In mid-March, Arburg officially handed its new Customer Center in Lossburg over to its customers. Following the opening ceremony with the companies involved in the construction, the new building was inaugurated by German and international customers. Around 600 guests in total made the most of this opportunity to marvel at the Customer Center’s many possibilities and view the new building and its energy-efficient facility management.
The new Customer Center was officially opened by Arburg Managing Partners Eugen Hehl, Karl Hehl, Juliane Hehl, Michael Hehl and Renate Keinath. Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the German Machinery and Plant Manufacturers Association (VDMA) for plastics and rubber processing machinery, and William R. Carteaux, President of the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI), were among the guests of honour at the opening event, and addressed their greetings to the proprietor families. Both speakers congratulated Arburg on the new Customer Center and underlined the importance of this investment for the future. Long-standing customers such as Dr. h.c. Kurt Stoll, Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Festo AG & Co. KG, as well as Flemming Simonsen (Global Procurement Category Manager) and Anders Ravnskjær (Senior Director Moulding DK) from Lego System A/S spontaneously took this festive occasion as an opportunity to officially thank Arburg for the many years of co-operation, to congratulate them on the new Customer Center and to hand over their gifts.
All Allrounder machines at a glance
In his speech, Michael Hehl, Spokesperson for the Arburg Management, presented the new building and its highlights. At the same time, he emphasised the fact that Arburg had not simply built for itself but, above all, for its customers. “In our new, spacious premises, our aim is to provide existing and potential customers with even better support in future.” For this very reason, the heart of the 10,100 square-metre new building is the Customer Center. Across an area of 2,100 square metres, it offers space for over 30 injection moulding machines. There, customers can see all Allrounder series covering the entire clamping force range from 125 to 5,000 kN, complex production cells and a broad range of applications. All this is joined by three separate areas for clean room, powder and production technology. In this way, all visitors can experience the current Arburg product range “in the flesh”, and perform comprehensive tests as well.
Energy efficiency and loyalty to location
Investment in the 10,100 square-metre new building amounted to an eight-figure sum. “Arburg has therefore confirmed anew its loyalty to Lossburg as the sole production location, by making investments even in economically difficult times,” said Michael Hehl. All Arburg products are made here, with the in-house manufacturing quota as high as 60 % and with the mark of quality “Made by Arburg – made in Germany”. The topic of energy efficiency also plays a vital role. “In our company, energy consumption and energy-saving potentials have been very important aspects for us in all our investments for decades,” asserted Michael Hehl, going on to explain how this statement pertains to the new building.
The energy supply for the entire building will be provided solely using geothermal power. And this technology will be employed in a new form. Not only will heat be extracted from the earth, but waste heat from the machines will also be fed back into the system. Probes have been lowered to a depth of 199 metres in 24 boreholes for this purpose. The building is heated by extracting energy from the upper rock strata and is cooled by transferring heat to the ground. The system will produce some 600,000 kWh of heating power and 400,000 kWh of cooling power each year. This corresponds to the heat requirement for 60 households. A new concept in photovoltaics is the vertical positioning of solar collectors over an area of 160 square metres on the building’s south-facing façade. This system has a peak power output of around 17 kW, which again is enough to supply around three four-person households.
New energy-efficient products
The presentation of several new products demonstrated that Arburg continuously strives to promote energy efficiency in its production, too. In addition to the two new sizes in the electric Alldrive series - the Allrounder 270 A with a clamping force of 350 kN and the Allrounder 720 A with 3,200 kN, guests were surprised by the presentation of a whole new series: the high-performance Allrounder H (Hidrive) injection moulding machine with energy-efficient drive technology for thermoplastics processing with reduced cycle times. The distinguishing feature of the new Hidrive machines is the powerful combination of tried and tested electric and hydraulic machine technology. The concept underlying the new hybrid Allrounder H and its product range, area of application and technical details were explained by Managing Directors Herbert Kraibühler (Technology) and Helmut Heinson (Sales) in a vivid and lively dialogue. Next, guests had the opportunity to examine the new products in the Customer Center more closely, take tours to find out all about the energy-efficient facility management, and spend the evening winding down in the festive ambience of the new building.