Barnes Opens Customer Technology Center in Germany

Barnes Molding Solutions, the injection molding division of the Barnes Group (Bristol, Conn.), has opened a Customer Technology Center in Haslach, Germany. Barnes said in a release that the center, which is located within its portfolio moldmaking company Foboha’s facility, will feature technologies from the group’s entire portfolio, which, in addition to Foboha, includes Synventive, männer, Thermoplay, Priamus and Gammaflux.

A Barnes spokesperson told Plastics Technology that the 1500-m² (approx. 16,000-ft²) center was renovated out of existing space at Foboha’s headquarters on the edge of the German Black Forest.

At the heart of the center is an Engel Duo 2700/17060 injection molding machine that Barnes says is flexible enough to run a wide variety of injection molds and related technologies. The spokesperson noted that this press is the newest machine at Foboha. Capable of running larger molds, it can also undertake special applications, including injection compression molding and physical foaming. The Haslach site has an additional 13 injection molding machines and other technologies, including cube molds and testing capabilities. In that aspect, it joins additional testing capable sites in Atlanta; Bahlingen, Germany; Suzhou; and Peabody, Mass.

Barnes says customers can use the center for access Synventive’s advanced family-tool hot runner products, including the Dynamic Feed pressure control and Synflow pin-control technology, which allows the molding of multiple parts of varying sizes in one cycle. The Engel machine will also be equipped with a Gammaflux temperature controller and Priamus Pressure sensors.

Haslach, Germany is one of three global production sites for Foboha, with others in Suzhou, China and Lawrenceville, Ga. The company was founded in Germany by Werner Bodmer more than 40 years ago. Bodmer sold Foboha to Adval Tech Holding Ltd. in 2002. Barnes acquired Adval Tech’s molds business, including Foboha, in 2016.