Stork spreading its wings to new markets

With injection molding machine sales slowing in Europe, "it's not easy times," but progress is being made in advancing press performance and automation as well as opening new markets, according to Wim Brinkman, head of new business development for Netherlands-based Stork Plastics Machinery BV.

"We still managed to sell our machines so we're not complaining, but like everyone here we would have liked better economic prospects," Brinkman said. "The war and inflation aren't helping."

Customers have pulled back on investing.

"Normally people invest when they have confidence in the near future," Brinkman said. "At this moment most people are reluctant to invest or they are thinking twice or even three times about it."

Brinkman spoke with Plastics News at Fakuma 2023, where he said Stork officials are focused on "doing our best to improve our machines everyday" while seeking out new places to sell them.

He pointed to the latest Stork development on display at the trade show, a redesigned movable platen on an S-series injection molding machine.

"We redesigned it for better guidance of the forces into the platen for better stability and stiffness so the life expectancy of the mold is longer and the quality of the products is higher," Brinkman said.

Stork also introduced a closed-loop lubrication system for food and medical applications.

"We have a system where you put oil in and a system where you get it out of the joints in the clamp unit," Brinkman said. "That the oil is being filtered and regenerated through the lubrication system. There is no more waste oil."

Gone are the days of refilling oil, cleaning it and putting it back in the lubrication system.

"This requires a lot of adaptions to the machine with the requests coming from food packaging," Brinkman said.

Stork engineers also redesigned injection unit with rail guidance on the injection unit for stability and maintenance as the company prepares to build the all-electrical machines it is developing right now.

Software and hardware advances also were made, including a sensor to measure the so-called breathing of the mold that adjusts to material changes and a sensor to measure the position of the mold to prevent damage.

Then, there's the new software package called Stork Total Injection Control (STIC) that measures every injection in terms of the labor needed to put in the material to inject it into the mold.

"We calculate the pressures and speeds of injection, which are factors for the labor," Brinkman said. "In the same injection, we adjust the speed, pressures and the holding place to make sure every product is exactly right. This is specially developed for using regrind material."

Every industry is being pressured to use regrind material to address sustainability issues but the material comes with wide fluctuations in the melt flow index.

The machine balances the index by the STIC program.

"The melt flow is really fluctuating with regrind materials. We can even do that with injection times of 0.15 seconds," Brinkman said of the injection phase. "It's being balanced in the same shot so every product is good, not the next one after five shots."

Plastics processors producing flowerpots, crates, pails and other goods with regrind are among the early adopters.

Stork has hired a U.S.-based sales manager to handle North American sales and is developing its plan for installations and service for the first quarter of 2024.

Meanwhile, in Europe the staff is working with more service and sales organizations to have a stronger presence in markets further from the Netherlands, such as Spain, France and Scandinavia.

In Australia and New Zealand business is good and in Africa it's really good.

"Our African business is the best business there is at the moment. They're growing and growing," Brinkman said.

Stork also recently started service and sales in South America and visitors from there made the trip to its Fakuma exhibit.

"That's one of the most promising visits I made this year," Brinkman said. "I was amazed at the quality of the companies in South America and the projects they've were talking about."

Overall, the new business director said, "We're expanding, or spreading our wings, and looking forward to the future. It could be better, but we're still optimistic. We're broadening our horizons and that's always a good thing to do."

Stork Plastics Machinery BV

Hall A7, Booth 7304