TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG

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TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG

Johann-Maus-Strasse 2
Ditzingen, 71254
Germany
Telephone: (49 7156) 303 0
Fax: (49 7156) 303 309
Web site: http://www.trumpf.com

Private Company
Incorporated: 1937 as TRUMPF & Co., vormals Julius Geiger GmbH
Employees: 6,488
Sales: EUR 1.6 billion ($2 billion) (2006 est.)
NAIC: 333512 Machine Tool (Metal Cutting Types) Manufacturing; 333513 Machine Tool (Metal Forming Types) Manufacturing; 333514 Special Die and Tool, Die Set, Jig, and Fixture Manufacturing; 333518 Other Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing; 333992 Welding and Soldering Equipment Manufacturing; 335312 Motor and Generator Manufacturing; 339111 Laboratory Apparatus and Furniture Manufacturing

TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG is the holding company of the world market leader in laser systems for industrial applications and machine tools for sheet metal processing. TRUMPF’s machine tool division offers machine tools and automated systems for punching, forming, and bending, as well as power tools for cutting and joining sheet metal for commercial use in a broad range of industries. TRUMPF manufactures carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers, laser systems for cutting, welding, marking, and surface processing. Huettinger, the company’s electronics division, makes radio-frequency and medium-frequency generators for inductive heating of a wide variety of materials, for surface coating by means of plasma technology, for example, in coating flat screen monitors, and for CO2 laser excitation. The company’s medical systems division provides operating room equipment such as operating tables and surgical lights, intensive care units, and ceiling-mounted logistics systems for medical equipment. Headquartered in Ditzingen near Stuttgart in Germany, TRUMPF has production subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Poland, Switzerland, Mexico, the United States, China, and Taiwan. The company is privately owned by the family of longtime CEO Bertold Leibinger.

FROM SUPPLIER TO MANUFACTURER

TRUMPF’s name goes back to tradesman Christian Trumpf who, with two business partners, acquired Julius Geiger GmbH, a small specialized manufacturer of flexible shafts based in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1923. Made from thick steel wire, the shafts were mainly used in equipment for dentist practices and in the printing industry. The advent of the electric motor greatly expanded the range of applications for flexible shafts as they were built into motor-powered tools used in industry for processing wood or metal. As the demand for these tools grew, so did the demand for flexible shafts. By 1927 there were 70 people working at Julius Geiger. Five years later the company moved to a larger site in Weilimdorf, a suburb of Stuttgart.

In the 1930s Trumpf ventured into developing more complex products. The year 1934 saw the launch of the company’s first motor-powered hand shears for cutting sheet metal. Out of this initial product grew a wide variety of electric shears for different purposes, all marketed under the brand name TRUMPF. Consequently, the company was renamed TRUMPF & Co., formerly Julius Geiger GmbH, in 1937. By 1939 the number of staff on payroll had increased by roughly 50 percent compared with the late 1920s. During World War II TRUMPF was able to maintain production with little interruption, making the same products as before the war. Luckily, the war left the company’s factory buildings and machinery intact.

After the war Christian Trumpf made an important strategic decision. In addition to handheld tools, he would venture into an even more complex product: stationary machines for cutting sheet metal. In 1947 Trumpf built his first stationary machine, the TRUMPF cutting machine, or TAS. Soon after the war Trumpf’s invention caught on in the market and TAS went into serial production. By the early 1950s the site in Weilimdorf proved too small to support the growth necessary to satisfy rising demand, which received an additional boost when TRUMPF began to market its new product range at international trade shows. In the mid-1950s Christian Trumpf bought the site of a former textile printing factory in Hettingen, a small town roughly 60 miles south of Stuttgart. Equipped with one lathe and one stationary drilling machine, 18 workers began welding and assembling the TRUMPF TAS 80 series.

GROWING WITH GROUNDBREAKING INNOVATIONS

TRUMPF’s continued success in the two decades following the postwar reconstruction years was mainly due to a number of groundbreaking inventions that secured the company a competitive edge in the marketplace. The driving force behind these innovations was Berthold Leibinger, a young engineer who became head of design at TRUMPF in 1961. The son of a tradesman for eastern Asian antiques and art would rather have become a writer than an engineer. However, the future prospects for his preferred profession looked fairly bleak in 1950. Leibinger, whose parents were close friends with Christian Trumpf, joined TRUMPF as an apprentice at age 20, and went on to study mechanical engineering at Stuttgart’s University of Applied Sciences.

In 1957 the company applied for two patents for innovations developed by the student Berthold Leibinger: the “Pilot in hollow punch” and the “Coordinate guidance.” These inventions applied to “nibbling,” a process that used small blades to cut sheet metal in a series of short stabbing motions. Before the invention of the “Pilot in hollow punch,” standard nibbling punches contained an extension—the so-called foot on the punch—which was used to control the feed. This had disadvantages. The punch was not suitable for producing the start hole for inner cutouts. In addition, nibbling could only be carried out in the direction of the foot, so that tight curves or corners could not be machined without turning the punch. A pilot pin and a hollow punch overcame these obstacles. The hollow punch was completely symmetrical; it could be reground without any problem; it nibbled in every direction and was suitable for punching the starting hole for inner cutouts. The “Pilot pin in hollow punch” invention was the basis for the success of TRUMPF’s nibbling technology.

COMPANY PERSPECTIVES

We are a high-tech company that focuses on manufacturing and medical technology. We offer our customers both innovative and high-quality products and have solutions to their problems—be it sheet metal processing or the application of lasers in production or hospital logistics. Our expertise in these fields provides the competitive edge which our customers need. That is why we continue to innovate and develop our know-how, our methods and our products. This includes our internal processes and worldwide market activities. Innovation is the foundation of our success and we are guided by the principle of continuous improvement. Our business organization will not change. We are and will remain a family business.

Leibinger’s second invention, the coordinate guidance, addressed problems associated with manual metal guiding by a machine operator, thereby enabling more precise nibbling. This invention quickly caught on in the market and the company benefited from pent-up demand in the postwar reconstruction era, with the whole of Germany in need of new industrial equipment to replace what had been destroyed by bombs during the war, or demounted and removed by the Allied forces as reparations after the war had ended. In 1958 TRUMPF introduced its first stationary copy and coordinate nibbling machine using Leibinger’s new technologies. When nibbling, which thus far had rarely been used in sheet metal processing, became more and more popular in the metal processing industry, TRUMPF put out a number of handheld models in addition to its stationary nibbling machines.

After working in the United States for a few years Leibinger returned to Germany and to TRUMPF. In the early 1960s he invented the portable beveler for beveling and welding steel joints. Instead of the operator moving the metal parts through the machine by hand, the machine itself moved along the work piece, which made it much easier to handle and process larger components. Leibinger’s coordinate guidance had been the first step on the way to a numerically controlled feed movement. In 1968 TRUMPF pioneered sheet metal fabrication machines with numerical contouring control. After all the coordinates were programmed into a computer via perforated tape, the machine automatically carried out the required operations. While Christian Trumpf did not initially believe in Leibinger’s idea, the market success of the new Trumatic series launched in 1968 proved him wrong. TRUMPF’s computer numerically controlled machines made headlines at the European Machine Tool Exhibition in Paris and became a very popular TRUMPF product. The market success of TRUMPF machine tools resulted in healthy growth. Between 1961 and 1975 the company’s staff more than doubled, reaching 800 in 1975. During the same time period sales grew almost sevenfold to DEM 73 million.

EXPANDING ABROAD AND PIONEERING LASER TECHNOLOGY

Leibinger’s interest in TRUMPF far exceeded the design and engineering of new machine tools. In 1964 he became a partner in the company. Two years later Leibinger became managing director. His foremost concern in growing the company, besides pursuing constant innovation, was to be present in the world’s major markets. In 1963 TRUMPF’s first foreign subsidiary was established in Switzerland. Six years later the company set up its first North American subsidiary in Farmington, Connecticut. In the following decades the United States became TRUMPF’s second largest production location and the company’s second core market. After attending a number of trade shows in Japan in the 1960s, Leibinger foresaw the growth potential of this emerging market. In 1977 the first Asian TRUMPF subsidiary was founded in Yokohama, Japan. Over the next thirty years Japan evolved as the single most important market for TRUMPF besides Germany and the United States. In 1978 Bertold Leibinger become managing partner of TRUMPF. By that time the company, which had moved headquarters to a new site in Ditzingen, northwest of Stuttgart, employed roughly 900 people while sales had exceeded the DEM 100 million mark.

KEY DATES

1923:: Christian Trumpf acquires a small manufacturer of flexible shafts in Stuttgart.
1934:: The first motor-powered hand shears for cutting sheet metal are launched.
1937:: The company is renamed TRUMPF & Co., formerly Julius Geiger GmbH.
1947:: Christian Trumpf decides to build stationary machines.
1958:: TRUMPF puts out its first stationary copy and coordinate nibbling machine.
1963:: The company’s first foreign subsidiary is set up in Switzerland.
1968:: Bertold Leibinger pioneers punching machines with numerical control.
1969:: The first North American subsidiary is established in Farmington, Connecticut.
1977:: TRUMPF founds a subsidiary in Yokohama, Japan.
1978:: Bertold Leibinger becomes managing partner of TRUMPF.
1979:: TRUMPF ventures into laser technology.
1990:: TRUMPF acquires a share in Huettinger group.
1992:: Solid-state laser specialist Haas Laser GmbH is acquired.
1998:: TRUMPF buys medical equipment manufacturer Blancomed.
2000:: The company’s subsidiaries are reorganized under the holding company TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG.
2005:: Nicola Leibinger succeeds her father Bertold Leibinger as TRUMPF president.

The year 1979 marked another major milestone in TRUMPF’s history when the company launched its first punch-laser machine Trumatic 180 Laserpress. In the second half of the 1970s Leibinger had recognized the potential of emerging laser technology for sheet metal processing. The mechanical tools to punch patterns out of metal were replaced by a narrow beam of photons called LASER, an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The new technology allowed precision cutting of any form out of metal, produced almost no waste, and required much less mechanical finishing than traditional methods. Moreover, the beam laser machines were compact, reliable, and inexpensive to run. The novelty quickly gained market approval. By 1981 the company had sold its 1,000th Trumatic machine.

The first generations of TRUMPF laser machine tools were equipped with lasers from suppliers in the United States. However, their performance was fairly limited, which in turn limited the thickness of the metal parts that could be processed. Therefore, the company began developing its own lasers. In 1985 TRUMPF launched its first CO2 laser, TRUMPF Laser TLF 1000, with a performance of 1,000 watts, which was one-third more powerful than the lasers the company had previously bought from other suppliers. Throughout the second half of the 1980s TRUMPF continuously refined its laser technology-based range of products. One of the highlights was Trumatic L 3000, a flatbed laser cutting center with a processing head that moved across the metal while cutting the required shapes. In 1988 the company’s laser activities were bundled in the newly founded subsidiary TRUMPF Lasertechnik GmbH.

As the 1990s arrived TRUMPF had become a leading manufacturer of industrial CO2 lasers. To further strengthen its market position the company acquired a 40 percent stake in Haas Laser GmbH, a small but innovative firm based in Schramberg, about 80 miles southwest of Stuttgart, with about 170 employees and annual revenues of DEM 33 million. The company specialized in solid-state lasers, the first type of lasers to use a crystalline solid host such as ruby or sapphire that is doped with ions to achieve the required energy form. These lasers, which could be used for cutting or welding solid pieces of metal, were a perfect addition to TRUMPF’s laser product line. In 1996 Haas became a wholly owned TRUMPF subsidiary. Two years later a new production site for lasers in Ditzingen was added to match capacity with demand. Another acquisition of the 1990s was a share in Huettinger group, a company that made radio frequency generators for laser excitation.

MANAGING CRISIS THROUGH INNOVATION AND EXPANSION

In the early 1990s many European economies, including Germany’s, experienced a major cyclical downturn. This development resulted in the most severe recession German machine tool manufacturers had witnessed since the end of World War II. TRUMPF’s sales dropped by almost one-fifth in Germany and demand was very slow throughout Western Europe and Japan. In combination with massive pressure on prices and disadvantageous currency turbulence, this situation produced the first negative annual result of roughly DEM 50 million in the company’s 70-year history. Luckily, healthy growth in the United States and Southeast Asia offset the losses in European markets. Nevertheless, TRUMPF reacted promptly and decisively. Staff on payroll was cut by 12 percent; the company’s four best-selling products were overhauled to reduce cost and enable lower prices; sales, distribution, and service were strengthened in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and China; production was reorganized in easily controllable, decentralized units and continuous flow assembly, resulting in massive productivity gains; and significant amounts were invested in new technologies and business activities.

In a first step, TRUMPF expanded its know-how in sheet metal processing to other areas and developed machine tools for bending sheet metal and for processing metal tubes during the 1990s. In a second step, the company teamed up with innovative high-tech companies in the field of laser technology to develop new industrial applications with a high market potential. In mid-2001 TRUMPF announced that the company had entered a cooperation agreement with photonics giant Jenoptik AG to jointly develop compact high-performance diode lasers for new industrial uses. TRUMPF acquired a 25.1 percent stake in Jenoptik Laserdiode GmbH, whose diodes were mainly used in TRUMPF’s solid-state lasers.

Finally, on the basis of the already existing business area of electro-medicine, TRUMPF ventured into the promising field of medical technology and equipment. In 1998 the company acquired Blancomed, a small manufacturer of operating tables based in Saalfeld, Thuringia. Three years later TRUMPF bought Kreuzer GmbH + Co. OHG, another German manufacturer of medical equipment based in Puchheim near Munich with roughly 100 employees generating EUR 17 million in annual revenues. Kreuzer specialized in ceiling pendants, surgical lights, and functional furniture for operating rooms in hospitals and clinics. Further R&D efforts were geared at additional products that enabled TRUMPF to equip complete operating rooms and intensive care units, such as camera systems and systems for increased functionality of these units.

REORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP CHANGE

In 2000 the company’s many subsidiaries were reorganized under the umbrella of holding company TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG. TRUMPF’s activities were bundled in three independent business divisions, including machine tools and power tools, laser technology and electronics, and medical technology. Another important addition to TRUMPF’s activities was the establishment of its financial services arm TRUMPF Leasing + Service GmbH + Co. KG, in 2001. TRUMPF Leasing offered alternative financing models to the growing number of midsized customers who were struggling to secure financing through bank loans. The turn of the millennium also marked another period of intensified international expansion. TRUMPF established new subsidiaries in China, Mexico, Switzerland, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic, and set up production centers in Taiwan and China.

Throughout the years, Bertold Leibinger took every opportunity to increase his share in TRUMPF. By the 1990s the Leibinger family owned all but the 25 percent stake of Hugo Schwarz, former partner and managing director from 1953 until 1978. In 1994 Schwarz sold a 20 percent share in TRUMPF to Stuttgart-based capital investment firm BWK Maschinenbau-Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft. Four years later the Leibingers bought an 8.4 percent share from BWK and Schwarz’ remaining 5 percent in the late 1990s. Finally, in fall 2003 Leibinger reached his goal when BWK sold the remaining 11.6 percent in TRUMPF to him and his family members. Two of his three children were actively involved in managing the family business.

In 2005, the year of Leibinger’s 75th birthday, TRUMPF announced that Leibinger’s oldest daughter, Nicola Leibinger-Kammueller, would succeed him as president of the company. After completing her studies in German, American, and Japanese cultures, the mother of four joined TRUMPF in 1985. Her work with TRUMPF included three years at the company’s subsidiary in Japan; she joined TRUMPF’s managing board in 2003. In addition to her post as TRUMPF president, Leibinger-Kammueller took on responsibility for corporate communications and human resources. Her husband, Mathias Kammueller, an engineer, became head of TRUMPF’s machine and power tools divisions. Bertold Leibinger’s 38-year-old-son Peter, who also studied mechanical engineering and who headed TRUMPF’s subsidiary in the United States from 1999 until 2003, became executive vice-president and vice-chairman of the managing board. He was also responsible for TRUMPF’s Laser Technology and Electronics divisions.

With auto manufacturers using more laser technology for welding car bodies, with laser-based, rapid prototyping technologies in the pipeline, and with plenty of cash to finance future research and development projects and acquisitions, TRUMPF’s future prospects appeared bright. In 2006 the company broke ground on a multimillion-dollar laser research and manufacturing facility in Farmington, Connecticut, and a new production subsidiary in the Czech Republic, and anticipated further expansion in Russia and China, as well.

Evelyn Hauser

PRINCIPAL SUBSIDIARIES

TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG; TRUMPF Laser GmbH + Co. KG; TRUMPF Laser-und Systemtechnik GmbH; TRUMPF Leasing + Service GmbH + Co. KG; TRUMPF Sachsen GmbH; TRUMPF S.A.R.L. (France); TRUMPF Machines S.A.R.L. (France); TRUMPF Ltd. (United Kingdom); TRUMPF–Hornberger s.r.l. (Italy); TRUMPF Maschinen Austria Ges.mbH & Co. KG; TRUMPF POLSKA Sp. z. o. o. Sp.k. (Poland); TRUMPF OOO (Russia); TRUMPF maskin ab (Sweden); TRUMPF Maschinen AG (Switzerland); TRUMPF Grüsch AG (Switzerland); TRUMPF Laser Marking Systems AG (Switzerland); TRUMPF Maschinen Grüsch AG (Switzerland); TRUMPF Slovakia s.r.o.; TRUMPF Maquinaria S.A. (Spain); TRUMPF Praha spol. s.r.o. (Czech Republic); TRUMPF Liberec spol. s.r.o. (Czech Republic); TRUMPF Maquinas Ind. E. Com. Ltda. (Brazil); Advanced Fabricating Machinery Inc. (Canada); TRUMPF Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V.; TRUMPF Inc. (United States); TRUMPF Photonics Inc. (United States); TRUMPF Corporation (Japan); TRUMPF Sheet Metal Products (Taicang) Co. Ltd. (China); TRUMPF SiberHegner Ltd. (China); PT. Duta Laserindo Metal (Indonesia); TRUMPF Korea C. Ltd. (South Korea); TRUMPF Malaysia SDN. BHD.; TRUMPF (Pte.) Ltd. (Singapore); TRUMPF Taiwan Industries Co. Ltd.; TRUMPF KREUZER Medizin Systeme GmbH + Co. KG; TRUMPF Medizin Systeme GmbH; Huttinger Elektronik GmbH + Co. KG; TRUMPF AMSA S.A.S. (France); TRUMPF Medical Systems Ltd. (United Kingdom); TRUMPF Medical Systems, Inc. (United States); Huettinger Electronic Inc. (United States); TRUMPF Medical Systems (Taicang) Co. Ltd. (China); Huttinger Electronic K. K. (Japan).