Karl-Heinz Schütt from the trade journal “Konstruieren + Giessen” has written an article on “vacuum moulding – the contemporary potential possibilities” in cooperation with Burkhard Bischofs of the Eurotech Group. Source: Konstruieren + Giessen
VENLO – no fewer than five innovative ideas for activity in North Limburg were selected for initial financial support on Friday, 2 December 2005 by NV Regio Venlo. NV Regio Venlo held a competition named €ureka! for who could come up with the best ideas for stimulating innovation in the agricultural and manufacturing industry and the logistics sector. There were 23 entrants. Nine initiators presented their ideas last Friday following an initial selection. NV Regio Venlo is offering initial financial support for five of these proposals that are innovative and that contribute to the region’s economic structure.
Dutch industry is concentrating on complex products in small series. And so Eurotech is too. The business is a world leader with the new innovative aluminium sand casting foundry. The simpler processing takes place in Eastern Europe. This is an optimal mix for European industry according to Managing Director Wim Noorman.
Many businesses seek salvation in the East, attracted by the low wages. But such a drastic step is by all means not always necessary. This heading offers a chance to businesses that show they can be very competitive in our high-wage country. Or that do not spend more in the East than is sensible according to their outsourcing strategy. The others remain here.
The economy turns round in no time. The metal processing industry is already in the lead with a rising shortage of suitable specialists.
It is an anniversary that Wim Noorman would prefer to let pass without noise as the Managing Director of Eurotech Group does not enjoy flaunting the fact that his company has been sponsoring sports and types of exercise for the mentally and/or physically disabled in Venlo for 10 years now. It is not that he is not proud of it; on the contrary, he just does not go fishing for publicity for Eurotech’s social commitment. “We are involved in sponsoring in order to make a difference for other people and not for our own ends.
After 15 years in the metal-processing business, Eurotech Managing Director believes in teamwork more than ever. You do not have to go to a low-wage country for that. What’s more, you can also benefit from this here.
It is a question of combining the right knowledge and skill with the will to make dreams come true: “the right combinations of skills and dreams”, as can be seen in all workplaces in the Venlo metal foundry. Here is also the most recent dream come true in the form of a world innovation: a brand new aluminium foundry machine that combines a line of automatic sand moulds with the so-called multi-pouring low-pressure die casting system (MPS).
Twenty entrepreneurs form the SME (including the Eurotech Group) show what their efforts in the field of sustainable technology have delivered with the financial support from the Environment & Technology programme from the Ministries of Housing, Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Nature Management and Food Safety.
In 2006, Eurotech in Blerick installed a production line in which the automatic creation of sand castings is combined with low-pressure aluminium injections. A novelty.
Eurotech is one of the few foundries with a machining and assembling division as well as a fully-fledged foundry. Here, the castings will be processed to achieve the accuracy required by the customer. Jos van Ninhuijs believes the company’s own department is one of its strong points. “Because we carry out the design, casting and processing on the same premises, we are able to use the knowledge in each of these areas. For the design, we can already take specific pouring details into consideration but also things that are important for machining. With the design, you must actually take account of where you later wish to achieve accuracy.” The foundry also has its own assembly department. This is where mainly the mechatronic modules are assembled for the customer in the cast housing. This is often the case among others in the medical industry, which is an important market sector for Eurotech.
Automatic moulding machines were in 2006 no unknown phenomenon in the aluminium sand casting foundries but the combination with an MPS low-pressure die casting system such as at Eurotech in Venlo is unique in the world. The quality of low-pressure die casting is thus linked to the freedom of moulding and cost benefits of sand casting. The picture of large quantities of more raw products must be adjusted: sand casting is now also suitable for critical small series components.
Some have written off industry in Limburg due to competition from low-wage countries. Wim Noorman of Eurotech in Venlo knows better. He has his own solution for keeping the competition from the East under control.
“Twenty per cent of our employees once started here with a Saturday job or via a work placement. That is a lot. Your job as an entrepreneur is making your business known. Ensure that they know your business and offer employees the possibility to bring the best out of themselves. Then they will also want to work with you,” says Wim Noorman, Managing Director of Eurotech, an international systems provider in the aluminium processing industry.
