Industrial Tycoons' Perspective of K SHOW—Dr. Wobbe's Eyes On European Plastics Development Trend

Industrial progress has always been driven by innovation. Innovation is the subverter of manufacturi...

Industrial progress has always been driven by innovation. Innovation is the subverter of manufacturing industry. The trend always exists and is consistently accelerating. The assertion of “innovation or death” becomes more realistic than ever.

Why do we care about K show? Because it focuses on industrial forefront. We would be like blind-folded without knowing the occurrence of innovation. Any solid matters shall be frail in front of innovation. 《CRAFT》 exclusively interviewed Dr. Hans Wobbe who is the CSO of YIZIMI. He analyzed the innovation orientation of European plastic industry from the perspective of K show with his own knowledge.

Trend: More techniques should be integrated in the Plastic injection.

《CRAFT》：Dear Dr. Wobbe, you have more than 30 years’ experience in machinery manufactory, and must have participated in K Show for several times, when did you attend the last K show? Could you please talk about the K Show in your eyes?

Dr.Wobbe：The last K show I attended was in 2013, the first one I guess in 1985. All the time the K show was and is the most important fair in our industry especially with the focus to new trends and innovative developments. Seeing new innovative products and processes and new exhibitors from Asia with strategic plans to increase their export business into Europe and America.

《CRAFT》：What’s the main changes of K show in recent years?

Dr.Wobbe：At the K show itself I do not saw so much changes. The K show was always focused on innovations and new trends to show the newest state of the art products. But the world around K show changes much! In the eighties the second most important international show behind K show was the NPE in US and at that time in China no plastic shows existed. Nowadays we have the Chinaplas which is more or less on the same importance than K show and the NPE in North America drop down to a domestic fair.

《CRAFT》：K show is an indicator of the global plastics industry development, please talk about the development trend of plastic industry in Europe.

Dr.Wobbe：Due to the fact that IMM are meanwhile a commodity product the development is going since many years into special technologies and also into combination technologies like injection molding in combination with PU technology as an example. Another trend is the automation with integration of material supply and integration of final packaging into one IMM system or IMM cell. The advantage for customers is an optimized production system with regard to quality and productivity.

Industry 4.0: Europe is Blewing for Euromap 77

《CRAFT》：In this year’s K show, there is no hotter topic than “YEAR OF INDUSTRY 4.0”,what is your understanding about INDUSTRY 4.0?

Dr.Wobbe：Industry 4.0 means in our case a production chain in which material, logistics, services and information data are networked according to the internet.

《CRAFT》：How is the situation implemented of Industry 4.0 in Europe, especially in Germany plastic industry? And how about customer requirement? For European plastic company, how do they apply industry 4.0 concept into real production?

Dr.Wobbe：The injection molding machine manufacturers are working since long time in this field. A change from preventive to predictive maintenance as part of the control unit is one example. Another example is the clamp control or vibration control at Engel machine and robots. Important for customers will be the implementation of the new Euromap 77 standard in the machine control. This standard will allow a safe transfer of records between MES and IMM.The main reason for Euromap 77 is to define a standard for data exchange as base for industry 4.0. for example combining mass fabricated goods with individualization techniques, like additive production, brings together the best of both worlds. Configuring this interplay in a flexible manner is not possible without data exchange. Based on a communication of these data each one can optimize processes, predict problems etc.

Light-weight: Europe has not form the satisfying econimic solution as of yet.

《CRAFT》：Light Weight Structure is an important topic on K show 2016, Dr.Wobbe you have introduced the Light Weight Technology on CHINPLAS2016, How does the Light Weight Technology develop in Europe?

Dr.Wobbe：Light weight technology is a priority theme. Driven by the car industry the machine producers are developing heavily in innovative processes. The target is to develop a production technology with lower cost of material and process than the alternative technology of steel material and reshaping presses for the car body manufacturing needs.

《CRAFT》：From your point of view, what kind of difference do the achievements of European advanced injection molding machinery enterprises in technical aspect of light weight have?

Dr.Wobbe：As already said before, light weight technology is priority. The three companies you mentioned are key players in this innovative segment. But till now I only saw special solutions which are unsuitable for mass production. The prices to do the investment are too high. What these companies are doing is just demonstrating their know-how and knowledge in technology.

《CRAFT》：What plans shall the future YIZIMI products have in the technical aspect of light weight?

Dr.Wobbe：We will step in the near future into the business of light weight technology. A first step we start now is foam injection molding. Later on we will step in also in other technologies.

Advantages: Two-plate injection molding machine meets the need of European auto industry.

《CRAFT》：Yizumi participates in K show with DP two-plate injection molding machine and PAC-K this year, these two machine are mainly for auto industry and high-speed packing, Please talk about the development trend of these two areas and the needs of customers. What is the competitive advantage for Yizumi’s products in the European market?

Dr.Wobbe：The trend in high speed packaging is related to machine performance. The top companies are always improving accuracy, speed and recovery rate of the plasticizing unit. Customers are also asking for systems – like we are showing – and integrated IML equipment.

In automotive I see two separate trends: On one hand the request for special technologies for multi component and multi material applications are heavily increasing, on the other hand automotive suppliers are also producing a high amount of standard plastic parts with the need of standard injection molding machines. Today the standard IMM in automotive is a 2 platen machine, the demand on large toggle machines is decreasing. A standard 2 platen machine is nowadays a commodity product and customers are asking for attractive prices. That is our big advantage compared to the European manufacturers especially because quality level is meanwhile close to an equal base.

《CRAFT》：What can Chinese company learn from European plastic industry?

Dr.Wobbe：It is not a one-way street, but I will answer your question: especially the Chinese machine manufacturers need more well educated engineers with basic understanding of areas where the know-how and innovations are produced. Mechanical engineering is the base of the design of an IMM, but innovations and new processes are driven by process and software knowledge. For our machine industry here in China we have to build up more manpower in this areas to strengthen our innovation capabilities. This education starts at Universities and for my understanding in China we have to increase the training at Universities in plastic processing.

Experience: YIGEs understand the company’s strategies.

《CRAFT》：Could you talk about the Yizumi product development plan and marketing development plan in European market?

Dr.Wobbe：For a strategic roll out into the European market we need at the beginning good standard products with attractive prices compared to the Europeans. I see a product range from 100 t to 400 t of general purpose electric machines and in addition of hybrid machines. For clamp forces above 400 t we should go with the DP and D1 two platen machines. After a couple of years we have to offer also special technologies to our customers.

Based on this product portfolio I prefer to start with a Tech Center in Germany which is linked to our new Tech center in Shunde, which is in the starting phase now. I see the Tech Center Germany also linked to a European Sales and Service Center in Germany. With such a kind of strategy we can support agents in Europe faster and more direct. Also the customers in Europe like to get in contact with such subsidiaries and make mold trials in the Tech Center, get spare parts from a special stock and can discuss with experts from Tech Center or with sales specialists concerning payment conditions or warranties.

《CRAFT》：Dr. Wobbe has joined YIZUMI for over half a year. During this time, have your thinking and acknowledgement of YIZUMI changed?

Dr.Wobbe：During my first half year with Yizumi I learned that we have already a very good base to realize the strategy being a technology leader as well as being a price and quality leader. The most important area we have to improve to reach the strategy goal is building up process know how, and establishing a market strategy for export.