Arburg technology days | news
Arburg lays out timetable for 3D-print commercialisation
Arburg’s senior management used its annual Technology Days event to outline plans for introduction of its Freeformer 3D printer and to update on investment and technology plans. Chris Smith reports
Arburg’s annual Technology Days open house event set a new record this year, attracting a record 6,900 attendees – 25% up on 2013. The packed event, held at the company’s factory at Lossburg in the Black Forest region of Germany, saw more than 40 injection moulding machines running production tasks ranging from technical component production through to thin wall packaging. The Freeformer 3D printing technology launched at the K fair also occupied a prominent place and the company’s management detailed plans for its commercial introduction. Freeformer is an additive building ‘3D printing’ system that differs from currently available systems in its use of a proprietary material preparation technology, which allows it to run conventional granular polymer materials. Arburg says this gives users access to a much wider range of additive-building plastics and reduces material cost by a factor of up to 100. “Interest in the Freeformer is overwhelm- ing, as is demand,” said Arburg managing director Michael Hehl. Four Freeformer systems
were demonstrated in production during the Technol-
www.injectionworld.com
Arburg will install the first commercial Freeformer 3D printers with selected German customers in the middle of this year
ogy Days, where visitors could also explore the company’s new Freeformer Technology Centre. However, Arburg is taking a typically cautious approach to the market to ensure customers are fully supported. “Because this is a completely new technology we place great value on cooperat- ing with users in the qualifica- tion of materials and design of components,” said Hehl. “For this reason, the market launch of the Freeformer will take place in 2014 solely in Germany and only involve special selected pilot customers.” A number of companies
have already been trialling the technology, including the automation systems company Festo (winner of the 2014 Arburg Efficiency Award), which will continue to work closely with Arburg’s Free- former development team. Arburg managing director
of sales Helmut Heinson said the company’s commercialisa- tion strategy is to deliver the first production machines to pilot customers in the middle of this year, with introduction rolling out to the rest of Europe from the beginning of 2015. Freeformer technology will be launched to Arburg’s US customers at the NPE show in Orlando next spring.
Wide interest Heinson said interest in the Freeformer is coming from across the market. “Custom- ers are in various areas, the automotive industry and general industry,” he said. He said the company expects to have supplied between 100 and 300 units by the end of next year.
Arburg clearly sees
considerable potential in the Freeformer technology, but the company is certainly not
neglecting the injection moulding technology on which it has built its reputation. The company has just commenced the latest extension of its factory at Lossburg. The 18,600m2
will increase total production space by 13% to near 165,000m2
and will provide
additional assembly space required for larger machines, which are taking up a growing share of the company’s sales (Heinson said the share of sales taken by machines in the 200-500 tonne range grew from 2% in 2012 to 19% last year). The German machine maker is also currently building a new 2,500m2
headquarters for its
US operations at Rocky Hill in Connecticut in the US, is in the process of expanding its operation in the Czech Republic, and has committed to construction of an 800m2
new building for its Polish subsidi- April 2014 | INJECTION WORLD 11
two-storey extension
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