To keep up with demands placed on injection moulding technology and manufacturing, Austria’s Engel (Schwertberg; www.engelglobal.com) has launched “Engel plus”, an enhanced services offering. The plastics processing machinery producer says the restructuring of its service products and services was necessary to remain competitive and optimise the customer experience.

“Total cost of ownership is becoming increasingly important to our customers,” explained Wolfgang Degwerth, head of the company’s customer service division. He said the new initiative includes a range of global on-site support with spare part logistics, remote services and a 24/7 hotline as well as maintenance and repair contracts at fixed prices for retrofitting options. “Engel plus” also bundles optimisation tools, application engineering consultancy and training packages to help its customer base ensure asset health and to keep machinery on pace with other developments in the industry.

Degwerth notes that retrofitting has become a hot topic as companies face mounting pressure to be efficient in terms of cost and energy use. He added that older injection moulding machinery and control unit generations can benefit from the company’s new services approach especially in energy efficiency, shot weight constancy and maintenance overhead minimisation.

Engel has roughly 500 staff deployed to customer service and training at its global plants and subsidiaries in 85 countries.