75 years of materials handling

On the 30th August 1947 Heizmotoren GmbH, later to be renamed motan gmbh is founded in Überlingen on the Lake of Constance, South Germany. Manufacturing for the company is located in Isny in the Allgäu.

Ralf Schneider buys the company. With a clearly defined corporate vision and a flair for identifying new markets he lays a solid foundation for the future success of motan.

The company relocates its headquarters including Research & Development and Sales from Überlingen to Isny in the Allgäu, South Germany.

Having identified potential for growth within the plastics industry, motan begins to manufacture ancillary equipment for this market under license. These products are then developed further under motan’s own direction.

The MD driers are the first key products to be developed for drying technology at motan.

Walter Kramer, a successful engineer and entrepreneur, joins the motan group as managing director. He expands materials handling for the plastics processing industry into motan's core business and thus presented the motan group for the first time at the K trade fair.

The UNICOLOR dosing & mixing unit for powders, pellets and liquid additives is patented. The UNICOLOR is unique in the industry and some units are still in operation today.

The first fully centralized PLC controlled system for drying, conveying, dosing & mixing, is installed.

To take advantage of the world‘s growing plastics markets and to better meet the needs of the customer, motan establishes subsidiary companies in France (1984), Great Britain (1986) and the USA (1987).

motan develops innovative system solutions for the demanding requirements of Optical Disc as well as PET preform production.

motan‘s unique ATN automatic throughput monitoring system is patented. Material throughput is constantly monitored and the required temperature varied as necessary to ensure the correct drying temperature.

As the motan organisation grows internationally, motan holding gmbh is established at Konstanz to provide the structure for efficiently managed growth towards leadership in the global market.

Service to the Far East market is established on a sound footing for growth, with the opening of a regional center in Singapore and the appointments of licensees in India and Japan.

The ETA-process® heat recovery system is patented, responding to the demand for increasingly energy-efficient operations in industry.

The organisation continues to grow with further sales and service companies opened in Italy (1999) as well as Beijing (1999) and Shanghai (2002) in China.

After 25 years of service Walter Kramer retires from the company. Ulrich Eberhardt becomes Group Managing Director.

CONTROLnet, a new control platform is introduced. Now all motan controls can communicate with each other via Ethernet. The modular design of the system allows for simple expansion of an installation.

Sandra Füllsack, the daughter of Ralf Schneider joins as Group Managing Director and together with Ulrich Eberhardt is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Group.

With the acquisition of the colortronic group motan enters the plastics compounding industry. Now motan has expertise that covers the complete process chain for raw materials handling within the plastics industry.

All new products are now developed under the motan brand and are distributed through the motan-colortronic regional centers. The first product of this new generation, combining the best of both technologies is the MINICOLOR screw & disc dosing unit.

Thanks to the rapidly growing economy in South-East Asia, the motan group is taking advantage of the opportunity to be closer to our customers in Thailand. motan Thailand Co., Ltd. is being established from the previous Singaporean branch in Thailand.

Market launch of the new range of material loaders for granules: METRO G. New features and new technology for the standard units as a modular building block system combines the best of colortronic and motan and provides individual solutions.

Latin America is experiencing huge growth in the plastics processing industry. Brazil is the main driving force behind this growth and the largest market. Here we look after our customers with the help of our strong sales and service team of the newly founded motan-colortronic do brasil.

What happens when the tried-and-tested, reliable mechanics of our colortronic Colorblend are combined with modern motan controls? A new dosing and mixing unit is created: the MINIBLEND V. Its excellent recipe accuracy and unique dosing stability truly makes it shine.

For the first time in the company’s history, motan holding gmbh is awarding the motan innovation award “mia” during the K’show 2016! This biannual prize is awarded to the best ideas and innovations for material handling in plastics manufacturing and processing

Renovation and expansion of the Tech Centre in Friedrichsdorf. Now even more customer specific and project relevant process applications can be professionally tested and realised.

Market launch of the successful LUXOR EM A and LUXOR E A dryer series. The mobile dry air driers offer smart drying in the smallest space, which is otherwise only possible with large drying systems: drying safely and efficiently - optionally with dewpoint-controlled regeneration or ETA plus® energy saving technology.

motan-colortronic Plastics Machinery Co., Ltd., the Chinese subsidiary of the motan group, moves into a more modern and larger company building in Taicang province Jiangsu, China. The new company headquarters will assume the function of a sales and production center for all of South-East Asia. The delivery to customers in China and Asia was thus further optimized and delivery times noticeably shortened.

With the introduction of LEAN production at the Isny production site, the motan group is starting a new decade with many structural changes.

SPECTROPLUS - - a dosing system for all extrusion and compounding tasks, regardless whether granules, regrind, powder or liquid are used. The system unit can be easily adapted to a variety of dosing modules and requirements.

motan is marking its 75th anniversary with a new look and redesigned website. The motan and swift product brands are getting a makeover and will be marketed under the motan group umbrella brand. The rebranding and redesign strike a balance between the traditional and modern elements that are equally valued by motan.