Record 6,900 visitors at Arburg Technology Days 2014

THE ARBURG Technology Days 2014 was a success with about 6,900 invited guests attending the event in Lossburg from 19 to 22 March. With an emphasis on production efficiency at the Efficiency Arena, they witnessed how plastic products, from one-off parts through to mass produced items can be manufactured cost-effectively. With more than 40 Allrounder injection moulding machines, Arburg presented innovations and a representative cross-section of its current product range covering a wide range of industries and applications. Further highlights included the Freeformer Technology Centre for additive manufacturing, expert presentations and the new Evolution exhibition featuring multimedia content on the history of Arburg. 

"Our Technology Days have been a major attraction for the international plastics world for many years. This year, the interest has been absolutely overwhelming: approx. 6,900 trade visitors from 52 countries have learned about our innovative and production-efficient solutions for plastic part production at first hand in Lossburg. That’s nearly a quarter more than in the previous record year 2013," says Michael Hehl, Managing Partner and Spokesperson for the Arburg Management Team. “Despite the huge numbers, what counts for us at this event is and remains quality rather than quantity. Our employees from Lossburg and the subsidiaries worldwide are therefore in action during the four-day industry event to provide individual support to our customers.”

Around 45% of the visitors travelled from abroad. The largest groups of visitors came from Europe, primarily from France (265 participants), Switzerland (260) and Poland (180). Very large groups from overseas included the US (260 guests) and China (185).

At the Efficiency Arena, both current and visionary technologies for the efficient production of plastic parts were on display. The spectrum ranged from the manufacture of one-off parts and small-volume batches, the interaction of human and machine, through to mass-produced items. Each of the five stations covered a different aspect of production efficiency based on a practical example, depending on the required unit volumes.

The Freeformer, on which Arburg provided information in the form of an expert presentation as well as exhibits in the Efficiency Arena and the new Technology Centre, attracted a great deal of interest among the guests. The new system for the additive manufacturing of functional components made from standard granulates, which celebrated its global premiere at the K 2013 trade fair, could now be examined at first hand and generated a great deal of enthusiasm. This is because plastics processors are faced with the challenges of rapid technical developments, short product life cycles, increasing variant diversity and the demand for customised products. One complete production step can be omitted in comparison with injection moulding because there is no need to design and build an expensive mould. Moreover, product starts can be achieved in a very short space of time.