At a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony, Nordson Corporation celebrated the successful conclusion of a two-year project to build an extensive new facility to serve as a global hub for the company’s BKG pelletizers and melt delivery components.

Located at a site that has been the longstanding home of BKG pelletizers, the new 14,380 sqm facility more than triples the amount of manufacturing, R&D, and office space at the location and combines operations that previously were spread across four separate sites in the Münster (Germany) area. The expansion includes an enhanced technical centre for R&D and customer trials and a dedicated aftermarket centre for BKG systems and EDI extrusion and coating dies. The aftermarket centre provides European customers with consumables, spare parts, and rework and repair services and is designed to minimize order lead times and reduce downtime for customers.

“The new Münster facility will serve as a European centre of excellence for polymer processing solutions”, said Nordson executive vice president John J. Keane. “For the first time, all of our Münster-area BKG activities are co-located, enabling us to reconfigure our operations to serve our customers more efficiently, help them reduce their operating costs, and enable them to take greater advantage of the synergies that exist among our product offerings”.

The Nordson investment in the Münster facility builds on a legacy that dates back to 1953, when the firm originally founded by Jan-Udo Kreyenborg built the first Kreyenborg screen changer. Nordson purchased the melt delivery and pelletizer businesses from Kreyenborg in 2013. The newly expanded Münster facility employs 339.

“We have designed the new Münster facility with the goal of making Nordson an employer of choice”, said Godfrey M. Sandham, Nordson Polymer Processing Systems (PPS) vice president. “The modern office environment with its large open areas and new cafeteria were created to promote collaboration among our teams. At the same time, Nordson continually invests in employee training, and it has an ongoing program to support volunteer activities within the local community”.