Successful expansion strategy in Asia

To celebrate the opening of CHINAPLAS 2014 in Shanghai, the KraussMaffei Group officially inaugurated the second production hall at its manufacturing plant in Haiyan, China. Around 400 of its customers and business partners attended this event in Haiyan. By doing so the company is continuing its expansion strategy in China, where it sees considerable growth potential for its brands KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff and Netstal. International Plastics News for Asia (IRNA) had the chance to talk with Mr. Nicholas Beyl, President of Reaction Process Machinery at KraussMaffei and Mr. Markus Dal Pian, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Netstal on the KraussMaffei Group of companies and how the Group’s expansion in Asia responds to rising demand for effcient technologies.

IRNA: Can you please give an overview on the recent activity of KraussMaffei here in China?

Mr. Beyl: To celebrate the trade show Chinaplas 2014 in Shanghai (China), the KraussMaffei Group has officially inaugurated the second production hall at its manufacturing plant in Haiyan (China). As part of the expansion of the plant, the production space has been doubled and now covers 22,000 sq.m. By doing so the company is continuing its expansion strategy in China, where it sees considerable growth potential for its brands KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff and Netstal.

In China, KraussMaffei reaction process machinery is being successfully produced. KraussMaffei MX-series injection moulding machines have been being produced in the expanded manufacturing plant since 2013. With the new addition, we are raising capacity to meet increasing demand from China and Asia for products that are manufactured locally yet based on European standard in terms of quality.

IRNA: What are the benefts of these equipment to Asian manufacturers?

Mr. Beyl: At CHINAPLAS, KraussMaffei reaction process machinery segment promotes its product portfolio of machines and system, which can be used to process polyurethane raw materials and other reactive materials also with foaming agents. In a single process step, mouldings are created through chemical reaction. These products are then used, for example, in the automotive sector as upholstery material in the vehicle interior or in the cooling and air conditioning systems for insulation.

Our products combine cost-effciency with proximity to customers. On one end, we now have our local production here in China, and on the other end premium technology and innovativeness are maintained as some of our components are still being produced in Germany

IRNA: What are your target industries or applications?

Mr. Beyl: We have very high expectations on the China market as we view the rapid growth in such applications as automotive, consumer appliances and composites as factors that can drive demand for our products company. The demand for lightweight but high performance parts in these sectors has created needs for our highly efficient machines.

At the open house, the Reaction Process Machinery sector also opened the gates to Chinese manufacturing. This means that visitors can see the manufacture of dryside components, in both the area of flexible foam and the area of white goods. Furthermore, two fixtures for white-goods applications and more specifically for the foaming of refrigerator cabinets can be seen.

At the CHINAPLAS booth, we talked about lightweight construction to visitors and this topic has drawn much interest. Here we cite as example the roof module for the Roding Roadster R1, which is manufactured using the surface RTM (resin transfer molding) process. The newly developed surface RTM process enables cost-effective mass production of paintable fibre-reinforced visible components for automotive construction. Paintable components are created by flow-coating the surface of the fibre-composite component with a polyurethane layer directly in the cavity, without the need for any additional intermediate steps

As a market for composites, China holds promising prospects. We see customers in China acquiring lab equipment to perform tests on composites and this sector is very much on its way to full development in 4 to 5 years.

IRNA: Netstal recently opened a Demonstration and Training Centre in Haiyan, what will be the role of this centre in promoting Netstal products?

Mr. Dal Pian: To strengthen the local injection moulding portfolio, Netstal has opened a new Demonstration and Training Centre, which is also available for customers to visit. It is home to a fully electric Netstal ELION machine with a clamping force of 2200 kilonewtons (kN), which can demonstrate sample production of PET blood collection tubes, and a complete PET-LINE system, which is acting as a demonstration machine for the beverage industry.

Suitable for clean room application, the all-electric ELION 2200 manufactures the PET blood collection tubes in a cycle time of 6.5 seconds. The 48-cavity mould is supplied by Taiwanese company Pass Card, whilst automation equipment comes from Hekuma (Germany) and material handling from motancolortronic (China). Production of small medical parts demands high precision because of the very small parts that need to be produced. Precision is important in a cleanroom environment and it also needs very fast machines capable of large volume production.

IRNA: What can customers expect from Netstal now that it has a centre in place?

Mr. Dal Pian: Netstal’s new demonstration and training centre enables the company to provide services that will further enhance production possibilities. We present our Chinese customers with a ‘hands on’ demonstration of complex applications –meaning we are now able to offer an even better local service.

As a demonstration plant for the beverage industry, Netstal also installed a complete PET-LINE system with cooling and drying units in China. This system, which has a clamping force of 3,500 kN, produced PCO28 preforms.

We are very well positioned in China and as such, we started to focus on emerging industries, such as medical and packaging. In the packaging sector, we have systems for thin-walled packaging but this may take around three years for China manufacturers to adopt. However, there are other companies in Thailand and Indonesia that are now in need of this type of machines.

Moreover, in order to offer its customers an even better local service in future, the comprehensive stock of spare parts for the entire Chinese and neighbouring regions is also being incorporated within the Haiyan site. We still manufacture our machines in Switzerland but the parts and components are now being produced in China and this boosts our ability to quickly respond to customers’ needs.

IRNA: Netstal has been a regular at CHINAPLAS. How’s the response to your exhibit in the past?

Mr. Dal Pian: Netstal has been present at CHINAPLAS every year for 10 years or even more. Interests for its highly efficient machines have not waned and this year, Netstal expects sales in the Asian region to rise further.