at WM explained in an interview with Sustainable Plastics.

"The United States is a demanding market — we are growing and have to follow the requests of our customers," Oliverio said. "The request is to offer a complete solution, not only the thermoforming machine but also an automation system, spare parts. Obviously, the investment required to expand into the U.S. in this capacity is very high."

By partnering with other interested parties, the IFS companies can both cut costs and offer products and services they couldn't have offered on their own.

WM offers highly automated thermoformers with high precision steel-rule cutting and punch-and-die technology. Its portfolio of thermoformers can be merged with inhouse extrusion and rimming technology.

T2 designs and manufactures high-productivity thermoforming lines and customized molds. In recent years, its machine portfolio has expanded from rigid polymers to paper packaging, producing 80 percent of the machine components internally.

Although the two machinery companies are competitors in the eyes of many, Oliverio says WM and T2 complement each other as they are currently producing different technologies.

"The machines we are producing added to what T2 is producing is covering 100 percent of the needs of the thermoforming clients in the U.S.," Oliverio said.

And because every machine needs to be packed for delivery, MacDue is the packaging partner in IFS. Its automatic downstream lines include stacker, sleeve wrapper, case-packer and palletizer systems. It provides comprehensive services from consultancy to production, installation, and after-sales support.

Ausil Systems, on the other hand, has been designing, manufacturing, installing and maintaining advanced automated in-line inspection systems for over 20 years. The company develops products based on computer vision and artificial intelligence to detect product defects during industrial production processes.

The four companies have not merged into one new company based in the United States, Oliverio explained, but are rather four separate entities operating under one roof. The synergies achieved by pulling their resources together include a larger product portfolio and only having to train one set of technicians on the ground.

"We sell separately, but we have the same mission and the same general manager following the U.S. market," Oliverio explained.

"Cost-wise as well as networking-wise, it is more scalable. Four companies can grow by a different degree, we can scale up our structure depending on development. The problem for a European company is to have a structure that can support this activity in the United States. As IFS, we are open for other companies to join the existing platform in order to have a better portfolio."

While Oliverio does not dismiss the possibility of moving manufacturing to the U.S. one day, for the time being, all machine manufacturing and assembly will continue to take place in Europe.

That will of course mean longer lead times than for companies manufacturing in the U.S., but only of around three to four weeks, according to Oliverio. Nonetheless, IFS has the competitive advantage of having a broader portoflio, he argued.

"If you look at machine producers in the United States, they you don't have the complete portfolio we are delivering with IFS," Oliverio said. "BMG, the biggest player in the U.S., for example, is not producing all the machines that we are producing, they don't have complete extrusion in-line systems."

For those looking for a quicker turnaround, Oliverio added, the WM FX 1000 IM2 machine on show at NPE will be available for onwards delivery.

First launched at K 2022 in Germany, the thermoformer offers the highest machine throughput per square feet currently available on the market. Thanks to its engineered toggle and yoke compensation system, it can be run at the highest speed and cutting precision for materials like PET, PP, PLA, and other biodegradable materials including paperboard. The robust machine minimizes vibration, which results in less wearing of the cutting knives, less downtime, and higher efficiency and productivity.

What's new at NPE is the machine's integration with a visual inspection system from Ausil, fruit of the IFS partnership. Using artificial intelligence software, the system is able to detect different product quality issues such as defective thermoformed trays, presence of foreign objects, punch and die cutting flaws.