An Introduction to Vacuum Specialist Schmalz

19.06.2010

Over the past 100 years, Glatten-based J. Schmalz GmbH has developed from a successful razor blade manufacturer to one of the leading suppliers of vacuum technology. Today, the innovative organization offers around 15,000 different products.

Using Schmalz products, workpieces can be handled quickly, easily and carefully while ensuring process-reliability and high precision.The workpieces are held using vacuum technology. A vacuum is produced when the pressure inside a closed space is lower than the ambient pressure.

Schmalz products are used in a wide variety of production processes – for example on robot arms in the production of car bodies, in CNC machining centers, as clamping solutions for furniture pieces or for the manual lifting of sheet metal by an operator. Schmalz customers can either choose from our diverse line of components or they can benefit from a complete solution that is custom-tailored to their needs.

Innovation in vacuum technology

Servicing application areas in diverse industries requires extensive expertise and a high degree of flexibility – one of the strengths of the Schmalz company. Each product solution is custom-designed for the customer's specific application. Schmalz is willing to take on any challenge: whether this involves the handling of sensitive microchips or steel sheet weighing several tons, whether it means order picking in industrial freezers at -28 °C or hot forming 600 °C steel sheets. Sample applications for Schmalz products can be found in this document. When it comes to product development, the company relies on cutting-edge technology. This past year, Schmalz developed the world's first vacuum generator with integrated IO-Link technology. With this intelligent vacuum generator, the customer profits from high system availability, which is extremely important in today's production economy.

On target for future markets

Schmalz solutions can be found in nearly all branches of industry. During the economically turbulent year of 2009, Schmalz placed additional focus on growth industries such as wind power, solar, logistics and the packaging industry. The company concentrated on product development in these areas. Schmalz was able to quickly develop efficient solutions for branch-specific applications. This includes innovative solutions for the vacuum handling of highly sensitive workpieces such as solar cells and extremely large workpieces such as rotor blades for wind power systems. In order to showcase its progressive solutions, Schmalz attended the leading trade fairs in these industries, including the PVSEC solar trade fair in Valencia, the Motek automation technology trade fair in Stuttgart and the Fachpack packaging trade fair in Nuremberg. Schmalz attends around 40 trade fairs each year.

At home around the world

In addition to its business in Germany, the company's growing export activities play an important role for Schmalz. As early as the mid eighties, Dr. Kurt Schmalz began making contacts abroad. The search for new partners and sales agencies soon met with success in countries such as France, Sweden and Australia. In order to pursue its own export strategies and better serve its customers, the company opened its own branch offices abroad. The first was opened in neighboring Switzerland in 1998. Today, Schmalz has branch offices in 16 countries around the world and sales partners in over 40 states. Exports account for around 50% of the company's turnover.

It is a challenge to keep all of the international branch offices on track for success from our headquarters in the Black Forest while allowing them enough freedom locally. Only by developing clear, international marketing strategies and implementing these ideas locally can the company strengthen and secure its competitive edge. In addition to the main production facility in Glatten, Schmalz runs a manufacturing facility in India and assembly operations in China and the USA. The managing directors of the foreign branch offices meet twice a year in Glatten to discuss strategies, share experiences and familiarize themselves with new products.

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Questions regarding public relations:
J. Schmalz GmbH Marketing Communications Aacher Str. 29 D-72293 Glatten	Tel.: +49 (0)7443 2403-533 Fax: +49 (0)7443 2403-9533 presse@schmalz.de

Further information:

© Schmalz 2012