Schunk Sintermetalltechnik recently celebrated the dedication of a new production hall at the Thale location in Saxony-Anhalt. The company invested over 5.5m to considerably expand its productive capacity to meet the growth it has been experiencing in order volume. Guests at the party included the Minister for Economic Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt Hartmut Möllring, state parliament member Ulrich Thomas, Thale's mayor Thomas Balcerowski and many more.
"This expansion is good news for the region," said Möllring. "Schunk is already one of the largest employers in Thale. The company's latest investment is creating jobs, increasing productivity and enabling the utilization of growth potential. Our state profits from this as well."
"This is a very important investment for us," said a visibly pleased Ralf Stein, Managing Director of Sintermetalltechnik in Thale. "The new 4,500 square-meter production hall enables us not only expand our production capacity, but also to supply our customers even faster and with more consistent quality." The new hall now houses the mechanical processing, thermal post-processing and packaging/shipping departments. "Housing all of these departments under a single roof has enabled us to further improve our material flow," said Stein in summing up the advantages. Stein followed up by saying that this would enable Schunk Sintermetalltechnik to meet the exceptionally high quality standards of its most important target industry, the automotive industry.
The expansion of capacity and installation of new systems at Sintermetalltechnik in Thale was accompanied by an increase in the number of employees. "Thanks to this investment and our growth in turnover, we created 58 new jobs," said Managing Director Stein. With about 400 employees at present, Schunk Sintermetalltechnik is already one of the largest employers in Thale and one of the largest 100 companies in Saxony-Anhalt.
A time-honored, yet state-of-the-art process
Schunk Sintermetalltechnik, which is part of the Schunk Group, specializes in the production of sintered and powder metallurgical injection-molded components. In these processes, metal powder is mixed with a binding or lubricating agent and shaped under pressure. This enables the production of components with maximum precision and quality in very large quantities. Customers in the automotive and aviation industries use Schunk Sintermetalltechnik products in applications such as turbochargers, timing belt and chain wheels, camshaft adjusters and oil pumps.