News and press releases

11/04/2007 Top customers at the new Tooling Academy CERATIZIT Austria provided jazz - and strategic insights

Jazz rhythms and numerous visitors from all over Europe - on March 16^th at the new Tooling Academy of the CERATIZIT group there was intense activity. The Business Unit end-users (cutting tools) took the official inauguration of the Tooling Academy in Reutte (Austria) as the occasion to invite top customers and the specialist press from the German speaking countries and the Netherlands to present them with the progress of the last four years.

The spacious Tooling Academy is integrated into the recently completed administration building of CERATIZIT Reutte where it is used as the new development and training centre of the CERATIZIT group.

Member of the Board Thierry Wolter explained: “We use the Tooling Academy in the classical way as a laboratory for our new developments. Furthermore we train our sales staff at the same machines that are applied by our customers. This guarantees practical competence. The third function of the Tooling Academy is its application as a research centre for our customers. When our customers are unable to deal with a specific material, here we can analyse it precisely, and then make a recommendation for the optimum tool. This is how we can solve problems for our customers.”

Evidently proud of the great popularity of his invitation, member of the Board Wolter thanked his numerous guests. “For the first time since the merger, CERATIZIT has exceeded the turnover of half a billion euros - and you are the main reason for this fact! Your faith in us has made it possible that CERATIZIT has become one of the most successful hard material suppliers in Europe"..“

Top customers confirm: the best tool comes from CERATIZIT

The top customers invited also had the opportunity to speak. Thomas Lochbihler from the machine manufacturer Deckel Maho in Pfronten (Germany) talked about the successful cooperation with CERATIZIT. Using the example of the production of aerospace components, his topic was the increase in productivity with CERATIZIT. When Deckel Maho Gildemeister developed a new high-performance spindle, the search for the best tool in the market began. Lochbihler: “In order to convince interested parties of the enormous performance capability of the machine concept, a tooling solution is necessary which allows maximum benefit from the available possibilities. Machine, spindle and tools have to be optimally adapted to each other as a system so that we can really bring the maximum PS-number on the road". 

CERATIZIT developed a solution for the machining of wing skins, the so called AirFoilCutter. According to the development engineers of Deckel Maho the cutting performance of the AirFoilCutter was 20% higher compared to the competitors’ best tool.

Naturally a comprehensive guided tour through the new Tooling Academy was part of the visitors’ programme, followed by a guided tour through the CERATIZIT Austria site. 

A special gimmick which was enthusiastically appreciated by the visitors: at the Tooling Academy all machines were in operation, machining parts for a desk set in aluminium and brass, a present which every visitor could take home to remember how practically oriented the Tooling Academy was.