On the occasion of the LWB-anniversary year 2022, the managing directors of the Steinl group of companies, Peter Steinl and Reinhard Danzer, looked back on 60 years of the company history concluded with a preview into the future.
Peter Steinl, the managing partner of the Steinl Group (right) and Reinhard Danzer, co-managing director of LWB-Steinl and STG-Stanztechnik
Editor: Mr. Steinl, the year 2022 was not only a K-year, but also a celebration year for your company, as it has existed for 60 years.
Peter Steinl: For me, representing the second owner generation, it is remarkable and fills me with pride beeing able to look back on 60 years of company history. Especially considering the circumstances and conditions when my father, Alfred Steinl, started out in 1962. It was in the blacksmiths shop of his father-in-law in a small village in the neighborhood. There he started manufacturing jigs and simple items for everyday use. Since his business start coincided with the German postwar economic miracle, many opportunities presented themselves at that time, which my father, as a trained toolmaker and mechanical engineer with great flexibility and the courage to tackle new things knew how to take advantage of. It is the self-image of our business development we continue to nurture ever since.
Editor: What would you see as the most important milestone for the company's development?
Peter Steinl: From today's perspective, my father's most important and sustainable decision was to go into the stamping production of endless profiled sealing support strips for the automotive industry in 1972. These support structures are fed into rubber profiles, which are applied as vehicle door seals. The background for stepping into that business was the realization that we should have a more or less continous production which would help us to compensate the cyclical, project driven mechanical engineering business. And as a trained stamping tool maker, the largely continuous sealing business seemed to him to be the right addition. This has developed into what is today our largest division, the STG Stanztechnik GmbH.
Editor: But parallel to the 60th anniversary, you informed about a second anniversary to be celebrated: 50 years of rubber machine construction.
Peter Steinl: Yes, indeed. From 1968 the company was already big enough to be accepted as a supplying partner by a number of well-established large companies. one of them were the Munich Metzeler-Gummiwerke, where he had worked parallel to his mechanical engineering studies as a tool designer and was therefore well known there. It all started with orders for the construction of plant components for tire building machines and so-called "batch-off plants" for the confection of calendered rubber compounds. After that, Alfred Steinl got orders to repair and improve rubber injection molding machines in their production department. There he attracted attention with his own ideas and improvements that increased their machine performance. Finally, from 1972, Metzeler-Gummiwerke commissioned us to build entire machines, which we were allowed to build according to our own designs and which proved successful. Therefore 1972 marks the beginning of our rubber machine construction.
Editor: And thanks to some trend-setting innovations by Alfred Steinl, LWB has risen among the market leaders in rubber injection molding technology.
Peter Steinl: Correct. It all started with the development of a special combination of piston injection unit and FIFO plasticizing unit, for which my father was awarded the patent in 1988. The advantage of his plastizising unit configuration was and is that the injection cylinder is completely emptied with each cycle, so that no residues of vulcanized material, which could lead to quality impairments in the finished part, are carried over into the next injection cycle. The patented unit with the type designation "E" was the basis for a number of other innovations, such as the EF or EFE units. In the case of the latter, the injection piston also serves as an adjustable channel throttle, through which the material temperature in the material flow coming from the plasticizing unit can be specifically increased through shearing heat, specifically by varying the channel diameter. This increases the mass temperature of the rubber compound just before injection, which can be used specifically to significantly shorten the heating resp. the curing time.
Editor: Where is the LWB injection molding machine construction today?
Peter Steinl: With around 350 machines per year, we are not leading in our market segment in terms of machines produced, but we are among the largest when it comes to machine size. Because the sizes of the LWB machines have grown steadily with the sizes of the rubber parts, for example for the production of pump stators with a length of over six meters and weighing over 100 kg or large rubber mats.
But our largest machine so far was not a rubber machine, but a press that went to an innovative sheet metal processor. It had 2.5 x 2.5 m platens and a clamping force of 19,000 kN (1,900 tons). With a height of 7.5 m, a width of 4 m and a total weight of 171 tons, it was quite a challenge for our staff.
In addition to mechanical engineering, I would consider the founding of our subsidiary "LWB-Automation" in 2015 to be an equally important step. That enabled to pick up the trend towards the automation of the moldings manipulation around the injection mold and in the postprocessing and to offer integrated solutions.
As our biggest plus in this context I would see the full modularity of our machine program. Whether it's a C-frame clamping unit with the closing movement from above or below, vertical presses with tie bars or clamping units in frame or plate construction, or horizontal tie-bar clamping units, there is hardly a customer request that would embarrass us.
Editor: LWB has remained a family business over the years. How was that possible?
Peter Steinl: This was possible because my father handed over tasks and responsibilities to other family members at an early stage and infected them with his enthusiasm. As early as 1992, after studying plastics technology, I was entrusted to over sales and project agendas and gradually took over the management first alongside my father and then completely. In addition, Rainer Schmidt, the husband of my sister, who unfortunately died far too young, works as an authorized officer in the company. In addition, in order to cope with the growth from LWB Steinl to the internationally positioned LWB Machinery Group of today, we have expanded our management team from our own staff. Reinhard Danzer, who had been with the company since 2007 and held various commercial positions, was included in the management board in 2018.
Editor: Mr. Steinl, you just denominated LWB as an international group of companies. How do you define that?
Peter Steinl: As mentioned before, already my father has recognized that "just standing on one foot" does not guarantee for long-term stability. Therefore we founded the stamping technology division already in 1972. It was the basis for the "STG-Carrier GmbH", founded in 1998. Their production plant is located next to our machine building department on the LWB company premises in Altdorf. It also acts as the headquarters for their current eight branches in Spain, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and the People's Republic of China.
Reinhard Danzer: At the same time, especially in the last 10 years, LWB has gradually grown into a group of seven companies divided into four divisions.
The stamping technology just mentioned is our largest division. In its specific market segment, automotive sealing technology, it also ranks among the top five worldwide.
This is followed by the mechanical engineering division for injection molding machines in Altdorf / Landshut. Also this division is internationally positioned. In 2014, for example, we founded a joint venture for the manufacture, sale and service of injection molding machines together with our French industry colleague “Rep international”. The company, named "United Rubber & Plastic Machinery (Langfang) Ltd.", or URP for short, is located near Beijing and manufactures machines specially designed for the Chinese market. At the moment, these are small and medium-sized machines that we equip according to Chinese standards and needs, while large machines are still supplied from Europe.In addition, we have a dense sales and service network in China.
Another group company is the Italian Prodicon Ind. Srl located in Milan, which we took over in 2016. There plants for the rubber compound confection are designed and built.
The youngest company in the mechanical engineering division is the LWB-Automation GmbH, founded in 2017 in Weinheim / Baden-Württemberg, which handles handling and automation projects with a focus on rubber parts.
The third division is the sealing and bonding technology with the Dreibond GmbH, which has been part of the LWB group since 2013. It develops adhesives and related application systems, primarily for automobile and aircraft manufacturers.
The fourth division is the production of bioplastic compounds with the company Biofibre GmbH in Altdorf and its subsidiary Naftex GmbH in Wiesmoor / Lower Saxony. In 2011, we started there developing and producing raw materials from renewable organic raw materials in combination with reinforcing materials made from natural fibers.
The last two divisions are also active in their most important customer markets through regional offices and agencies.
Editor: In order to conclude, let us take a look into the future. In your opinion, where is the journey going for LWB?
Reinhard Danzer: We intend to continue on the path we took about 10 years ago. Specifically, this means the further expansion of our group to include suitable companies. However, our focus remains on Germany and Europe, as the lesson from the current crises is, that world regions that have long been considered promising can turn into the opposite and cause downturns.
Peter Steinl: Regarding the technical offerings, we want to further expand our range of mechanical engineering for rubber and elastomer processors. Prioritising enhancement of control and process control technology, we will make rubber processing even easier. In addition, we are also expanding our portfolio in the field of plastics machines and will offer new vertical plastics processing machinery. Another focus will be deeper automation of the removal and insertion processes, with the goal to relieve the machine operators and offer solutions for the ubique noticable lack of production personnel. All in all, we see ourselves not just as a conventional machine supplier, but as a comprehensive partner for rubber and plastic processing projects.
Editor: Thank you for the interview and all the best for the future.
Peter Steinl: Finally, I would like to thank all customers and friends of LWB for the many years of cooperation. I would also like to add that, as a family business, we want to remain a reliable partner for all of our customers in the future, acting in the interests of both parties with a long-term perspective.
Reinhard Danzer: I fully join in with Mr Steinl.
Press Contact
Christina Lebeus – Marketing
E-Mail: christina.maniera@lwb.de.com
Author:
Reinhard Bauer – TECHNOKOMM
E-Mail: office@technokomm.at