This year, May 27 marks the 65th company anniversary of ILLIG, the Heilbronn-based mechanical engineering company. Founded in 1946 by Adolf Illig as a mechanical repair shop in his native city of Heilbronn/Germany, the enterprise has evolved into a renowned global leader in high-performance machinery and tooling for thermoforming plastics, as well and in diverse solutions for the packaging industry. With more than 20,000 machines shipped out worldwide to processors molding sophisticated high-precision thermoplastic articles for virtually all branches of industry and consumer needs, the ILLIG brand enjoys high market acceptance. Managed by Wolfgang Illig and Karl Schäuble – the founder's son and son-in-law, respectively – since the 1980s, the pacesetting thermoforming specialist has remained a family-owned business to this day, with third generation family members now active in its operations. Of the company's global workforce of 750, the Heilbronn site employs 700 people, including 100 in research and development alone. ILLIG's worldwide network comprises wholly-owned branches in France, Great Britain and the U.S., own service bases in the Far East, Japan and Latin America, as well as commercial agencies in over 80 countries.
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From garage workshop to global market leader
It was in 1946 that Adolf Illig started out repairing defective equipment and machinery of all descriptions in a workshop in his parents' garage. His main customers in those early days were Heilbronn companies whose operations had been ravaged by the Second World War As early as in 1948, Adolf Illig launched his first own product, a pillar drilling machine. The shift to plastics processing, a technology still in its infancy at the time, came when a customer requested a solution for molding plastic film and sheet stock. Thus, in 1956, ten years after having set up his repair shop, Adolf Illig built the first UA 100 vacuum forming machine, thereby laying the foundation for ILLIG's lasting success as a thermoforming specialist. Not long afterwards, in 1960, the R 650 was launched as the world's first roll-fed automatic vacuum forming machine; it was designed to mold lids from pre-printed stock. The first high-speed pressure former combining thermoforming and punching functions followed only 3 years later. It marked the birth of the successful RDM series, the present-generation models of which continue to set the standard in cost-efficient high-volume manufacturing, specifically of cups in any shape and size. In the late 1970s the machine range was expanded by adding the first packaging line to integrate thermoforming of basic packaging containers with the subsequent steps of filling (predominantly with pasty foodstuffs) and, ultimately, sealing them to obtain a finished retail product.
Until today, ILLIG has kept on redefining the limits of feasibility in thermoforming. One case in point are the company's third-generation thermoformers, combining greatly enhanced productivity due to the high repeatability of all settings with superior molding quality and improved energy efficiency. A particularly important innovation driver has always been the packaging sector. Its influence is reflected in more recent developments such as the first molding and punching machines capable of thermoforming articles with distinct contour undercuts, as well as in the integration of IML decoration technology.
Today, ILLIG offers a comprehensive range of proven equipment based on modular design and covering virtually any thermoforming application. With the expertise accumulated in our 65 years of corporate history, we remain committed, now and in the future, to the further development and improvement of this versatile technology, Karl Schäuble summarizes his optimistic view of the future.
| Wolfgang Konrad Head of Corporate Communications and PR Tel.: +49 (0) 71 31 / 5 05– 2 36 Fax: - 12 36 |
