Packaging

“We Participate in the Trend towards Goods of Higher Quality”

Friday 06. June 2014 - Matthias Graf has been Managing Director of Kammann Maschinenbau GmbH in Bad Oeynhausen since 2005. Since KBA took over the company in mid-2013, it has been operating under the name of KBA-Kammann GmbH. The Westphalia-based company has developed and manufactured machines for the high-quality decoration of hollow containers made of glass, plastic and metal since 1955.

Mr. Graf, the origin of KBA-Kammann lies in the middle of the economic miracle. How did its founder, Werner Kammann, get the idea of printing on hollow containers in 1955?
Matthias Graf: A local company needed machines to print measuring scales on laboratory glassware. This is how it all began. Then the company grew rapidly, gained a foothold in the packaging sector and built machines for the decoration of shampoo, detergent, and, for instance, floor polish container packages. Consumption increased, the company grew and its operations became more international.
Since the take-over, the KBA brand is part of your name: KBA-Kammann. What do you expect for this new era of your company?
Graf: We feel very comfortable in this new environment. After 2005, we were controlled by two financial investors. Now, we have a strategic partner who is operating in the engineering sector and knows its imponderables. KBA has the strength to enter into new markets in addition to the restructuring of its key business. We profit from the global sales network and get access to large customers who previously hadn’t noticed us. KBA is a name that opens doors.
Where do you see potentials for your growth?
Graf: We were active in niche segments in different regions already before the take-over. Our markets are relatively isolated, and conversely do not offer a disproportionately good growth perspective. We rather see that in the connection with KBA. On the one hand, in regions where we were not yet represented as strongly as we are now or where there was not yet any demand for our machines – this also includes China…
…China?
Graf: Yes. There, automation in niche markets like the decoration of hollow parts has only just begun. In this respect, the sales and service organisation and the strong KBA brand create an incredible number of synergy effects for us. We as a medium-sized company would not be able to establish such structures.
And on the other hand?
Graf: We can now support big brands as far as the design and decoration processes of their products are concerned. As a small medium-sized company we did not have so much influence.
What is this exertion of influence like?
Graf: We can offer the total chain for first-class brand presence: From the sophisticated folding box from Radebeul to the metal-based package from Stuttgart and direct printing on hollow containers made of glass, plastic or metal.
Which development potential for printing on hollow containers is still untapped?
Graf: The ratios between adhesive and/or in-mould labels and direct printing are relatively stable. Consumption, however, is increasing due to the growth of the middle classes world-wide. We are moving above all towards the hygiene products, perfume, and cosmetics or, for instance, high-quality spirits sector. The requirements are high. Direct decoration is perceived by the customer as a sign of high quality, and it supports the image of the brand. We participate in the trend towards goods of higher quality and operate in markets which are relatively crisis-proof.
The “Print 2030” series of workshops organised by the Printing and Paper Technology Association of VDMA has identified product enhancement and individualisation through printing as a key trend…
Graf: …and we are in the middle of it. For some years now, we have not only been a supplier of screen printing machines but also a supplier of flexible transport systems which can be equipped for an extreme variety of decorating processes.
Would you explain that in more detail…?
Graf: The requirements change towards flexibility. Decorating processes which previously were not combined or at best carried out in parallel in single steps must now be integrated into just one single machine. Such inline processes are demanding. Screen printing, hot-foil stamping for the application of films and metal, pad printing or digital inkjet processes, UV curing for faster, energy saving drying – they all are areas which we are now pushing forward in parallel and which we combine and integrate in accordance with our customers’ wishes.
That sounds like high demands on modularity and, accordingly, a lot of work as regards interfaces.
Graf: Our machines are of modular design. Standardised “modules” can be combined individually. Three quarters of our customers are contract printers who don’t know which customer requirements they will be faced with during the life cycle of the machines when they buy them. They need flexible, universal machine concepts, and the latter require as a precondition that we properly solve compatibility issues in different analogous and digital processes in advance.
You mentioned that KBA-Kammann is more and more growing into a supplier of flexible transport systems. Is transport so complicated?
Graf: The transport and precise alignment of the article under the printing unit are a real challenge in our sector. It’s about sophisticated appeal. This requires high quality. The challenge is to apply our multi-colour decorations with tolerances of plus/minus one hundredth of a millimetre to articles made of glass or plastic, which in turn are made to one millimetre tolerances.
How can such a process be monitored and controlled?
Graf: Visual inspection is of key importance. As it is, the article remains in the tool during the total process. Therefore, it must be aligned exactly for every step of decoration. This can only be achieved with servo technology and camera systems which have completely replaced the mechanical registration tools. We offer more than half a dozen options for the detection of the article – and, of course, quality control is also based on image processing systems.
This means vast technical efforts. How big is your development department?
Graf: About one quarter of our permanent staff are employed in engineering and IT. We also buy image processing expertise. But we attach great importance to in-house competence. Our scope of in-house development – especially as regards software development – is unusual in our market. It is, however, of utmost importance to us; in this respect, we do not want to be subject to limits which arise in connection with outsourcing. Other core competences are the global sales network and assembly. We are no longer the traditional machinery manufacturer using milling devices and forming technology. For that, there are sufficient suppliers in our region as well as within the KBA family. We are focusing on our own development, control software, electronic and electric systems of the machines as well as our own assembly facilities including quality assurance.
As a result, KBA-Kammann has become a technological company…
Graf: That was necessary. We operate in niches. We build 40 to 50 machines per year into which more and more know-how is incorporated. They all have different configurations. Considering that low number, a high level of vertical integration is not profitable. We rather need to develop modules and as many uniform parts as possible that can be freely combined so that we need not start from scratch with every newly built machine. This is a strategy for the German machinery manufacturing industry. Our strength lies in customer-specific solutions. Sets of modules are the way to marketable prices and they simultaneously leave scope to satisfy the special requests of every individual customer and to solve his unique specific problems.
At a glance
Werner Kammann started in Bünde in Westphalia in 1955 with machines for printing on laboratory glassware. During the subsequent years, his factory gained a foothold in the packaging market: Screen printing machines for bottles and other hollow containers as well as label and printing on film/foils. Soon, the company manufactured turn-key packaging lines – including the production and decoration of plastic bottles as well as filling, sealing and packaging technology. In mid-2013, KBA took over this medium-sized company. At present, KBA-Kammann has approx. 200 staff, of which 170 are employed in Germany, and most recently reported annual sales of more than 30 million euros.