The Arburg Technology Center (ATC) Rednitzhembach celebrated its silver anniversary on 22 September – one year later than planned due to coronavirus – with around 200 invited guests and senior representatives of the parent company. Arburg Managing Partner Juliane Hehl thanked Location Manager Johannes Herbst and the current and former employees who have contributed significantly to the ATC’s success. Gerhard Böhm, Managing Director Sales and Service, gave a speech in which he looked back on the development of this Arburg location in Middle Franconia. Live demonstrations and expert presentations rounded off the open house event the next day.
“Small but mighty” is how Juliane Hehl described Arburg’s smallest and youngest German location in Rednitzhembach, south of Nuremberg, in her address at the evening event. “When it comes to pre-sales and after-sales service, everything we have at the Lossburg head office and ATC Radevormwald is also actually available here. But on a smaller scale – which might make it even more personal.” Juliane Hehl also pointed out that some members of the team had been working at the location for decades, which is something very special, especially in today’s fast-moving times.
Thanks to customers and Arburg employees
As the highlight of the evening, Juliane Hehl presented the traditional Arburg anniversary sculpture to Johannes Herbst, who has managed the ATC since 2019. On behalf of the owner families and the entire Arburg parent company, she congratulated him and his team and thanked them for their many years of commitment.
In this context, she also paid tribute to application technician Franz Straub, someone who was there “right from the start”, and to the “alumni” who attended the event as guests of honour: Bernhard Müller, who managed and expanded ATC Rednitzhembach for 17 years, as well as former Service Centre Manager Erich Dotzer and former sales consultant Bernd Nassutt.
Gerhard Böhm also thanked the Arburg team and all of the company’s customers for their commitment and loyalty over the past decades. In his speech, he highlighted Arburg’s ongoing efforts to continue the success story of the ATC in Rednitzhembach far into the future. “And that is exactly what we will be tackling next year,” the Sales Director announced: “The plan is to triple our showroom space and create additional rooms for training. All in all, we will be doubling the usable area of the ATC to around 1,400 square metres.”
Looking back at the location’s special origins
“When we opened the ATC in Rednitzhembach in 1995, we wanted to create a direct contact point for our customers and partners in the Bavarian, Franconian, and East German regions – following the successful example of our ATC in Radevormwald, which was founded in 1982,” explained Gerhard Böhm. Starting with three employees, the team has grown to eleven people and is supported by 13 service technicians. The then new building was constructed in Arburg’s familiar architectural style and by 1995, the service technicians could already be reached at any time via Eurofunk.
Back then, the ATC handled application technology advice, trials with customer moulds, and the supply of spare parts – all of which it continues to offer today. But the location now also boasts contacts for additive manufacturing and an expert on automation and turnkey projects. The showroom currently has seven Allrounder injection moulding machines and a freeformer ready for industrial production.
Fascinating open house event
Arburg’s guests were also delighted by the accompanying open house event, during which a total of seven machines gave live demonstrations of innovative injection moulding applications and Arburg plastic freeforming. Two machines that created a particular buzz were a hybrid Allrounder 570 H with pioneering Gestica control system, which produced crinkle boxes, and an electric Allrounder 270 A, which processed wood-based bio-plastic into vegetable spiral peelers. Turnkey experts were also on hand at various stations to present practical gripper technology for robotic systems.
The programme was supplemented by expert presentations on turnkey systems, additive manufacturing, the arburgXworld customer portal, and the Gestica control system’s smart “pilots” for process control and optimisation.