Kiefel ties up with Watttron to promote energy efficient heating for films

German machinery and tool-making specialist Kiefel, a member of the Brückner Group, and start-up company Watttron have tied up for a long-term development and research cooperation.

The goal of this cooperation is to develop future-oriented solutions for the industrial moulding of plastics utilising Watttron's heating technology.

The heat technology is said to allow precise heating of surfaces with the aid of square heating pixels. Each pixel can be controlled individually. This allows targeted, uneven heating of the film, and the flow behaviour of the plastic film to be optimally adapted to the desired shape. This ensures uniform wall thickness of mouldings. As a result, the processor can use a much thinner plastic film, significantly reducing energy consumption.

Kiefel says it aims to develop “marketable solutions for the key industries of packaging, medical and automotive.”

Kiefel’s subsidiaries Bosch Sprang (Dutch maker of thermoform tooling) and Mold & Matic (Austrian supplier of tools and automation) will be included in the projects.

Watttron is a start-up spin-off of the Institute of Natural Materials Technology of the Technical University of Dresden and the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging Dresden. The company is based in Freital, in the immediate vicinity of the Saxon capital of Dresden.