What do holograms on banknotes, nicotine patches and sun protection for football stadiums in the USA have in common? They use foils that are vapor-coated with metals – preferably aluminum – in Baumgartenberg (Perg district).
With this technology, Hueck Folien achieves an export quota of 99 percent. In order to strengthen its technological lead in international competition, the company broke ground on Friday for a further expansion of production.
Hueck is investing 8.6 million euros in the construction of a high-vacuum vapor deposition system in which metals are vaporized in a controlled manner and applied to foils in extremely thin layers. Manfred Durstberger, Managing Director for Production and Technology, used an example to illustrate just how thin: “In the new system, we vaporize our foils to a constant thickness of two nanometers. That corresponds to 20 atomic layers of aluminum or one thousandth of the thickness of a human hair.” This happens at a speed of 17 meters/second with a roll width of two meters.
“Saving 85 percent of CO2 emissions”
In parallel with the innovation push, Hueck Folien is hoping that the new plant will enable energy savings of around 25 percent. The company already uses only recycled aluminum for metallization. “This means we save 85 percent of CO2 emissions in the vapor deposition processes,” says company boss Martin Bergsmann. To commission the new plant, the production area at the Baumgartenberg site will be expanded by 400 m². The construction of the hall and installation of the technology will take around a year.
