Insights
Many milestones to become a technology leader
| Petra Rehmet
KraussMaffei is celebrating 50 years of Reaction Process Machinery
180 years KraussMaffei, 50 years Reaction Process Machinery: Managing Director Nicolas Beyl and his team have two reasons to celebrate this year.
Already in 1967 an idea emerged to not only process thermoplastics - at this time, KraussMaffei had already been a supplier of injection molding machines for several years - but also to include the processing of duroplastic systems such as polyurethane in the portfolio. The first mold carriers ("Moon-Swing") were introduced to the market in 1968 together with PUR systems from Bayer. In 1968, ts first specialized clamping unit with two rotation axes for processing polyurethane was introduced to the market. This launch was followed by a wide variety of products and processes thanks to which it has been possible to further improve the performance capacity of PUR components and other matrix systems.
First milestone in 1970
With the development of the first self-cleaning mixing head in 1970, which operated on the high-pressure counterflow injection principle, KraussMaffei set the first milestone. The low-pressure technology that had established itself on the market up to that point was extended by a process that also made the discontinuous production of parts in shot operation possible. In the late 1970s, the first car seats made of molded foam were produced in series using this process.
Nor did the development come to halt in following years. New technologies for new applications were added continuously. Some of these milestones have been for example the multi-color technology, first instrumental panel foaming, FCKW-free insulation in refrigerators, new surface technologies as well as future-orientated composites solutions for lightweight design.
Contact
sebastian.schmidhuber@kraussmaffei.com