A South Korean moulder will use the machines to manufacture mobile phone batteries

A South Korean moulder will use the machines to manufacture mobile phone batteries

A South Korean moulder has placed orders with Engel for two X-Melt electric injection moulding machines for the manufacture of mobile phone batteries. The moulder is Engel’s first Asian customer for the X-Melt machine. The group now expects more demand from Asia, where much of the world’s production of small electronic components is centred, Engel president Robert Bodingbauer said at the Koplas exhibition held in Seoul, South Korea, last weekend.

About 10 units of the high-speed machines for thin-wall applications, which can inject melt at up to 2,000 mm/second, have been sold worldwide since its launch at K2001. One of the machines for the Korean customer will be displayed at K2004.

Special moulds are required for the X-Melt machine because of the high injection speed and pressure involved. Engel said it will supply the mould for the Korean customer for the first round, but expected the customer to provide its own moulds subsequently.

Bodingbauer told PRW.com that Engel would start up a new plant in China as the company’s second manufacturing plant in Asia after South Korea. Two sites near Shanghai have been shortlisted and production is expected to begin in about two years.

As in Korea, the Chinese plant will be a wholly owned entity. The new plant will produce machines of more than 500-tonnes clamping force, supplementing the smaller 45 to 300-tonne machines produced in Korea. Engel supplies approximately 350 machines a year to China, one of its most important export markets.