Plastics News - Show Daily - October 17, 2023 - 1

October 17, 2023  PlasticsNews.com
GLOBAL POLYMER GROUP
©Entire contents copyright 2023 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
Arburg innovates, adapts with
a century of Hehls at the helm
By Catherine Kavanaugh
Plastics News Staff
When your company has been
operating for 100 years and started
building injection molding
machines to meet its own manufacturing
needs, you can make a
strong case that your business
has always had a Plan A.
In its earliest days, back in
1923, Arburg GmbH + Co. KG
founder
Arthur Hehl was a
self-employed tradesman. He had
trained as a precision mechanic
and eventually began manufacturing
surgical instruments out
of the cellar of his house in Lossburg,
Germany, with active support
from his wife, Maria.
Demand for Hehl's products
grew, and his sons, Karl and Eugen,
joined the business.
Karl Hehl came up with the
company name in 1943, combining
the " Ar " in honor of his father
and " burg " from their hometown,
and production expanded into
other goods like metal hairpins,
potato baskets and clamping
rings for baby bottles.
In 1954, Arburg staff needed
to overmold plug contacts on a
fl ashgun. Karl Hehl developed his
fi rst injection molding machine to
solve the problem.
Two years later, the C-series
machine itself went into production
and the Hehls had a new line
of work. Less than three years
later, in 1959, the 1,000th C press
was sold.
Eventually, more than 10,000
machines in the C-series were put
into production along with tens of
thousands of other Arburg models
that followed.
Managing Director Juliane Hehl,
who oversees global marketing
and business development, told
Plastics News about the family's
century of innovation, plans for
the 28th Fakuma trade show
event and more.
" The 100-year history of our
family company is characterized
by inventiveness and daring,
fl ashes of inspiration and
business ideas, evolutionary
See Arburg, Page 21
ARBURG GMBH
+ CO. KG
Hall A3,
Booth 3101
Juliane Hehl
from Arburg
at Fakuma
2023 in
Friedrichshafen,
Germany.
Plastics News photo
by Caroline Seidel
IKT investigates cause of AquaDom's failure PAGE 4
Europe faces challenging economic conditions PAGE 15
By Beatriz Santos
Sustainable Plastics
The last edition of Fakuma, back
in October 2021, was hailed as the
show when recycling moved from
niche to mainstream.
The industry had started its
recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic
with sales books fi lling up
quicker than in 2019. Regulations
calling for recycled
content and public
pressure were highlighted
as main factors
driving demand on the
show fl oor.
Mixed waste at Fakuma 2023
in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Plastics News photo by Caroline Seidel
In the meantime,
high prices for virgin
resin, which guide the
price of recyclates,
were allowing recycling
companies the margins to
further invest in new products
and technologies.
Fast forward to 2023 and recycled
resin prices are under severe
downward pressure because of
persistent weak demand, compeVISIT
US
AT BOOTH
#FW-07
Recycling moves from mainstream to faltering industry
EREMA
GROUP
Hall A6,
Booth 6314
tition from the falling cost of offspec
virgin plastics and cheaper
imports from Asia. Recycled PET
has been particularly affected.
There are some recent signs
of improvement, however. Virgin
polymer prices registered strong
price gains in September, and the
situation might keep improving
with crude oil costs soaring.
Nevertheless, weakened European
economies and
stubbornly strong infl
ation rates continue
to restrain end user
demand. When infl ation
is high and consumers
end up having
less money to spend,
they tend to restrain
their spending to essentials
- are they
still willing to pay a premium for
packaging with recycled content,
for example?
Sustainable Plastics caught up
with the CEO of industry leader
Erema Group, Manfred Hackl, to
See Erema, Page 22
SHOW DAILY
TUESDAY
http://www.PlasticsNews.com
Plastics News - Show Daily - October 17, 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News - Show Daily - October 17, 2023
