Peripheral machinery specialist Motan (Isny / Germany; www.motan.com) has said the extensive orders it has so far received from Danish toy manufacturer Lego (Billund; www.lego.com) for its plant in Mexico (see also Plasteurope.com of 08.03.2012) constitute the “largest single order in the history of injection moulding ancillaries”. The altogether 1000th “Gravicolor” dosing and mixing system was handed over to Lego owner Kirk Kristiansen during the official inauguration of the Monterrey plant in September 2011.

As part of a large initial order, which was completed by the end of April 2011, Motan colotronic (Friedrichsdorf / Germany) provided the Mexican site with its fully automated and centrally monitored raw materials handling system, including 24 silos with a total of 1,320 m³ of storage space, as well as the material feeding zones for the site’s 700 injection moulding machines with clamping forces ranging from 400-1,500 kN. As part of another follow-up order, Motan will now supply another 100 Gravicolor systems to Lego in Monterrey in spring this year.

Commenting on the delivery, Motan CEO Ulrich Eberhardt said, “This unique project was a challenge for us, as – there is no doubt – 50 large containers are not sent to Mexico every day.” In response to the question why Lego assigned an order of such a huge volume to one single producer, group senior director Henrik Priess Sorensen pointed to the two companies’ long-standing cooperation, while also highlighting Motan’s technology, full automation, energy efficiency as well as operational and industrial safety within the production process.

Motan operates several production sites across Germany, India and China. The group’s more than 450 employees last generated sales of EUR 100m.