Canadian delegation visited Arburg headquarters

On 22 June 2015, a Canadian delegation together with Siemens visited the headquarters of family-owned company Arburg in Lossburg. Senior Partner Eugen Hehl and Managing Director Sales Helmut Heinson welcomed the high-ranking guests. Control technology expert Michael Vieth and André Amon, Deputy Manager Machining, then demonstrated how the German machine manufacturer implements the topic of "Industry 4.0" in theory and practice.

Arburg regularly receives guests and customers from around the world at its headquarters in Lossburg (Northern Black Forest). The fact that a Canadian business delegation visited jointly with Siemens to find out on-site how the German machine manufacturer approaches the topic of Industry 4.0, however, was still something really special.

Industry 4.0 as main focus of interest

The Canadian delegation included, for example, Philip Jennings, Assistant Deputy Minister, Industry Sector, Industry Canada, Jayson Myers, President and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, as well as Consul Steven Goodinson. The representatives from the worlds of business and science had responded to an invitation from Siemens to visit innovative German companies closely involved in the Industry 4.0 initiative.

The Canadians learned about how Arburg covered the topic with a fully networked process chain at the world's leading industrial trade fair in Hanover and how large-volume parts were individualised with Industry 4.0 technologies and a combination of Allrounder injection moulding machines and the Freeformer for industrial additive manufacturing.

Highly automated production at Arburg

The Canadians were particularly impressed at how the machine manufacturer has also for many years implemented technologies at its own production facilities, which today fall within the scope of Industry 4.0. Examples here range from a suspended monorail conveying system which finds its own way around the approx. 148,000 square-metre production halls, covering some 250 kilometres a day, automatic machining centres and high-bay warehouses which operate unmanned overnight, through to Arburg's proprietary host computer system, ALS. At around 60 percent, the level of vertical integration is extremely high. In this context, the guests were highly impressed by the fact that Arburg develops and builds its own machine control system and operates an in-house circuit board production line.