Arburg: Senior Partner Eugen Hehl joins the Plastics Hall of Fame

  • NPE 2015: Eugen Hehl is inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame
  • Award: Arburg senior Partner's lifetime achievements honoured
  • Pioneering achievements: Allrounder and Freeformer provide evidence of Arburg's innovative strength

Lossburg. On the eve of the NPE trade fair in Orlando, USA, Eugen Hehl has been inducted into the “Plastics Hall of Fame” for his lifetime achievements. At the gala evening on 22 March 2015, the award was accepted on behalf of Eugen Hehl by Helmut Heinson, Managing Director Sales at Arburg. Together with his brother Karl Hehl, who passed away in 2010, the now 86-year-old Senior Partner made the family-run company, presently managed by the third generation, into a global leader in the manufacture of injection moulding machines.

“I feel deeply honoured to be included in the 'Plastics Hall of Fame' and I thank you with all my heart," said Eugen Hehl in his greetings from afar. As he was unable to travel to Florida in person, he prepared a video message, which was played back live as part of the evening's celebrations. The senior Partner at Arburg explained that his recipe for success was hard work, a high level of commitment, technical sophistication mixed with clever, sometimes astonishingly simple solutions and always a willingness to listen to what his customers wanted. "With the invention of the Allrounder and of the Freeformer, we have made technological history – a history that we would like to build upon significantly in the future.”

Pioneering achievements

In his laudatory speech, Jay L. Gardiner, president of the Plastics Academy, reflected on the milestones in ARBURG's success story in plastic processing. This began in 1956 with the serial production of injection moulding machines with just ten employees. Key milestones were reached e.g. in 1961 with the invention of the Allrounder principle and in 1975 with the first machine worldwide to be equipped with a micro processor controller.Eugen Hehl promoted the sale of this innovative machine technology and the internationalisation of the family-run company, which is today represented with fully-owned subsidiaries at 32 locations in 24 countries and employs some 2,400 staff worldwide. Arburg made pioneering application technology achievements, e.g. in multi-component injection moulding, powder injection moulding and in the processing of liquid silicone. In 2013, the Freeformer for industrial additive manufacturing celebrated its world première – a further example of the innovative strength of the family-run company and the forward-thinking of its Partners.

Plastics Hall of Fame

The Plastics Hall of Fame, which is located at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, USA, has been honouring persons who have made significant contributions to the development and growth of the plastics industry since 1972. This award is bestowed every three years during a gala event at the NPE trade fair.

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Arburg senior partner Eugen Hehl expressed his thanks in a video message for his induction into the "Plastics Hall of Fame". Arburg Managing Director for Sales, Helmut Heinson (centre) accepted the award on his behalf, which was presented by Jay Gardiner (right), president of the Plastics Academy, and his deputy Vince Witherup.

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Photo:John Cox/ARBURG

About Arburg

German machine manufacturer Arburg is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of injection moulding machines with clamping forces between 125 and 5,000 kN. This is complemented by robotic systems, customer- and sector-specific turnkey solutions and further peripherals. An innovative additive manufacturing system was added to the plastic processing range in 2013.

The company places the topic of production efficiency at the centre of all its activities, taking into account the entire value-added chain. The objective is to enable the Arburg customers to manufacture their plastic products, whether one-off parts or high-volume production, in optimal quality and at minimum unit costs – e.g. for the automotive and packaging industries, communication and entertainment electronics, medical technology, or the white goods sector.

An international sales and service network guarantees first-class, local customer support. Arburg is represented by its own organisations at 32 locations in 24 countries and by trading partners in more than 50 countries. The machines are produced exclusively at the parent factory in Lossburg, Germany. From a total of around 2,400 employees, around 2,000 work in Germany. About 400 further employees work in Arburg’s organisations around the world. In 2012, Arburg became one of the first companies to gain triple certification: to ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001 (Environment) and ISO 50001 (Energy).

Further information about Arburg can be found at