The Dortmund trade fair for innovative combined stamping and injection moulding technology, Proform, is aimed specifically at the high-growth target group of hybrid component manufacturers.

At the Proform, ARBURG presented itself mainly as a general contractor for complete systems aimed at producing hybrid components. In addition to the large number of decision-makers among the visitors, the strong presence of the automotive industry was noteworthy. Further significant visitor groups belonging to this burgeoning, innovative market for hybrid components came from the electrical, domestic-appliance and medical technology sectors.

ARBURG presented a production system built around a vertical ALLROUNDER 275 V featuring a free-space system and a fixed vertical clamping unit with clamping force of 250 Nm. The system operated according to the “reel-to-reel” principle, completing the fed stamped parts by encapsulating them with plastic. Oliver Giesen, Manager of the Projects department at ARBURG, explained the advantages presented by incorporating several processing steps and of the resulting value added effects: "Automated production systems of this kind become economically attractive through the use of our modular injection moulding technology, which is based on flexible standard machine components that can all be individually expanded. Furthermore, simple and reliable communication between the system components is ensured by the SELOGICA machine control system as the central control interface for the entire production cell. This allows simple reel-to-reel systems to be implemented at a relatively low cost.