History
Just click the year you would like to find out about for more information.
The years from 2010 to today
2018: Neat expansion
Expansion of the production of 2 fully electric machines in a separate area with increased cleanliness.
2016: Focused in the future
The injection moulding department is expanding its capacity with a new 1.000-ton injection moulding machine. Thus, the atka makes a further contribution to optimum productivity and improved energy efficiency.
Our sales team will be expanded to a Sales Manager.
The managing partner Hubert Simon leaves the family business. With him also his son, retires from the company.
The authorized signatory Frank and Jürgen Sieve to be appointed to the management board.
Together with the company's founder and managing director, Gregor Sieve, they will lead the operational business and the strategic orientation of the family business and continue to develop.
2015: Special cutting edge machines
A new development: SIGL capper AK400
Our AK400 capper can place snap caps for triangular fittings or key kegs and snap cappers for flat fittings on barrels with differing diameters.
» more information
2013: Constant growth
For the first time, we had more than 100 workers and we expanded production capacities by purchasing our 40th injection moulding machine making it necessary to expand production capacities. Beyond this, we completed the expansion and modernisation of our office and administration building.
Finally, we started up a Hurco processing centre for tool manufacturing with a traverse distance of 2.20 m x 1.70 m. .
The years from 2000 to 2010
2010: More than 500 different groups of articles
We now have more than 90 workers process 6,000 tons of raw materials every year on 39 injection moulding machines. That means that Atka Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH has more than 500 different groups of articles additionally earning turnover as a supplier for stall equipment, the brewery business and the electrical, automobile and toy industries.
We have our main sales market at home, although we also market products in other European countries and beyond. Innovation, research & development are the pivotal challenge for us in coming years to guarantee the same level of development along with organic and sustainable growth.
We also have to announce that Thomas Fuxen, one of managing partner, is leaving the company.
2009: Constructing another warehouse
We have been constantly including plastic articles into our range of products. In order to load and unload trucks faster and easier, we built another warehouse (3,300 m²) on our company grounds in 2009 while expanding our Außenlagerfläche by 2,000 m².
We issued full commercial authority to Frank Sieve, Jürgen Sieve and Jochen Simon along with our commercial manager Bernd Kuper to set us on track for a successful future as an owner-managed family company.
2008: Producing wood insulating construction elements
Since energy costs are continually skyrocketing, forward-looking planning and building residential property are becoming increasingly important. To keep pace with this development while making a contribution to corporate diversification, we have been working at our core business of plastic injection moulding since 2008including engineering and constructing high-insulation construction elements made of wood for walls, ceilings and roofs.
2003: Manufacturing products with a component weight of 6 kg
We have especially kept pace with booming demands by expanding into products for agricultural components by purchasing an injection moulding machine with a mould clamping force up to 1,000 to. This enables us to inject articles with a part weight of up to 6 kg.
2000: Constructing a new shop floor
We reached the limits of our electrical power and cooling capacity in our previous producing halls because of our unrelenting growth and the expansion of our production capacities.
This is the reason why we built a new shop floor measuring 3,500 m² on our grounds in accordance with the latest production engineering knowledge for manufacturing large-scale components. That means that we are now processing in excess of 2,500 tons of raw materials every year.
The years from 1990 to 1999
1999: Construction of our silo works
The construction of our silo works made a major contribution to streamlining our production process. It has a storage capacity of 400 cubic meters which enables us to automatically feed the raw materials to each of the injection machines as needed.
1997: New raw material and production warehouse
Since we are increasingly manufacturing large components with a greater range of products, there is a burgeoning demand for additional warehouse and production space, not to mention qualified workers. This is the reason why we are building a new raw material and finished goods warehouse on our company grounds in our 1997 extension measuring 1,800 m² that is completely greened; that puts the number of workers over 50.
1996: Manufacturing products with a component weight of 4 kg
Purchasing an injection moulding machine with a mould clamping force of as much as 650 to. will enable us to produce plastic articles with a part weight of as much as 4 kg in future.
1993: Production of transparent plastic
Acquiring a neighbouring piece of land was the starting shot for our new high-bay warehouse. We simultaneously eliminated the previous warehouse while creating space for expanding our production capacity.
A further addition to our wide range of products was when we rolled out non-destructible transparent plastic made of glass-clear polycarbonate to boost growth by innovation. These breakage-resistant and eco-friendly reusable cups are especially suited to use in situations such as athletic events or local city festivals where glass cannot be used or only to a certain extent because of the danger of breakage.
1992: Ernst Halbe left the company
One of our managing partners, Ernst Halbe, left the company.
1991: Developing and producing green roof pans
We created a new area of production when we launched the development and production of Top Green pans for roof greening, This was based on our capacity to produce articles with a greater part weight. It was also fuelled by increasing sensitivity for ecology and sustainability.
Using ground-breaking green roof systems on steep roofs up to a 45° angle of inclination improves heat protection and [drives down] pollution from dust and air pollutants.
1990: Manufacturing products with a component weight of 1.5 kg
When we purchased a 400 to. injection moulding machine, this enabled us for the first time to manufacture plastic products up to a parts weight of 1.5 kg. At the same time, it also initiated the production of gully-grating for pig and poultry breeding and triggered our development in the direction of becoming a component and system supplier for European stall facility constructors.
The years from 1981 to 1989
1988: Reconstructing the company building
Since the existing production capacities were no longer sufficient to serve the skyrocketing demand in the 80’s, we bought 1.2 hectares of land from Lohne in the west.
And we were able to officially open the reconstructed 2,500 m2 production und office buildings on 1 October 1988, exactly 7 years after the company was established. In the same year, we were able to stake out a new area of production by patenting the world’s first originality cap for sealing beer barrels.
Since then we have been producing automatic cap placing and shrinking machines needed for sealing in our own special machine construction department along with producing and marketing the caps.
1985: Our first CNC machine
From the beginning, we set great store by processing the tools needed for producing plastics parts. We manufactured our tools and moulds in our own mould making shop using state-of-the-art tool machines to guarantee the right quality.
This includes our first computerized numerical control (CNC) milling machine in Lohne, Germany. It enabled us to offer a higher level of precision and greater speed when producing tools than the mechanical machines that were mostly prevalent at that time.
1981: Atka was established
On 1 October 1981, Thomas Fuxen, Ernst Halbe, Gregor Sieve and Hubert Simon joined to form the Joint Venture for Technical Plastic Applications (abbreviated atka). This is when they established atka Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH in Lohne, Germany as managing partners.
Each of these shareholders had many years of experience in plastics processing in applications technology, engineering, tool construction, production and marketing, thus laying the foundation for our own development and production of high-quality plastics components.
We started off by manufacturing small series of sealing elements on four injection moulding machines in a rented production hall in Brägeler Straße and sold them to a steadily burgeoning number of customers.