KraussMaffei shows new corporate identity to largest plastics trade show

Munich-based KraussMaffei Group GmbHset aside financial figures and economic outlooks in favor of showing off its new corporate identity to K trade show attendees.

Many of the German machinery maker's top executives donned casual sneakers with orange trim — a nod to KraussMaffei's orange and blue colour palette — during an Oct. 16 news conference in Düsseldorf, as the company gains a foothold in digitalisation and forward-thinking business models that support the circular economy.

"We are taking steps into the future, and we are not afraid to do so," KraussMaffei CEO Frank Stieler told press attendees.

Stieler provided a brief overview of the big themes the company highlighted at K this year, including the circular economy, digitalisation and lightweight technology.

Part of those efforts include modernising infrastructure on a global scale. The company has kicked off several projects that it said will improve productivity and efficiency, including a new KraussMaffei headquarters and production site in Munich as well as a new production site for KraussMaffei Extrusion GmbH, previously KraussMaffei Berstorff, in Hanover, Germany.

"The expansion in China is also an integral part in that strategy," Stieler said of another new production site — this time in Jiaxing, China.

KraussMaffei, which is owned by China National Chemical Corp. (ChemChina), was also renamed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange as KraussMaffei Co. Ltd. The stock sticker symbol is KMCL. The listing was completed in 2018, following the transfer of ChemChina's stake in KraussMaffei to its majority-owned subsidiary Qingdao Tianhua Institute of Chemistry Engineering Co. Ltd, or THY.

In addition to their current roles as CEO and chief financial officer, respectively, Stieler and Harald Nippel have been tapped to serve as CEO and CFO of KraussMaffei Co. Ltd. as well.

KraussMaffei's German leadership and corporate footprint contrasted with its Chinese ownership and listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange is "an interesting combination," Stieler said, that allows the company to do "things that no one else has done before."

But the stock listing also means KraussMaffei is bound by new rules and must be tight-lipped on the current status of sales and orders this year as well as its outlook for 2020, leaving the financial figures to quarterly and annual earnings reports, said Michael Ruf, KraussMaffei's chief operating officer.

Stieler added that the current market situation for KraussMaffei is "no different for us than our competitors" — that means a slowdown in automotive, increasing public pressure on the plastics packaging sector related to sustainability or a lack thereof, and uncertainty across the board as political issues ranging from the U.S.-China trade war to Brexit cause companies and consumers to delay investments.

"We unfortunately cannot predict the future," Stieler said.

In other news, Polymore, KraussMaffei's online business-to-business marketplace for compounds, masterbatches, and recycled and post-industrial materials, officially went live Oct. 16.

Trading on the platform started Oct. 17 and is open to customers in Italy and German-speaking countries, though the company said it plans to expand that reach later on.

"Polymore is a platform in which demand and supply meet," Nadine Despineux, KraussMaffei's president of digital & service solutions, told journalists.

In injection moulding, KraussMaffei has extended the clamping for range of its GX series. The presses are now available in 400-1,100 tonnes.

On display at K, the newest press size were also its largest: the 1,100 tonne. At the KraussMaffei booth, the machine moulded polypropylene buckets with a capacity of 20 litres each in a two-cavity mould. The buckets were decorated by in-mould labelling. The cycle time is 14 seconds.

The company said the GX 1100 is the first machine from KraussMaffei equipped with the Smart Operation control option from its Netstal product brand. The function allows for a separation between the application development and machine operation during production, which it said leads to a more efficient production system.

KraussMaffei's extrusion business, it launched four large-size models in the ZE BluePower series of twin-screw extruders. The four large extruder variants — 98, 122, 142 and 166 millimeters in diameter — offer the same screw and barrel modularity as the smaller sister models, with slight modifications to the overall machine design. The new sizes are geared toward large compounding companies with high production capacities.

Nicolas Beyl, president of the group's reaction process machinery segment, said it is a machine concept "fit for the future."

And for smarter equipment and more transparency along the value chain, KraussMaffei presented its EasyTrace solution. The modular system collects all relevant production data in plastics processing — regardless of machine age, type or brand, the company said — and transfers the data to specific customer systems, such as manufacturing execution systems, for evaluating.

At K, KraussMaffei demonstrated this by creating custom reports for fabricating connectors with metal inserts that are overmoulded on a CX 80 press. The reports are based on data collected from EasyTrace.

Also new to K, the company said for the first time it demonstrated the fully automatic deflashing of semirigid polyurethane foam components with a robot-controlled deflashing head developed in-house. The newly developed technology can increase efficiency while maintaining consistent and high-quality post-mould processing.

"Deflashing, in particular, is a highly interesting process," Beyl said.

KraussMaffei said the technology can also be used in other types of plastics processing including injection moulding and certain composite applications.