Large area for small series: Gerresheimer is expanding the capacity of its small series production in Wackersdorf. With the third expansion of the technical competence centre and small batch production at the site in the last five years, the company is taking the next strategic step into the future. The new "Small Batch Production Sampling Area" Wackersdorf covers 700 square metres. With this small batch production area, an area was created in which "pre-series parts", i.e. samples for running in systems, can be produced in series quality.
For this purpose, part of an existing high-bay warehouse was dissolved and the area was converted and equipped for the most modern production requirements. With this expansion, Gerresheimer underlines its far-reaching industrialisation competence for the production of containment solutions, drug delivery systems and medical products.
"We are thus responding to the change in the project landscape towards a much higher proportion of large industrialisation projects with many tools and large automatic machines," explains Holger Heining, Head of Small Batch Production Gerresheimer Regensburg, Wackersdorf. "Industrialisation projects require a large number of pre-series parts in documented series quality at a very early stage for their high-volume assembly systems. We now cover this with the new 'Small Batch Production Sampling Area'. With this new area, we can optimally support the increasing number of large industrialisation projects."
Unlike development projects, industrialisation projects for high-volume production require automated handling of moulds. This is reflected in the equipment of the new area. Currently, the equipment includes ten injection moulding machines with a clamping force of 175 to 420 tonnes.
Gerresheimer started small-batch production in the Upper Palatinate exactly ten years ago. In 2013, the first injection moulding machine and automation solutions for the site were installed in a small space in Wackersdorf. In 2015, the first storage areas were converted into cleanroom production areas for the injection moulding and assembly of plastic products. Three years later, in 2018, the company invested a double-digit million amount in a new building with class C and D clean rooms. At the same time, the small series competence was expanded to include glass.
In 2020 and 2021, a double-digit million sum has again been invested in the Wackersdorf site, with the focus on the plastics division. By expanding the production area to a total of 2,750 square metres, Gerresheimer has responded to the growing number of projects that require smaller quantities or for which a smaller number of products are needed in the course of development, approval and industrialisation even before large-scale production. In addition to office space, clean room areas of ISO classes 7 and 8 have been newly created. Currently, about 2,170 square metres of production space of clean room classes 7 and 8 as well as 220 square metres of clean room and 360 square metres of GMP class C and D clean room for pharmaceutical glass products are available in Wackersdorf.
