Plastics News - Show Daily - October 15, 2024 - 11

FAKUMA 2024
Plastics News, October 15, 2024 * 11
Evonik to sell off nylon, polyester as it cuts back operations
By Frank Esposito
Plastics News Staff
Financially troubled materials
fi rm Evonik Industries AG plans to
sell off all but two of its business
lines, including nylon, polyester
and other specialty resins.
Essen, Germany-based Evonik
will retain its coating and adhesive
resins and health care business
units. In a news release,
offi cials said the remaining businesses
will be sold to new owners
or incorporated into partnerships.
They added that, in
individual cases, businesses " are
to be discontinued in a socially
responsible manner. "
" Our industry is undergoing
fundamental structural change
worldwide, " Chairman and CEO
Christian Kullmann said. " We will
align all our resources with our
Wittmann
Continued from Page 1
only be a question of time before
the market picks up again, he said.
Shifting markets
The preview for 2025 is slightly
positive, although the various different
markets are, for the most part,
currently still underperforming.
Michael Wittmann is hopeful
that it will see an increase over
this year in the range of plus 5
percent to plus 10 percent. He
briefl y summed the situation up,
noting that Central Europe, and
specifi cally Germany and Austria,
were the true weak spots; North
America could be better; and Asia
is still weak. Yet although some
positive developments are emerging
in the countries of west and
east Europe, in his view, what's
really missing is an impulse for a
quick recovery.
" Europe is starting more and
more to look like a doughnut, "
he said. " We see more industrial
activity in the countries on the
outer border. We are also seeing
some of the bigger projects moving
out of Central Europe to the
east. It is a tendency that in all
likelihood will become more pronounced
when the economy picks
up. Right now, it is still on a small
scale, " Wittmann observed.
There are various reasons the
recovery has failed to gain traction
and various triggers that
could help kick-start it, he added.
" One is the fact that industry
interest rates are going down. I
hope - we hope - that they will
continue going in the right direction
and that this will soon have
the effect we want. It's not something
that happens in a month; it
takes time. Then there's the fact
that in many countries, elections
are taking place, which always
creates uncertainty. Once these
are over and people have clarity,
they can start looking forward.
And, of course, the geopolitical
confl icts in the world contribute
to the sense of unrest, " he said.
The languishing
automotive
industry is another factor impeding
recovery. As long as it
continues to struggle, injection
molding will as well. " We still depend
heavily on the automotive
industry, " Wittmann said. " And
strongest businesses. "
In March, Evonik announced it
would cut up to 2,000 jobs worldwide,
including around 1,500 job
cuts in Germany. The fi rm posted
a loss of 465 million euros ($504
million) in 2023 as sales fell 17
percent to 15.3 billion euros (16.6
billion). The job cuts were expected
to reduce costs by 400 million
euros ($434 million) annually
once completed in 2026.
Evonik's high-performance
polymers unit isn't listed as a
core business. That unit includes
the brands Vestamid and Trogamid
nylons, Vestakeep PEEK,
Vestenamer plasticizers and Rohacell
structural foam.
The coating and adhesive resins
business being retained will focus
on liquid polybutadienes as additives
for adhesives and sealants
or tires and on specialty acrylics
to be frank, it is simply not doing
as well as it should. "
Worldwide investments
The market situation notwithstanding,
Wittmann Group has
continued to move ahead with
its plans for expansion at its sites
around the world. The company
is currently in the process of gaining
permission to build a second
plant in Hungary and is expanding
its facility in Turkey. New sales
and service locations are under
construction in Poland and Bulgaria,
which are due for completion
by the end of the year.
On Sept. 26, the groundbreaking
ceremony for the expansion
of the Wittmann Robot (Kunshan)
Co., Ltd. production facility in
China was held. The group is investing
more than €10 million
euros ($10.9 million) in realizing
the fi rst stage, with completion
scheduled for October 2025. The
total fl oor space including offi ce
facilities will be 15,000 square meters
(161,000 square feet).
Wittmann Robot in Kunshan
currently produces robots, temperature
controllers, materials
handling equipment, dryers and
granulators. From next year, injection
molding machines for the
Asian market will be manufactured
at the expanded facility as well.
In India, Wittmann moved its
headquarters into a new building
order in the Tiruvallur district of
Chennai, about 9 kilometers (5.5
miles) from the previous location
in Chinna Porur. The new facility is
around twice the size of its previous
headquarters, with a total of
5,000 square meters of offi ce and
production fl oor space available.
In Turkey, the group is continuing
to expand its production facility
on an ongoing basis.
'Awesome good
discussion'
At Fakuma this year, Wittmann
Group (B1-1204) is highlighting
the effi ciency and performance
of its array of offerings, said
Rainer Weingraber, the CEO at
Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH, including
energy-effi cient injection
molding technology.
What does Wittmann expect
from the show this year? " What
we really like about the Fakuma
EVONIK INDUSTRIES AG
A4-4118
Evonik Industries AG photo
for medical technology and packaging.
The business line's polyolefi
ns business, with sales of around
100 million euros ($109 million),
will be transferred to the C4 chain
business at Evonik.
Offi cials said this change " will
show is the time we spend with
our customers, " said Michael
Wittmann. " We enjoy the - sometimes
very technical conversations
- with them and the discussions
give us the opportunity
to learn from them as well about
their needs, the product requirements
and more. Having these
high-level,
high-quality
conversations
with our customers is an
important part of being here. "
But it also works the other way
around, Weingraber added. " By
showing our customers our new
products, our innovations such
as our energy-saving possibilities,
we give them impulses, perhaps
trigger them to think about lowering
their CO2 footprint by buying
energy-effi cient equipment. We
are looking forward to some awesome,
good discussion. "
At the stand, there is a path
that guides visitors along all the
exhibits, explained Weingraber.
In addition to all-electric machine
models from the EcoPower
and MicroPower series, a servo-hydraulic
SmartPower with an
electric injection aggregate will
also be shown for the fi rst time.
The machine, a SmartPower
B8X 120/350H/130S with an electric
injection unit, will be producing
a bottle opener made of PC
and TPE, using a mold supplied
by FKT Formenbau und Kunststofftechnik,
Germany, with a
W918 robot from Wittmann and
a conveyor belt integrated in the
work cell. The robot inserts the
metal parts fed from a magazine
into the mold, where they are
overmolded with polycarbonate.
The resulting base body is subsequently
passed on to the second
station by a rotary unit and there
overmolded with TPE to give it a
better grip. The fi nished parts are
then deposited on the conveyor
belt of the Insider cell.
" We have a very compact robot
and conveyor belt integrated into
the work cell - something that is
in very high demand with our customers
- and we strongly believe
this solution will fi t the need of
the market, " said Weingraber.
Visitors to the booth will also
be able to see Wittmann's new
vacuum solution for linear robots,
called EcoVacuum, which reduces
compressed air consumption with
a demand-based vacuum control,
particularly when handling inserts
or molded parts with a smooth
make even better use " of the advantages
of the existing close
supplier relationships of the two
units based in Marl, Germany, before
being sold along with the rest
of the C4 business.
The polyester
business for
surface. Following vacuum buildup,
the Venturi nozzle will only
come on again before the negative
pressure becomes too low to hold
the part safely in place. The vacuum
limit values can be calculated
individually for each specifi c part
and controlled with Wittmann's r9
control system.
" Compressed air is the most
expensive form of energy in most
production plants, " said Michael
Wittmann. " And the r9 control
system allows a completely free,
programmable, defi nable vacuum
level per circuit, allowing us to
achieve potential savings of up to
80 percent compressed air consumption. "
Available for all Wittmann
robots, it will be demonstrated
with a Primus 128 robot.
Wittmann will also be displaying
its further evolution in the use
of DC energy as a power source
for injection molding systems.
Last year, the company showed
a machine with a robot operating
on direct current. This year, the
temperature controller, too, can
run on energy from the machine's
DC intermediate circuit. Further
DC-compatible auxiliary appliances
are planned.
The EcoPower B8X 180/750 DC Insider
cell with an integrated WX142
robot in DC version from Wittmann
and a DC-compatible Tempro plus
D temperature controller will be
molding the housing of a plug-in
connector for DC technology using
a two-cavity mold supplied by Harting
of Germany.
A fi nished connector of this
type made by Harting is built into
the machine and used to connect
the Tempro plus DC appliance.
Power is supplied by an ecological
salt battery technology on a
sodium-nickel basis from innovenergy.
The battery has a total
capacity of over 45 kWh, more
than suffi cient for uninterrupted
machine operation throughout an
entire eight-hour trade fair day. In
addition, electrochemical capacitors,
known as supercaps, will
be used to complement the sodium-nickel
storage units by balancing
out short-term load peaks.
An energy-effi cient EcoPower
B8X 110/525 will also be running
at the stand, producing dart tips
made of POM, using a 32-cavity
mold supplied by Hasco of Austria
equipped with a pneumatic needle
shut-off nozzle. The parts will
be removed by a Wittmann robot
coating and adhesives is to be
sold. That business employs 330
globally, including 250 at a plant
in Witten, Germany. The polyester
unit has annual sales of about 150
million euros ($163 million).
" The technological expertise of
our polyester business is extensive, "
said Lauren Kjeldsen, head
of the Evonik smart materials
business. " But to be successfully
competing in the long term globally
and to generate the necessary
margins, investments are needed
- and other companies for which
polyester is a core business can
realize these better than we can. "
Regarding the pending sell-offs,
Evonik " has proven [that] we
select investors carefully and always
have the future of our company
and the well-being of our
employees fi rmly in mind, " Labor
Director Thomas Wessel said.
and subsequently fed to a tubular
bag system supplied by Ravizza
Packaging of Italy for packaging.
Finally, the company will be displaying
its microinjection molding
capabilities. The MicroPower,
designed for injection molding
micro and nano parts, comes with
a two-step screw-and-piston injection
aggregate able to inject thermally
homogeneous melt with
shot volumes ranging from 1.2-6
cubic centimeters. This makes it
possible to manufacture parts of
outstanding precision in a maximally
stable production process
with minimal cycle times.
Another highlight is the liquid
silicone processing application
running at the booth of Austriabased
Nexus Elastomer Dosing
and Nexus Elastomer Molds
(A6-6222), where an EcoPower
B8X 110/350 LIM featuring an
eight-cavity series production
mold equipped with a Nexus
" Timeshot " needle shut-off system
will manufacture LSR piston
stoppers for disposable syringes.
These will be subsequently assembled
fully automatically.
Career Friday
" One truly new element this
year that has been introduced by
Schall, the organizers of the show,
is Career Friday, " said Wittmann.
The company is supporting the
new program in various ways as
much as possible.
" We invited schools from western
part of Austria to the show,
as we believe this is an exciting
opportunity here to introduce our
industry, the plastics industry, to
young people and young professionals
who might be looking to
work in our industry. And in some
cases, we are supporting the travel
expenses of schools, " Weingraber.
" It's worth it if we can show
young people what we do, encourage
them to join our industry by
showing them what it is we do. "
Apprentices from the company
will also be at the stand to share
fi rsthand experiences with the
young people and to talk about
the career possibilities once the
apprenticeship has fi nished.
" There are so many facets and
aspects, and I personally think
these are underrated in the public
discussion about plastics, " said
Michael Wittmann. " We want to
show them what's possible. "
Plastics News - Show Daily - October 15, 2024

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