In view of the significant demand for consumer and industrial packaging, as well as an automotive market capable of significant growth, the Southeast Asian region has increasingly become the focus of international plastic processing companies. Malaysia provides excellent conditions with its location between Singapore and Thailand. It is easily accessible, has an efficient infrastructure and qualified engineers.

The Kautex office in Malaysia provides close proximity to customers
The leading manufacturer of extrusion blow molding machines, Kautex Maschinenbau has now opened their own representation in Kuala Lumpur for the Southeast Asian region. “The number of our customers in Southeast Asia is growing steadily, so that we see an increasing need to expand both sales and service in this economically important region. Customer proximity is an important factor”, explains Andreas Lichtenauer, Managing Partner at Kautex Maschinenbau. “Our new office will make customer contact easier for the companies located there. At the same time, processes can be significantly accelerated so that we can help customers faster.”
With Louis Koay, we now have an experienced sales professional for our customers in the region. He also serves as the primary contact for potential new customers. Additionally, the new regional office manager will provide the existing representatives with further support. In the medium-term outlook, two service technicians and a sales assistant will strengthen the team.

About Kautex Maschinenbau
Eight decades of providing its customers with innovative products and services have turned Kautex Maschinenbau into the world's leading company in extrusion blow molding technology. With customers that include major automobile manufacturers and suppliers, as well as companies working in the packaging industry. All of them have come to rely on the knowledge and experience of a brand that stands for both quality and reliability. With 550 employees in Germany and a further 200 around the world, the company reached an annual turnover of €144 million in 2017. In addition to its HQ in Bonn, a Customer Service Center in Berlin and regional offices in the USA, Russia, China, Italy, India, Mexico and Malaysia, Kautex Maschinenbau operates an extensive global network of service and distribution offices.

Developing success and market leadership
Since 2015, the Kautex Group has been able to increase sales of extrusion blow molding machines by more than 30 percent. Business in the USA represents roughly one-third of the Kautex Group global revenue. “I want to continue the development of this success and our leading market position in the automotive field”, said Mr. Heusinger. “I view these challenges confidently with the potential for our high-efficiency KBB all-electric blow molding machines for the industrial and consumer packaging applications, as well as our innovative multi-layer technology.”

About Kautex Maschinenbau
Eight decades of providing its customers with innovative products and services have turned Kautex Maschinenbau into the world's leading company in extrusion blow molding technology. With customers that include major automobile manufacturers and suppliers, as well as companies working in the packaging industry. All of them have come to rely on the knowledge and experience of a brand that stands for both quality and reliability. With 550 employees in Germany and a further 200 around the world, the company reached an annual turnover of €144 million in 2017. In addition to its HQ in Bonn, a Customer Service Center in Berlin and regional offices in the USA, Russia, China, Italy, India, Mexico and Malaysia, Kautex Maschinenbau operates an extensive global network of service and distribution offices.

KBB – Machines with a future
When developing the all-electrical KBB machines, the market leader for extrusion blow molding machines came up with an especially sustainable concept. The latest measurements of energy consumption based on Euromap 46.1 standards prove the concept is successful: Many KBB machines reached the highest energy efficiency classification 10. “Our machines are often operated over several decades. We therefore would like to offer our customers long-term solutions, which are not only in accordance with the state of technology, but which for many years achieve outstanding results in the area of energy efficiency”, says Dietmar Michels, product manager for the KBB series. “The principle applies to the entire value-added chain. This requires a high technical maturity of the selected components, which on this level has only been available for a few years. Energy efficiency starts with the size of the machine and the correct drive concept with a matching extrusion system and ends with use of the de-flash material in a closed loop system.”

Best energy efficiency class during the Euromap measurement
The outstanding efficiency of the all-electric extrusion blow molding machines is confirmed by the latest test based on the Euromap 46.1 standards. Several Kautex machines of the KBB series achieved the best energy efficiency classification 10. The industrial Euromap standards developed by the association permit the comparison of machines by different manufacturers on the basis of standardized parameters. The electrical consumption, the cooling water consumption and heat energy of the plastic are measured. “It is our objective to satisfy the customer requirements for transparent and comparable energy consumption values and to present the energy efficiency classes under a neutral label”, says Heinz-Werner Eckerskorn, Director R&D. Euromap specifies the machine settings, the measuring instruments used and the plastic material. “Energy saving potential can mainly be found by looking at the main energy consumers of a blow molding machine: the extruder drive and the heating”, states Heinz-Werner Eckerskorn. “Kautex Maschinenbau continuously tests different machine components to guarantee the highest energy-efficiency.” By introducing many technological optimizations, Kautex systems can now operate with a significantly higher energy-efficiency compared to a few years ago. This means that the company additionally contributes to the ambitious objectives of the German Federal Government: an annual increase in energy efficiency by 2.1 percent until the year 2050.

Individual consumption measurement provides planning dependability
In addition to the Euromap 46.1 standards, Kautex Maschinenbau also established consumption measurements to provide energy usage for the anticipated production conditions, before the delivery of a machine. This machine-specific measurement is made for all Kautex machines at the pre-acceptance performed at the Bonn headquarters. It considers the material and the product being made as well as the configuration of the machine. In contrast to Euromap 46.1, this data includes the recording of the electricity, water and air consumption; the pressures of all supplied utilities; the entire cooling energy; the water temperature and the calculated kg per hour throughput. The measurements are always based on the entire machine and valid for the conditions and settings of the pre-acceptance. “By providing this information, we offer our customers higher confidence for the connection to their supply system”, explains Heinz-Werner Eckerskorn.

About Kautex Maschinenbau
Eight decades of providing its customers with innovative products and services have turned Kautex Maschinenbau into the world's leading company in extrusion blow molding technology. With customers that include major automobile manufacturers and suppliers, as well as companies working in the packaging industry. All of them have come to rely on the knowledge and experience of a brand that stands for both quality and reliability. With 550 employees in Germany and a further 200 around the world, the company reached an annual turnover of €144 million in 2017. In addition to its HQ in Bonn, a Customer Service Center in Berlin and regional offices in the USA, Russia, China, Italy, India and Mexico, Kautex Maschinenbau operates an extensive global network of service and distribution offices.

Chan identifies a large growth potential in the Chinese market: “The demand in China for industry and consumer packaging as well as automotive solutions continues. The Kautex Group offers innovative machine solutions in all of these segments and was able to increase the sales of extrusion blow molding machines by more than 30 percent since 2015.” In 2017, China alone was responsible for 30 percent of the worldwide revenue volume.

Investments in a growth market
Based on the expansion of the last few years, Dr. Olaf Weiland, CEO of the Kautex Group, believes that the top management in Shunde and the headquarters in Bonn are subjected to additional challenges: “We believe in the future of our Chinese business, we continue to invest in this market and therefore have decided to strengthen the team and to adapt the roles and responsibilities adequately.” The management team surrounding Geoffrey Chan and Guoliang Du is supported by Andreas Krause and Mark Lueddecke, who - as Executive Vice Presidents - take care of the supply chain, production, installation and customer service departments.

About Kautex Maschinenbau
Eight decades of providing its customers with innovative products and services have turned Kautex Maschinenbau into the world's leading company in extrusion blow molding technology. With customers that include major automobile manufacturers and suppliers, as well as companies working in the packaging industry. All of them have come to rely on the knowledge and experience of a brand that stands for both quality and reliability. With 550 employees in Germany and a further 200 around the world, the company reached an annual turnover of €144 million in 2017. In addition to its HQ in Bonn, a Customer Service Center in Berlin and regional offices in the USA, Russia, China, Italy, India and Mexico, Kautex Maschinenbau operates an extensive global network of service and distribution offices.

Presentations and live demos
The extensive presentation line-up, with internal and external speakers, covered topical issues such as energy efficiency and the “Industry 4.0” smart factory trend, as well as views on automation and service. With the particular interests of visitors in mind, the presentations on the first day focused on solutions for the packaging industry while the second day was devoted to the automotive segment and special applications.

The 31 demo machines were another major highlight. Visitors were able to watch some of them in live operation, one example being a packaging machine in the technical center where the mold trials of E-PET bottles was in process. Two virtual machines for training purposes were also made available for up-close inspection by visitors. The event was rounded off by a presentation of various retrofitting/modernization options and a demonstration of a test version for future services based on a current augmented reality application using smart glasses.

An evening event in the specially transformed technical center gave visitors an opportunity to speak directly to experts from Kautex. With waiters serving buffet food on trays, visitors were able to discuss topical issues in depth in a relaxed atmosphere.

New shareholder and new assembly hall
The Open House 2018 was the first company event attended by representatives of the company’s new majority shareholder. Following approval from the competition authorities, Austrian-based Plastech Beteiligungs GmbH took over 74.9 percent of the shares in Kautex Maschinenbau on February 23. Managing partner Andreas Lichtenauer was especially pleased with the chance to show customers the new assembly hall for KBB and KSB machines, which was completed just a few months ago: “We are continually striving to reduce lead times for our customers. This expansion of our Bonn location should improve our future capacity for on-time delivery,” affirmed Lichtenauer.

About Kautex Maschinenbau
Kautex Maschinenbau has enjoyed above-average growth during the last twelve years. The Group’s revenue has increased from approximately EUR 60 million in 2006 to around EUR 144 million in 2017. In addition to its HQ in Bonn, the Customer Service Center in Berlin and regional offices in the USA, Russia, China, Italy, India and Mexico, Kautex Maschinenbau operates an extensive global network of service and distribution offices. In Plastech, the Kautex management team under Dr. Olaf Weiland and Andreas Lichtenauer have the support of a medium-sized principal shareholder as strategic partner for the first time.

An ongoing success story
“Ever since the first all-electric KBB60D was launched on the North America market three years ago, demand for this series has grown at a considerable rate,” says Bill Farrant, President of Kautex Machines Inc. Extremely short dry cycle times and low energy costs give the all-electric KBB series an edge in terms of saving resources and maximizing efficiency. In addition, quick-change systems enable by far the fastest product change-over in the extrusion blow molding machines segment.

Live demo of personal care application
Under the show slogan “Setting benchmarks for high production performance”, Kautex Maschinenbau will be presenting another KBB model at NPE 2018. The KBB40D machine for the production of 600-ml flat oval bottles for the personal care industry has already been ordered by Amcor, a customer who will also be represented at the Kautex stand in Orlando. The quick mold change features of the machine will also be demonstrated twice per day.

The bottles are produced on the double-station machine with ten cavities in the three-layer ReCo process, whereby color is only added in the outer layer of the bottle. The inner layer uses virgin material to minimize the migration of impurities into the filled product. The middle layer uses regrind or PCR, i.e. recycled plastic, to save both costs and resources, in line with the circular economy ideal. Leak testing of the bottles is performed inside the blow molding machine.

Quality control with feedback
A continuous weighing machine linked to the blow molding machine will also be shown. It allows deviations in product weight to be identified immediately and adjusted automatically in the machine. This step reduces the number of rejects and increases machine efficiency. Another benefit of automatic weight adjustment is a saving in the cost of resin used. Visitors to the NPE show will be able to view the CPK parameters on a large screen in real time during the production process.

Kautex service
In keeping with the “Industry 4.0” smart factory trend, Kautex will be presenting the second generation of its virtual machine at NPE. This practical training tool enables the exact simulation of realistic production processes. The system comprising a compact workstation unit, two monitors, a projector and a real control panel allows machines of the KBS, KBB and the KCC series to be depicted in real time. The company will also be presenting a simple and reliable remote diagnostics solution at NPE: the Kautex Remote Service. This is based on a built-in firewall, which allows a technician to begin detailed troubleshooting without having to travel to the machine location. In the ideal scenario, the fault can be cleared online after the instant analysis. If not, either the faulty part will be identified and a replacement part sent out for self-installation, or a technician call-out will be arranged. This ensures that Kautex machines are up-and-running again as soon as possible, thus minimizing the costs of downtime.

Kautex Maschinenbau has a new majority shareholder
As of February 23, 2018, Vienna-based Plastech Beteiligungs GmbH is the new majority shareholder of the Kautex Maschinenbau Group. The Austrian company takes over from the previous investor capiton after acquiring a 74.9 percent stake. Kautex Maschinenbau has enjoyed above-average growth during the last twelve years. With 550 employees in Germany and a further 170 around the world, the company reached an annual turnover of EUR 144 million in 2017. In addition to its HQ in Bonn, a Customer Service Center in Berlin and regional offices in the USA, Russia, China, Italy, India and Mexico, Kautex Maschinenbau operates an extensive global network of service and distribution offices. In Plastech, the Kautex management team under Dr. Olaf Weiland and Andreas Lichtenauer have the support of a medium-sized principal shareholder as strategic partner for the first time.

Umstellung auf dritte Generation fast abgeschlossen
Im Jahr 2016 hatte Kautex mit der KCC20 MK3 die schrittweise Umstellung auf die dritte Maschinengeneration der im südchinesischen Werk in Shunde produzierten KCC-Baureihe eingeläutet. Inzwischen ist diese fast abgeschlossen. Gemäß dem Messe-Motto „Setting benchmarks for high production performance“ bieten die neuen MK3-Modelle der KCC-Maschinen nicht nur bessere Zugangsmöglichkeiten und deutlich schnellere Umrüstzeiten, sondern überzeugen auch durch kürzere Lieferzeiten. Als Allrounder zeichnen sie sich durch ein breites Spektrum an Einsatzmöglichkeiten aus – von Packaging über Automotive bis hin zu Sonderanwendungen.

Live-Produktion mit Schaumverfahren
Die KCC10 MK3 eignet sich für die Produktion von Flaschen in den Größen von 50 ml bis 5.000 ml. Auf der Chinaplas demonstriert Kautex Maschinenbau darauf live die Produktion einer geschäumten Flasche mit der Technologie von MuCell® Extrusion. Durch Aufschäumen der mittleren Schicht lässt sich dabei deutlich Material einsparen. Zudem überzeugt das Verfahren durch eine reduzierte CO2-Bilanz sowie bessere thermische und isolierende Eigenschaften. Das Schaumverfahren ist für alle Verpackungsmaschinen mit kontinuierlicher Extrusion verfügbar.

Investition in Forschung und Entwicklung
Die ausgestellte Maschine soll anschließend im zukünftigen Technikum von Shunde Kautex bei der Entwicklung neuer Anwendungen eingesetzt werden. Zukünftig profitieren somit auch Kunden in China von dem aus Bonn bekannten Kautex-Service. Die stetige Verbesserung des Service-Angebots zählt für Kautex Maschinenbau weltweit zu den wichtigsten Zielen. Neben dem Stammsitz in Bonn stehen dann internationale Einrichtungen in New Jersey und Shunde für Abmusterungen und Materialtests zur Verfügung.

Virtuelle KBS-Tankblasanlage
Nicht fehlen darf am Messestand auch die neue Generation virtueller Maschinen. Mit diesem Tool lassen sich Produktionsprozesse für verschiedene Maschinentypen und Anwendungsfälle in Echtzeit simulieren und trainieren. Die Hardware besteht aus einer kompakten Workstation-Einheit, zwei Monitoren, einem Projektor und einem Original-Bedienpult. Dank Modularisierung kann nun problemlos von einer Baureihe auf die andere umgerüstet werden. Neben Maschinen der Baureihen KBS und KBB sind seit kurzem auch KCC-Maschinen für das Training verfügbar.

Kautex Maschinenbau mit neuem Mehrheitsgesellschafter
Seit dem Closing am 23. Februar 2018 ist die Plastech Beteiligungs GmbH mit Sitz in Wien neuer Mehrheitsanteilseigner der Kautex Maschinenbau Gruppe. Das österreichische Unternehmen löst den bisherigen Finanzinvestor capiton ab und wird mit 74,9 Prozent zum neuen Mehrheitsgesellschafter. Kautex Maschinenbau ist in den letzten zwölf Jahren überdurchschnittlich gewachsen. Im Vergleich zum Jahr 2006, in dem der Umsatz bei rund 60 Mio. EUR lag, erreichte das Unternehmen im Jahr 2017 einen Umsatz von rund 144 Mio. EUR. Neben dem Hauptsitz in Bonn, einem kürzlich eröffneten Kundenzentrum in Berlin und regionalen Niederlassungen in USA, Russland, China, Italien, Indien und Mexiko unterhält Kautex Maschinenbau ein dichtes globales Netz von Service- und Vertriebsstützpunkten. Mit Plastech steht dem Kautex-Management-Team unter der Leitung von Dr. Olaf Weiland und Andreas Lichtenauer nun erstmals ein mittelständisch geprägter Hauptgesellschafter als strategischer Partner zur Seite.

Mehr Nähe zum Kunden
Die Gründung von eigenen Vertriebsniederlassungen in stark wachsenden Märkten ist Teil der Dezentralisierungsstrategie des international tätigen Herstellers von Extrusionsblasformmaschinen. „Ein wichtiger Teil unseres Erfolgsrezept ist die Nähe zum Kunden“, sagt Andreas Lichtenauer, Managing Partner bei Kautex Maschinenbau. „Je besser wir die Anforderungen und Bedürfnisse vor Ort kennen, desto besser können wir bedarfsgerechte Lösungen anbieten.“ Besonderes Interesse im mexikanischen Markt wird bei KBS- und KSB-Maschinentypen für Automotive-Anwendungen sowie KBB- und KCC-Maschinen für Industrie- und Konsumerverpackungen erwartet.

Über Kautex Maschinenbau
Acht Dekaden, geprägt durch Innovationskraft und Leistungen für seine Kunden, machen Kautex Maschinenbau heute zu einem weltweit führenden Anbieter in der Extrusionsblasformtechnik. Zu den internationalen Kunden gehören Automobilkonzerne und Zulieferbetriebe sowie Unternehmen aus der Verpackungsindustrie. Sie alle setzen auf das Know-how einer Marke, die für Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit steht. Mit 530 Mitarbeitern in Deutschland und weiteren 170 Mitarbeitern weltweit erwirtschaftete das Unternehmen in 2017 einen Jahresumsatz von mehr als 140 Millionen Euro. Neben dem Hauptsitz in Bonn, einem kürzlich eröffneten Kundenzentrum in Berlin und regionalen Niederlassungen in USA, Russland, China, Italien, Indien und Mexiko unterhält Kautex Maschinenbau ein dichtes globales Netz von Service- und Vertriebsstützpunkten.