Packaging
Special exhibition: 100 years of the Hehl family company
Wednesday 11. October 2023 - In the special exhibition space, four themed areas - Black Forest, Arburg Cosmos, Allrounder and Environment - will offer exciting insights into the history and development of the innovative family company over the past 100 years.
• Centenary year: Fakuma 2023 brings the 100th anniversary celebrations to a close
• Special exhibition: Arburg looks back on a 100-year success story
• Historic: C1 single-lever machine live in action
Arburg will be present at Fakuma 2023 with nine exhibits on Stand 3101 in Hall A3, plus eleven additional machines on partner stands. To mark “100 years of the Hehl family company”, milestones in the unique success story will also be presented: from the “start-up” in 1923 in the family home to today’s world-leading manufacturer of machines for plastics processing. A historic C1 single-lever machine will also be in live operation.
Black Forest home: People and flashes of genius
Trade visitors who “only” know Arburg as a globally leading manufacturer of injection moulding machines today can still learn a lot of new things during the special exhibition. For example, the fact that Arthur Hehl founded a company in Lossburg in the Black Forest in 1923, initially to manufacture surgical instruments in his own home. Or that in 1954, during Germany’s economic miracle, a “flash of inspiration” by son Karl Hehl led to the invention of the first small C1 injection moulding machine, which was able to overmould flash contacts with plastic. And that it was his brother Eugen Hehl who, with his great marketing talent, carried the presence of Arburg and the Allrounder out into the world.
Arburg Cosmos: Continuous growth in Lossburg
The “Arburg Cosmos” area will show how the company grows with a vision. As early as 1949, the first apprentices are hired and trained by Karl Hehl himself. In 1957, the prospering company moves from a residential building to the current factory premises. Arburg develops the Allrounder principle with a pivoting clamping unit and reversible injection unit in 1962, thereby also becoming a pioneer in multi-component injection moulding. One distinctive feature is that Arburg still builds all its controllers itself – from the first Polytronica in 1972 to the Selogica in 1992 and the Gestica, which has been setting standards in the industry since 2016.
In 1966, Eugen Hehl creates a grid system for the building structures, which allows the company to expand continuously. In 1985, the first subsidiary is founded in France. In 2023, Arburg has around 3,600 employees at 35 locations worldwide and still manufactures centrally in Lossburg on a current floor space of around 210,000 square metres.
Allrounder: Historic machine exhibit
A very special exhibit will show just how viable
the company’s historic machine technology has remained to this day: a manually operated C1 single-lever machine, reconstructed by Arburg trainees themselves, will be producing shopping trolley chips from post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) based on PP “live” at Fakuma 2023.
Environment
Arburg has also been playing a pioneering role in environmental matters for decades. From facade heating (1976) and the introduction of a building management system (1983) to the use of rainwater (1997), wind power (2001) and geothermal energy (2009). Since 2019, Arburg has been bringing together all its activities relating to resource conservation and the circular economy in the arburgGREENworld program. Many exhibits at Fakuma 2023 will demonstrate what this means for injection moulding in practice, for example in the processing of recyclates and sustainable materials, as well as with innovative technologies for traceability and separation by type.