Consolidation and specialization are also bywords in the European plastics engineering sector: Barmag AG (PO Box 110240, D-42862 Remscheid) will be concentrating solely on spinning and textile machinery. Its division of large extrusion systems, including cast film lines, has been sold to Brückner Maschinenbau GmbH (PO Box 1161, D-83309 Siegsdorf) effective 30 December 1997. Barmag will retain its monofilament extrusion division. According to a press release, Barmag will fill all of its current orders, with Brückner taking over all new business and supplying existing projects with replacement parts.

According to company sources, Brückner is the world's leading manufacturer of machinery and systems used to produce biaxial stretch film. Company management has informed Plasteurope.com that it has used extruders made by all leading manufacturers, including Barmag, for its own factories in recent years. The acquisition of Barmag's plastics division will supplement its own operations in the areas of cast film lines, smelt filtration, and film extrusion, improving its extrusion technology for film production taking advantage of Brückner's overall experience. Brückner's 400 employees achieved DEM 350m in turnover in 1996.

At the beginning of this year, Barmag signed a cooperation agreement consolidating its blow film extrusion operations with those of Reifenhäuser GmbH & Co (PO Box 1664, D-54849 Troisdorf).

READER SERVICE: Barmag brochures: Extruders and Extrusion Systems (English): PIE-No. 41336 – Cast film and thermoforming lines (German): PIE-No. 40338 – Cascade Extruders for PET and PP (German): PIE-No. 40339 – FFT Coex cast film (German): PIE-No. 40597 – Brückner Maschinenbau: Company profile brochure (English, 85 pages): PIE-No. 41450.