Arburg's Technology Days open house is recognised as being an industry leading event in the international plastics industry. Over 4,100 experts from 46 countries travelled to Lossburg, Germany, for the event, which was held at Arburg's headquarters on March 18-20, 2010. The long guestlist included representatives from every continent. Around 45% of visitors came from outside Germany. Of these, the largest group, comprising around 160 visitors, came from Italy, followed by around 120 from the USA and 100 from Brazil.
Efficient production.
The main focus of the event was efficient production methods. Herbert Kraibühler, managing director of Arburg’s Technology division, explained the approach from Arburg’s perspective: “Arburg has assumed a pioneering position in relation to energy efficiency in recent years. This was already the main focus of the Technology Days events in 2008 and 2009. This year, we took things one step further, focusing on efficient production. For us, efficient production means achieving maximum product quality at minimum unit cost. Attaining this goal calls for maximum productivity and minimum cycle times using energy-efficient systems that offer the highest availability.”
Productivity for the entire manufacturing environment
Arburg used numerous energy efficient systems to clearly demonstrate how all-round productivity can be achieved with the shortest cycle times. A representative cross-section of the current Arburg Allrounder range included complex production cells with Multilift robotic systems and six-axis robotic systems featuring the Selogica user interface.
Specialist presentations offered an insight into practice
The topic of efficient production was also addressed and further explored as part of the programme of specialist presentations, including a presentation from Bihler and one by the Lüdenscheid Plastics Institute in Lüdenscheid, Germany.
Packaging Technology Forum
The largest member of the hybrid Hidrive high-performance series to date, the new Allrounder 720 H, was presented during the new Packaging Technology Forum. This was the first time that Arburg offered selected partners from the packaging industry the opportunity to make a presentation at the Technology Days.
At the centre of the forum were the Allrounder H machines, which facilitate the highest production performance featuring short cycle times, as well as reduced energy consumption, making them perfect for use in the packaging sector. The capabilities were demonstrated by the three Hidrive exhibits featuring high-speed, high-end applications with cycle times in the 3-second range. The first Allrounder 720 H with a clamping force of 3,200 kN produced 72 screw caps in a cycle time of just 2.9 seconds, while the second model produced thin-walled 1.2 litre containers. The third exhibit was an innovative inmould labelling (IML) system based on an Allrounder 570 H, with a cycle time of 3.5 seconds. The topic was rounded off with a specialist presentation by StackTeck, describing innovative mould concepts for packaging technology.
Tours of the premises
As in previous years, the tours of the premises proved enormously popular. Foreign delegations, were offered guided tours in their own national language. In addition, around 1,300 visitors took part in 150 German and English language tours.
