CONCENTRATED COMPOSITE EXPERTISE FROM UPPER AUSTRIA LENDS WINGS TO LIGHTWEIGHT CONSTRUCTION

Fill Machine Engineering Media Service July 2014   Industry/Machine Engineering/Innovation     Fill Machine Engineering and Engel Austria sign cooperation agreement. Global, tailor-made system solutions from a single source.    Fill Machine Engineering and Engel Austria have sealed their partnership in the field of composite production. Within the framework of this cooperation, the two Upper Austrian companies will implement global, tailor-made system solutions for the industrial production of fiber-reinforced plastic composite components. With innovative technologies, both companies are global leaders in their fields. The cooperation will lead to pooling of expertise and expedite the economic series production of composite components.   Gurten, 14 July 2014 – Components made from fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composite materials play a key role in lightweight automotive engineering. The biggest challenge facing the industry at present is to develop cost-effective processes for series production of the innovative composite components. "Both Fill and Engel are international leaders with their technologies in their respective fields. Their core areas of expertise and product portfolios complement each other ideally," explains Wilhelm Rupertsberger, Manager of the PLASTICS Competence Center at Fill. Both companies have highly effective research and development departments at their disposal. Together, their innovational strength will be raised to a higher level. Initial projects for international automotive groups have already been implemented successfully together.   Seamless composite technologies "The aim of our collaboration is to jointly meet the requirements of the market even more effectively and accelerate the industrialization of composite processes," emphasizes Franz Füreder, Head of the Automotive Business Unit at Engel Austria. "We are very pleased to have found a partner in Fill, who is also a world leader with its technologies and like Engel places particular emphasis on research and development."   Productivity and cost-effectiveness Fill Machine Engineering focuses on textile pre-processes. These are often still completed by hand. Fill has industrialized and automated these processes in close collaboration with an OEM. This primarily involves the production of preforms (textile, preformed, semi-finished products) by various means, for example by weaving. High quality preforms form the basis for high quality FRP parts. Automation makes the processes more stable, repeatable, and therefore substantially more economical. Lightweight construction is a technology of the future, which is being used increasingly in many areas. The cooperation between Fill and Engel will allow cost-effective processes to be developed for the series production of innovative composite components, thereby providing enormous potential.   Corporate data Fill is a leading international machine and plant manufacturing company for diverse branches of industry. The family-owned business excels in the use of the latest technology and methods in management, communication, and production. Business operations encompass the fields of metal, plastics and wood for the automotive, aircraft, wind energy, sport and building industries The company is the global market leader in aluminum core removal technology and ski and snowboard production machines. Andreas Fill and Wolfgang Rathner are joint CEOs of the company founded in 1966 that is still completely family-owned and now has more than 600 employees. In 2013, the company recorded sales of almost 115 million euros.   Further information can be found at: www.fill.co.at   If you have any questions, please contact:   Kommhaus  Altausseer Strasse 220  8990 Bad Aussee / Austria Tel.: +43 3622 55344-0 Fax: +43 3622 55344-17  E-mail:presse@kommhaus.com