Haidlmair Adds Capacity for Extra-Large Molds
Austrian moldmaker expands at home and in the U.S.
Austrian moldmaker Haidlmair GmbH has expanded at home and abroad. It opened an office for sales, service, and mold repair last year in Lake Geneva, Wis., and a second service center in Phoenix, Ariz. (haidlmair.us). The firm also recently expanded its Nussbach headquarters plant with a new building dedicated to machining of very large molds for garbage bins, recycle collection containers, and other big containers for agricultural or industrial use. This adds 10,800 ft2, or 10%, to the company’s existing facilities at Nussbach. As pictured here, the new hall has room for two large milling machines (one is installed at present) with a working range of up to 8 meters, drilling capacity for boreholes up to 2.2-m deep, and ability to support pieces weighing up to 88 tons. The company started making molds for very large bins in 2011 with an 88-ton tool for a four-wheeled, 1100-liter waste container to be molded in a 5500-metric-ton press. The company is considering purchasing a 3200-m.t. press for mold tryout (up from 1500 m.t. currently).
Haidlmair is a family-owned firm started in 1979 and grown to over $50 million annual revenue. Besides large bins, it is strong in automotive, large appliances, and technical parts, but its particular specialties are beverage crates and pallets. A recent development is crates with a special milled-in textured surface and in-mold labeling to create a nostalgic, wood-crate appearance (photo with sales manager Roland Gradauer). The firm has expertise in gas and water injection, hard-soft overmolding, and thinwalling or lightweighting of large parts. It is currently developing rotating center-stack tools for overmolding.
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