The product is the goal

The company has 370 employees in Germany plus a further 150 employees worldwide: it recorded total sales of € 107 million in 2013. The company is in 49.9% Private Equity ownership and 50.1% employee participation. Involved are employees and executives from the parent company in Bonn and other executives from the field offices. “This provides us with a structure that comes close to a family company with highly motivated employees and executives,” says Olaf Weiland.

From an application technology viewpoint, Kautex‘ interests lie in the business sectors of industrial packaging, consumer packaging, specialities (for example Bobby-Cars) and automotive in the form of tank manufacture and 3D-components. Automotive is still the strongest sector, accounting for 2/3^rds of business volume. “The Goal is the Product”: this is the way Olaf Weiland describes the company’s technical perspective. Until 2004 the single machine business was the dominant sector. Today more and more turnkey solutions are the order of the day, from raw material right through to end product. The company has adapted itself to take account of these new opportunities. From development right through to customer acceptance tests, customer care and consultancy services in advising its customers on application techniques. An established Sales Engineering team has been set up to provide Sales and After Sales service, all the way through the design and manufacturing process and including the commissioning and customer acceptance stage. Kautex can also act as a contact partner for customers.

Consumer packaging

Alongside Automotive, it is consumer packaging that Kautex invests significant resources. An in-house team works with customers to come up with appropriate solutions. The development of the all-electric blow moulding machines provides support for this sector. High performance, energy efficiency and rapid form and material changes are typical characteristics of this sector. The new KBB machine programme has been presented at the K fair in Düsseldorf.

Highlight at the fair – all-electric KBB 60

There is now an all-electric blow moulding machine series made up of four models (KBB 20/40/60/80) with mould opening strokes ranging from approximately 400 to 1,000mm and clamping forces of 10 to 40t.

The dry run is 25% shorter than in the case of hydraulic blowing machines, thanks to shorter down times and more efficient handling and quicker opening and closing times for the blow moulding moulds. For example, the traverse time for 770mm from the head to the calibration station is 0.6s.

Electric machines allow energy to be recuperated in the drives. Here surplus braking energy is fed back via an intermediate circuit. The energy recouped for the drives is of the order of 40% and corresponds to approximately 20% of total usage. In turn the drives account for a share of 50% of the energy consumption of a blow moulding machine. This gives an energy saving potential of approximately 10% between a hydraulic and an all-electric blow moulding machine.

Mould changing can be carried out by two people in 15 minutes thanks to quick release fasteners and indexing. An automatic lubrication system also reduces down times. All necessary settings for optimisation are possible in routine operation.

The extrusion head specially developed for the consumer packaging industry (for frequent colour changes) can also be operated remotely for nozzle centring, product weight and hose length.

BC Connect

In addition to this the remote monitoring tool BC Connect has been introduced. This is an item of web-based software which allows any line operator to access his blow moulding machine via the internet. Current performance data can be downloaded via desktop, table PC or smartphone from any location in the world. The system is also optionally available for the all-electric KBB series.

With the BC Connect System, current performance data can be downloaded from any location in the world via desktop, table PC or smartphone.

www.kautex.de