MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kraiburg TPE GmbH & Co. K.G. has launched a new extrusion line for the production of thermoplastic elastomers at its headquarters facility in Waldkraiburg, reported Rubber&Plastics News.
The move expands the company's total capacity to about 56,000 metric tons worldwide, and it comes in response to rising global demand for TPEs from the automotive, industrial, consumer and medical markets, Kraiburg said.
While the company has made investments at its facilities in Buford, Ga., and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kraiburg said it is looking to invest in the Waldkraiburg location because it is the epicenter of its business operations.
"The Waldkraiburg site is and will remain the focus of all of our activities, where we have been investing particularly in expanding our development center and increasing our production capacities in recent years," Kraiburg CEO Franz Hinterecker said in a statement. "The new extrusion line underlines this strategy."
The firm has invested at its other sites, though. Kraiburg relocated to a new production plant in Buford in 2016, and more recently brought on stream a new production line at its facility in Kuala Lumpur.
"Our success in the market is based on strong customer orientation, global presence and influential innovations," Hinterecker said. "Continuously investing in the international network of our production plants and sales offices is a mainstay of this strategy."
As MRC wrote previously, in December 2017, Kraiburg TPE presented a new series of thermoplastic elastomers from its Thermolast K family that was specially developed for excellent adhesion and UV resistance in two-component applications with ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM). The new compounds are intended for automotive applications such as EPDM window trim and sealing profiles with moulded TPE corner joints and end elements.
Kraiburg Rubber (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. was established in 2005 and is part of the Waldkraiburg-based German company Kraiburg Holding GmbH & Co. KG. The company produces a wide range of standard rubber compounds (based on NR, EPDM, CR, AEM, SBR, FKM, etc.) for automotive, building and construction applications, and other industrial markets as well as highly customised products for all kinds of industries at its Suzhou site. The compounds are produced on highly automated and fully process-controlled mixing lines, based on state-of-the-art technology. The company has 130 employees.
MRC