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LEGO Mexico Expansion means big business for Motan-Colortronic
MONTERREY, MEXICO (Oct. 4, 2011) -- Toymaker LEGO A/S has installed more than
500 Gravicolor gravimetric mixing and dosing units and 1,500 Metro loaders for
its factory in Monterrey, Mexico -- the largest-ever single order for
Motan-Colortronic GmbH.
Motan-Colortronic announced the news Oct. 4.
A year ago, LEGO of Billund, Denmark, announced plans to invest more than $100
million to expand the Monterrey plant, which injection molds interlocking
plastic bricks for the United States, Mexico and Canada. The factory opened in
2009.
After the expansion, LEGO plant in Monterrey will have more than 700 injection
molding machines, according to the news release announcing the auxiliary
equipment installation.
Motan-Colortronic and LEGO did not specify the investment amount for the new
material handing equipment.
The last installment of the Motan-Colortronic equipment was delivered in April.
Detlev Schmidt, sales director at the auxiliary company, said Motan-Colortronic
had as many as 20 installation technicians on site during the year. It took more
than 50 large 40-foot containers to ship equipment to the site, he said.
LEGO also installed 24 large resin silos, mounted on load cells that are linked
to 48 fully automatic Metrolink material selection and distribution units, which
feed the resin to the injection molding machines. Material drying is performed
by 16 Luxor dryers.
Officials of Motan-Colortronic, based in Friedrichsdorf, Germany, said more than
60 miles of material feed lines have been installed throughout the system.
LEGO and Motan-Colortronic have worked together for the last decade. Schmidt led
the initial discussions for the latest Monterrey project in 2009.
Schmidt said Motan-Colortronic had already finished a complete central raw
material handling system for more than 150 injection presses at LEGO Monterrey
factory.
“Despite installation delays due to the swine flu in Mexico and volcanic
eruptions in Iceland, we were able to complete the project on time,” Schmidt
said in a news release.
But the new project is bigger and more complex, covering the major plant
expansion, he said.
Material handling equipment that is very flexible and trouble-free is critical
to LEGO plastics operations, according to Jes Bladt, the senior director and
production manager at LEGO in Mexico.
“We have to be able to totally rely on timely delivery of all bulk raw materials
to each one of the injection molding machines,” he said. “Here, straightforward
and fast material and color changes are essential. All of the gravimetric mixing
and dosing equipment is mounted on movable frames adjacent to the machines. This
enables the highest degree of flexibility.”
Following the color or material change, individual units are moved to a separate
area and cleaned, ready to be deployed again.
Each production line of about 25 injection presses are supplied with virgin and
regrind material through two side-channel blowers -- Velocis blowers from Elmo
Rietschle. Schmidt said they are quiet and maintenance free.
Plasticsnews.com
-end of report-
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