Extrusion International 2-2026

33 Extrusion International 2/2026 multi-ducts must be robust and suitable for under- ground installation. Automation and digitalisation of production and material ow The heart of production consists of mono-extrusion lines with main, co- and colour extruders, which pro- duce microducts in a wide range of colours and diam- eters, as well as two extruder lines, which coat the cus- tomised pipe bundles. The automatic, central material supply and the fully automated warehouse for microduct spools make a sig- ni cant contribution to the high ef ciency and output of the entire plant. Material conveyance is an integral part of egeplast's production concept, but was devel- oped and implemented as a stand-alone partial solu- tion by the motan Group and integrated into the overall production process. According to egeplast managers, the completely redesigned new production facility has succeeded in taking digitalisation and automation to a whole new level, thereby effectively counteracting the shortage of skilled workers in the border region between North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. At the same time, it ensures that quality requirements are reliably met and that the very high variety of variants is mastered. This also applies in particular to the issue of material supply. ‘Like other companies, we had the problem that when long-standing and experienced employees left, we were unable to nd and train suf cient young talent quickly enough,’ explains Managing Director Torsten Ratzmann. ‘There were increasing dif culties in staff - ing continuous operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week with quali ed employees.’ This raised the key question: how can the right mate- rial be transported safely and reliably from the silo to the machine? This automatically led to considerations such as ‘automatic coupling of supply lines instead of manual coupling.’ And, of course, the completely new material supply system offers many opportunities for reducing energy consumption and increasing material quality. It also opens up opportunities to relieve valu- able employees of routine tasks and deploy them at the really critical points. ‘Based on more than a year of operating experience with the new production sys- tem, I can already say,’ says project manager Matth- ias Feldmann, "that we have roughly doubled output despite reducing the number of mono-extrusion lines and with considerably fewer staff. Now we can deploy our employees in an optimised manner," he empha- sises. Another line was added in October 2025. And there is further potential for expansion, both in terms of extruders and in the materials logistics developed and implemented by motan. egeplast has been using the Balance Score Card management tool for years. With the newly structured production, a signi cantly more transparent repre - Two fully automatic Metrolink coupling stations draw material from 24 silos and distribute it to the extruders via almost 2,000 metres of piping (Source: motan) Fully automatic Metrolink coupling station (Source: motan)