Smoljian is located in southern Bulgaria near the border with Greece. The closest airport is 100 kilometres away in the city of Plovdiv, the second largest city in the country. The city of Xanthi in Greece also has an airport just 90 kilometres away. These are just a few of the advantages of the Arexim Engineering Jsc. facilities. The plastics processor Arexim has its areas of operation in tool manufacture and product assembly. It handles its customers’ demands quickly and efficiently, from initial design to serial production. The company places high value on quality and competitive capability. To ensure the customer’s demands and needs are met, the company has invested in a modern centralised raw materials handling system – from motan-colortronic GmbH.

For over 20 years, Arexim has manufactured plastic components for the electro, automotive and home appliances industries. There are many well-known names among its customers such as Bosch, Kostal, Schneider Electric and Liebherr. For this type of customer, quality plays a significant role – and Arexim delivers.

“We only allow products that have been checked, inspected and manufactured in a sustainable manner to leave our manufacturing facilities,”…

…explains Krassimir Trifonov, CEO of Arexim Engineering Ltd. This can be seen by the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certifications. It’s no wonder that quality assurance, control, and monitoring procedures are integrated into every production step – from the purchase of raw materials to the logistics planning.

The family-run business has over 470 employees working in a 4000 m² production facility. In 2013, the company recorded a turnover of 17 million Euros. Some fifty highly qualified toolmakers are responsible for the production of precision injection moulding tools using the most modern CNC machines available. Thanks to this method of mould making, Arexim is able to respond to customer needs cost effectively and with great flexibility. Particularly the serial production of tools can be done quickly and cost effectively.

High quality parts are produced on 45 modern injection moulding machines ranging in size from 280 to 500 tonnes – even in small batch runs

3K multi-component moulding is also possible. Over 50 different types of materials are processed and Arexim uses over 500 tonnes of material per year. The great advantage of Arexim: the company provides everything from a single source – from design and manufacture of the mould to the finished component – and always with a focus on quality and customer service.

Over the past few years, Arexim has invested 3.5 million Euros in new injection moulding systems, robotics, belt conveyors, and other equipment. Not only have the number of injection moulding machines increased, but the amount of work and types of materials as well. As a result, Arexim needed to invest in its raw materials handling.

“As a custom injection moulder, we have to change tooling and materials on each of our machines several times a day. To ensure that we are able to manufacture high quality competitive products, we need to be able to do this efficiently and quickly, so we decided to invest in and automate our raw materials handling,” explains Kamen Dimitrov, CFO of Arexim Engineering Ltd. He adds, “the motan-colortronic centralised raw materials handling system meets and exceeds all of our demands and needs. We have reduced our total energy consumption and wastage by 10 percent.”

The system for all 45 injection moulding units was designed and implemented under the aegis of Detlev Schmidt, Sales Director of motan-colortronic gmbh, Germany. A total of four METROLINK automated coupling stations ensure that the units are fed with the correct material in a quick and accurate manner via individual material feedlines. Each feedline is cleaned prior to each material change, thereby eliminating any chance of cross contamination.

Rigid and wear-free pipe connections provide maximum reliability

This is essential because Arexim processes a large number of abrasive materials. Stainless steel pipework and glass bends were installed for this reason. The glass bends are PU coated and earthed which allows for optical monitoring of the conveying process and removes the threat of static build-up. The METRO material loaders convey quickly and cleanly ensuring the correct material is delivered to each processing machine. Production stops caused by injection moulding systems running empty or material being wasted have been eliminated. Quiet and low-maintenance blowers generate the necessary vacuum for conveying. A standby blower provides additional system security. The central filter removes fine dust from conveying air which is gathered in dust collection receptacles. These are cleaned through implosion.

A central, self-contained drying system ensures consistent and even drying of the raw material. The system is made up of two state-of-the-art LUXOR A dry air generators which produce 900 and 1200 m3/h of dry air along with twelve LUXORBIN A drying bins. “ETA plus® technology adjusts the air volume and drying temperature automatically depending on the material throughput; ATTN keeps the process air dew-point constant,” explains Detlev Schmidt. He continues, “the LUXORnet controls monitor and control the whole drying and conveying system and offer many benefits such as visualisation, documentation, and recipe management.”

The installation was carried out without having to stop production

Thanks to the modular design of the motan units and systems, they were easily integrated in to the existing system. “Our installers were supported by a well-trained team of Arexim employees. The installation went much quicker than expected,” noted Schmidt. Krassimir Trifonov added, “We have been working together for over 15 years – and once again motan-colortronic has proven that they are a reliable partner. Not only because of the technical reliability of their equipment and systems, but also because of their creativity in problem solving and quick response to our requests.”