Finishing & Screen Printing

“The graphics industry remains a key pillar for us”

Tuesday 17. February 2015 - With 4500 staff worldwide, LEONHARD KURZ Stiftung & CO. KG is the world market leader of hot stamping technology. Starting with the decorative processing of gold leaf, the Fuerth-based family enterprise has grown over four generations and become a global player offering decorative and functional foils including the associated processing machines that are in demand in many industrial sectors. In a conversation, Walter Kurz, who manages the company together with his brother Peter, explains the development and the plans of the company.

Mr. Kurz, can you introduce your company in just a few words?
Walter Kurz: My great grandfather started in 1899 with the production and processing of leaf gold for the decorative enhancement of books, pencils or hats. For easier handling, he began to apply the sensitive leaf gold to paper substrates coated with beeswax and egg white and to use hot stamping dies. He industrialised the process. In 1931, my grandfather, Konrad Kurz, went one step further: Asked by regional mirror manufacturers, he explored sputtering and vapour plating in a vacuum, which resulted in the option to apply also real gold in the vapour plating process. After the war, real gold was substituted by aluminium vapour plating with subsequent coating. This reduced the cost, so that greeting cards, packaging materials and labels could be enhanced as well.
The industrialised process opened new markets…
Kurz: … At the end of the 60s, decoration by hot foil stamping on plastic material was added. Wood decors on TV sets, metal stripes on radios, first applications in the automotive industry. In the 70s, the plastics industry gained the upper hand over the graphics industry for us. Another market came into being in the security field: Magnetized hot stamping foils for savings bank books and signature foils for credit cards. Soon, visually discernible hot stamping foils for passports, visa and banknotes came into use. Since the 1960s, my father was keen to strengthen our internationalization. Since 1971, we have had sales offices in Japan and Australia as well as a production site in the USA. Now, we also have facilities in Malaysia and China.
The markets and the demands of the customers are changing. How do you tackle this?
Kurz: We continuously improve our technologies. We have supplemented our hot foil stamping processes with cold foil transfer. There, UV curing adhesives are used for offset printing. At present, we also press ahead with digital printing for the application of metallic effects. We transfer foils onto glass and plastic containers, and we process functional foils for touch panels and sensors. Now, the fifth generation of our family is keen to join the management – so we have good reasons to look for and into future technologies.
Do you combine the development of foils, machines and tools?
Kurz: We build application machines for our customers and in addition machines to produce our own foil. This began in the 1950s already with the vapour plating cabinets. Now, we build big gravure printing machines and buy machines from other manufacturers only occasionally. We also develop and produce coatings. Kurz is known as one of the biggest manufacturers producing coatings for their own need in the South of Germany.
What is the reason for this extraordinarily large number of production levels?
Kurz: Our know-how focuses on the handling of extremely thin layers in the (µm) range. The thickness of our films is mostly between 6 and 40 µm. In some cases, we also process layers in the sub-µm range. We develop the coatings, foils, production and application machines on our own in order to be able to shape and optimise the processes. This also protects us against the growing global competition. In China alone, there are 200 manufacturers in our segment, and we are among the top 5 there.
Which portion of sales is achieved with machinery manufacturing?
Kurz: Between one tenth and one fifth, but its importance is bigger. The reason is that many customers want solutions from one source. They do not buy machine after machine, but they consistently rely on our foils and retrofit with our machines as necessity arises.
The digitalization accelerates the competition of the different processes – lasers are gaining ground in your key markets as well.
Kurz: In some cases, we too use them for printing on our foils. Especially product marking and the application of security features against product piracy show a most dynamic development. Favourable processes push into the market. We are working on solutions using holograms on packages and apps that make communication between the end customers and the manufacturers easier; for this reason, we have taken over the software company Adorsys. We must continue to progress in order to hold our ground.
The whole printing and paper technology manufacturing industry is faced with this challenge. How do you see the future of this industry?
Kurz: For a company that used to think in analogue worlds it’s not easy to accumulate digital know-how. Individualization, software and digitalization are the crucial catchwords – the graphics industry is changing radically.
What are the effects on Kurz?
Kurz: Our three major columns with comparable sales portions are the graphics industry, plastics decoration in the electronics, medical technology or the automobile sectors as well as the security of banknotes and credit cards, including counterfeit-proof concert tickets. The graphics industry is and will continue to be our backbone. We are lucky that we are active in fields like packaging, labels and security foils that are not as much affected as the printing technology itself. However, we are on guard. Global success cannot be taken for granted considering the speed at which the markets are changing.
Kurz is often active at interfaces between the digital and the analogue world. How does that change your company?
Kurz: The customer relations from inventory management to the closer exchange of parameters and the harmonization of interfaces are changing. We pay close attention to the new process world. With our subsidiary PolyIC, we develop foils and coatings for touch screens and sensor. For that, we partly need to make major modifications in our processes. However, we have already received first orders from mobile manufacturers in the Pacific region and already manufacture touch sensors in the field of white goods. These are encouraging signals after twelve long years of investments. We still see many applications above all in the touch segment. We are in the process of shaping the digital change with new products and technologies.
What can the printing and paper technology industry learn from your example?
Kurz: When I look at the “Print2030 Workshops” that took place under the roof of the VDMA, I think that the industry is steering the right course. Because the companies are actively looking for ways to stand their ground in the digitalized world. There are downsizing processes going on now, but those who make proper preparations will find other chances of growth.