H. Müller Fabrique de Moules SA of Conthey, Switzerland, the premier supplier of moulds and robotics for IML applications is preparing to ship their 500th IML Robotic System to a customer in Germany. Müller has been manufacturing IML Robotic Systems since 1993. This 500th system marks a milestone in the IML industry. Taras Konowal, Managing Partner of FAME Technology Solutions in St. Charles, Illinois, and exclusive Muller agent for North America states, “No other IML automation supplier anywhere in the world has produced close to this many IML systems”.

The IML market in North America continues to grow significantly every year, but it is not as well developed compared to the European market where 90% of all rigid containers are already manufactured with the IML process. However, the market in North America continues to expand with major brand owners switching to IML containers. The major attraction for them is to take advantage of the superior graphics and marketing advantages that only IML can produce.

Müller has built a reputation for moulds and automation systems that simply run for decades. The first Müller IML systems installed in the US over 10 years ago have been producing baby wipe containers ever since and without fail. According to Udo Grober, CEO of Müller, “We continue to work on new developments in flexibility, label handling and labelling difficult geometries. After building 500 systems we have worked with many challenging applications but always delivered a reliable product to our customer base and on time.”

The growth in the North American market will yield many new opportunities for companies to make use of Müller’s vast knowledge and expertise in IML applications.