85 Years in Business – Kautex Maschinenbau: Promoting Sustainability and Plastics Recycling

Kautex Maschinenbau has been a leader in the plastics industry with pioneering technologies and services. Its blow molders have such a good reputation that the first international Kautex subsidiary was opened in New Jersey, USA, in 1960. The first German-Chinese joint venture was then opened in Shunde, southern China, in 1995. Today, the third generation of the Chinese KCC series is assembled there. It is also planned to start production of other well-known machine types from the German portfolio at the Shunde facility in 2020. Today, Kautex, a leading manufacturer of high-tech extrusion blow molders, based in Bonn, Germany, is working towards shortening delivery times and supplying its machines from Germany or PRC, depending on where they are ordered. Kautex has subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and North America.

Thanks to their excellent properties, demand for the first blow-molded products grew and grew, but today, plastic products are increasingly facing criticism. There is a lack of efficient recycling concepts. For this reason, Kautex's research and development teams are focusing on hot topics such as sustainability, recycling and digitalization. The latest development in sustainability are new technologies that drastically reduce energy and material consumption, for example when there is a color or material change. Kautex has also been optimizing recycled plastics processing for some time. This is a core task for the plastics processing sector, in the opinion of Andreas Lichtenauer, Managing Partner: "Public perception of plastic products has changed considerably in the last few years. Sustainability arguments and the ecological footprint of products play an ever-greater role in their acceptance. For this reason, we deliberately promote plastics recycling and the optimization of material supply loops."

Christian Kirchbaumer, Head of Marketing and Communications, added: "We are also working on further improving the carbon footprint blow molding production with our technologies. If we want to continue actively ensuring that the positive properties of these products are associated with recycling loops that operate on a global scale, which will be a significant step towards a sustainable future for everyone."

In addition to technological innovations, Kautex is also using digital services to achieve sustainable production. For example, clients can use Kautex's augmented service to request virtual services worldwide. Using this service, teams of experts across the globe can access the machines virtually, without needing to travel, so that they can resolve problems as quickly as possible. This reduces service team air miles and therefore the CO2 emissions caused by such journeys. Kautex also uses digital simulators for training. "Digital twins" accurately mimic machine processes while saving the energy and materials required to operate the real machines.

Kautex Maschinenbau will celebrate its triple anniversary at different events in 2020. The high point will be an open house at its site in southern China in the last quarter of this year.