ARBURG Founds New Subsidiary for All Plastic 3D Printing Activities

German family-owned machine construction company ARBURG, which specializes in injection molding, released its industrial Freeformer 3D printer back in 2014, and over the last couple of years has been steadily increasing its focus on additive manufacturing, with the owners purchasing German RepRap and opening a 3D printing center in Shanghai this summer. In keeping with this focus, the company announced this week that it had founded a new subsidiary that will house all of ARBURG’s additive manufacturing-related activities under one roof. ARBURGadditive GmbH + Co KG, also based in Lossburg, will feature a strong product range, as the ultimate goal of the subsidiary is to shine a light on the future potential of AM to be used as a significant supplemental method of production in plastics processing.

ARBURG wants its customers to have the ability to produce their own plastic products—whether it’s a large-volume batch or just a small job of one-off parts—at the minimum unit cost with good quality, and targets industries such as communication and entertainment electronics, automotive and packaging, and medical technology with its ARBURG Plastic Freeforming (APF) technology. So after the company invented and launched its Freeformer 3D printing system and later purchased 3D printed Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) specialist innovatiQ (formerly German RepRap), it made sense to combine all of its AM activities and systems in the same place to help grow its business field to a better future.

ARBURGadditive’s product range will include ARBURG’s Freeformer printer, which uses verified standard granulates—similar to what’s used in injection molding—was designed as an open system so that users can more easily tweak the manufacturing process if needed for components that have specific requirements. The new subsidiary’s line will also include innovatiQ’s FFF 3D printing systems and LiQ 320, which prints with LSR using the unique Liquid Additive Manufacturing (LAM) process. All of these systems work well together and so can cover plenty of various AM applications.

Beginning on December 1st, 2021, industry expert Dr. Victor Roman will join ARBURGadditive GmbH + Co KG, leading the subsidiary as its Managing Director. He studied physics and mechanical engineering before spending over 20 years working at an international technology group, where he gained a lot of experience in sales and development and, notably, additive manufacturing.

ARBURG’s Plastic Freeforming AM technology will be restructured and moved completely to the new subsidiary over 2022; currently, about 40 employees in the division work in application technology, sales, assembly, and development. With 25 employees, innovatiQ GmbH + Co KG will be affiliated with ARBURGadditive GmbH + Co KG, though it will stay an independent company based near Munich. Florian Bautz, innovatiQ’s Managing Director, will eventually be reporting to Dr. Roman.

To learn more, visit ARBURG at next week’s Formnext event at Booth D131 in Hall 12.1.