Kautex K-News August/2007 (PDF, 2.0 MB

Markus Holbach has headed the
Technikum at Kautex Maschinenbau
GmbH since October 2006.
He has had close links with the
blow molding industry over many
years as a researcher and project
developer.
Markus Holbach
Google the name Markus Holbach and
you’ll come up with 87 hits, the vast
majority of which lead to none other
than the new manager of Kautex
Maschinenbau GmbH’s new Technikum.
After all, this graduate engineer and
father of three children has made a
name for himself that reaches beyond
the blow molding industry. He likes to
spend his spare time sailing catamarans,
and his regatta wins have not gone
unnoticed either among his fellow
sailors or on the Internet.
Well researched expertise
Many of his publications date from his
years of employment with the Reinold
Hagen Foundation. Coincidentally, the
individual that lent his name to this
prestigious research institute was also
the founder of Kautex. Markus Holbach
held various positions at the Foundation
in Bonn, including head of the Research
and Development Department, and over
the years he authored numerous
presentations and scientific papers.
“Even though my degree was not in
plastics, through my scientific work and
after heading up a variety technical
conferences, I know my way around the
industry,” says Holbach.
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Making the best even better
Ever since early childhood, Markus
Holbach felt an urge to research – to get
to the bottom of things. After first
training as a power systems electrician he
decided to study electrical engineering.
But even that was not enough to satisfy
his thirst for knowledge. After successfully
taking his degree, in 1995 he moved
on from university straight to the Hagen
Foundation where he worked on
numerous development projects for the
blow molding industry. The development
of prototypes and the design and
simulation of blow molding machines
were among his specialties, and so the
move to Kautex was a logical next step.
The challenge of progress
“Here at Kautex as manager of the
Technikum,” says Holbach, “I can make
full use of the experience I have gained
in eleven years of scientific work and
With due ceremony, new Technikum
Manager Markus Holbach (right)
accepts the keys to his future
domain from Production Manager
Ernst Meis.
help the company on its way towards
further growth.” His motto is that
“there’s nothing that can’t be made
better”. But he adds with a smile: “On
the other hand, making Kautex machines
even better is a major – and very exciting
– challenge, but it is one that I am
delighted to take up.”
No time for boredom
Just at the moment, Markus Holbach and
his wife have a challenge of a very
different kind to face at home. The
Holbach family has recently expanded
with the arrival of not just one but two
new members. Two year-old daughter
Katharina was joined in April by twins
Paulina and Yannick, and between the
three of them, they make quite sure that
when the working day ends, Markus and
his wife have no time to be bored.
News from
the
Technikum
by Markus Holbach,
Technikum Manager at Kautex
Maschinenbau GmbH
When I was symbolically handed the keys
to the Kautex Technikum at the Open
House event in the fall of last year, I
found the working conditions to be everything
one could wish for in a new job.
Over the preceding months the whole
Center had been completely modernized.
There was a testing laboratory equipped
with the latest technology, six state-ofthe-art
blow molding machines capable
of a wide variety of processes, and an
experienced team of highly specialized
and highly motivated staff. Perfect
conditions to get straight down to work.
Ambitious goals
We have some ambitious goals, and after
the first six months I can report that we
are well on our way. Our main objective
is of course to continue to develop and
optimize the technology that goes into
Kautex machines so that we can further
expand our leading position in the
market. We cooperate closely with
customers and raw material suppliers
with whom we are jointly developing
State-of-the-art testing capabilities and inquisitive minds are combined in the
spacious Technikum facility.
new innovations in process technology
that are then tested under real-life
production conditions. One current
challenge is to optimize the energy
consumption of our blow molding
machines. Given the rising cost of energy,
reduced consumption is becoming an
increasingly powerful sales argument.
Sights set on K 2007
An important deadline we are currently
working hard towards is the plastics fair
K 2007 that takes place in Düsseldorf in
October. We currently have some newly
developed extruder concepts undergoing
trials at the Technikum and we
intend to demonstrate these live to
visitors to the fair. A KLS 6-100 longstroke
machine to which we have made
various technical improvements will also
be on display at K 2007. And our new
Kautex Control Easy system will also be
ready for presentation by October after
extensive practical testing. The intuitive
user interface makes our machines even
simpler to operate and provides us with
another strong sales argument in our
negotiations with the customer.
Consultancy and sales
Our collaboration with customers in the
development of certain process technology
innovations is progressing particularly
well at present. We are increasingly
called upon to act as a development
partner at an early stage when projects
are being planned. It shows that Kautex
is appreciated not just as a hardware
supplier but also as a consultant with
extensive process expertise. The Technikum
is currently
working on joint
development projects
with two customers.
Consultancy and sales
are an ideal complement
to one another,
with projects of this
type generally culminating
in the purchase
of a Kautex machine.
The Kautex Technikum converts ideas into innovative
products.
Cooperation with suppliers
Our raw material suppliers, too, are
showing great interest in cooperating on
research. They are as aware as we are
that being part of a network is nowadays
the most important key to success. We
have already been involved with four
suppliers in the development of materials
and further trials are scheduled shortly.
We are also very successful in developing
the role of the Technikum as a provider
of tool and material sampling services.
Over the past six months several
customers have taken advantage of our
machine capacities for tool sampling
purposes. In the future, we will extend
this type of cooperation even further.
A great deal achieved already
If I told you that we have four machine
improvements in testing, support a new
product development for an entirely
new area of application, and have just
completed a small batch production run
over a total of 16 weeks, you might ask
how we manage all this with a staff of
only five at the Technikum. The answer
is simple: We enjoy what we do. And
customers notice the difference.