Construction has started on a new production hall at extrusion machinery maker Reifenhäuser Group's headquarters in Troisdorf, Germany.
The €7 million ($7.8 million) project was first announced in late 2018 and the company spent the last few months tearing down a number of old and outdated halls — "literally in the middle of the company," Chief Sales Officer Ulrich Reifenhäuser said at the time— which will now be replaced with a new, modern facility comprising a production and assembly hall with an area covering 3,000 square meters.
The site will house the company's newly founded Reifenhäuser Extrusion Systems (RES) business unit. Construction is expected to be completed by spring 2020.
According to the statement released by the company, an additional €10 million ($11.2 million) will be spent on production machines and intelligent processes over the next five years, to create conditions for Industry 4.0-capable manufacturing, CEO Bernd Reifenhäuser said.
The project aims to substantially expand the components business. The new hall will be equipped with sophisticated state-of-the-art toolmaking machines to manufacture technologically advanced dies and extruders to sell as single units.
The company is also investing in research and development, with new laboratory and research extrusion lines to be created to work on sustainable solutions for plastics production.
Once the new hall is finished, Reifenhäuser Extrusion Systems — which to date developed and manufactured core components for its own lines in-house, will also supply to the "free market" — in other words, to competitors. The move is designed to allow the company to reach a 'much, much' bigger market, beyond the core of existing customers for its extrusion lines.
"From 2020, we will be producing 300 flat dies for plastic extrusion in the new production hall every year," Uwe Gaedike, RES managing director, said.
Reifenhäuser is planning a total of €40-45 million ($44.8-50.4 million) in growth at the German sites and in Wichita, Kan.