Engel to extend robot plant in Dietach

Capital outlay of some 11 million euro sees Engel strengthen its robot production at the Dietach location in Austria. Production, logistics, apprentice workshop and office building will be expanded and modernised in two construction phases. Building work starts in May 2023. This capital expenditure sees injection moulding machine manufacturer and automation specialist, headquartered in Schwertberg, Austria, respond to the growing global demand for robots and integrated system solutions for injection moulding production. "We supply well over half of all injection moulding machines produced by ENGEL with integrated automation technology, and the trend is continuing to grow," as Stefan Engleder, CEO of the Engel Group, emphasised.

Founded in 1980, the Dietach plant today develops and produces three robot series: the viper linear robot, the e-pic pick-and-place robot and the pic A sprue picker. The building is now being extended towards the west direction on the existing plant location. In total, the extension will offer a usable floor space of more than 3,000 m². The flow assembly line will be modernised in the course of the construction work. “In future, Engel will be able to respond in a far more flexible way to customer requests and short-term order changes without prolonging lead times”, Engleder added.

By spring 2024, the production, logistics and apprentice workshop areas will have been completed and the new photovoltaic system will have been put into operation. Engel focuses on the sustainability of all building work within the group. With the capital expenditure in Dietach, all three Engel production plants in Austria will generate their own green electricity using photovoltaics. Following the expansion of the production areas, Engel in Dietach will modernise and expand the existing office building from the ground up. This will help the company establish the basis for further personnel growth in the future. The Dietach location is already looking for mechatronics engineers, commissioning engineers, software engineers, development engineers, and more.

The high level of automation expertise and the company's own robot program are a key pillar of the ongoing success of Engel. "If we precisely coordinate the injection moulding machine, automation and processing technology, we can leverage the efficiency and quality potential to the maximum," as Jörg Fuhrmann (to teh right), Vice President Automation and Composite Systems, made clear. Engel customers benefit from an integrated control solution with a shared data platform and standardised operating logic across the entire production cell. "For many customers, the high level of system solutions expertise is an important criterion for choosing Engel," Fuhrmann concluded.