Review of the

SITE VISIT
to
KLINGER - KEMPCHEN, GERMANY

Wednesday 29th March – Thursday 30th March 2006

Day 1

The second overseas site visit took place at the end of March. Just like the first overseas visit, flights were arranged from both Manchester and Stansted to Germany, with Dusseldorf being the nearest international airport to our final destination of the industrial town of Oberhausen. Our hosts on this occasion were Kempchen Dichtungstechnik GmbH, who became a member of the Klinger Group in 2004.

The week preceding the visit had seen our party severely depleted due to various reasons of cancellation. The final no show being just hours before take off when our Chairman had passport problems and could not make it. Whether this was for international espionage or terrorism is still not known. It was still in doubt if the Stansted flight pair would even make it to the hotel after using a taxi with a short sighted disorientated female driver, who only used her spectacles for the repeat calls she made on her mobile phone for directional instructions.

Our previous visit to this country welcomed us with temperatures lower than -22°C and 18cm of snow, whereas this time it was a typical British climate with positive temperatures and occasional rain. At the scheduled time there were eleven delegates gathered in the hotel bar, including one who did not travel with the two main groups, being greeted by Kempchen Managing Director Klaus Schonebeck, and Sales Director Dirk Schmidt. After preliminary drinks our hosts transported us all to a restaurant in central Oberhausen where we were entertained to a fine meal and local liquid refreshment. The day ended with one party in a bar within walking distance of the restaurant and the other party at the safety of the hotel bar.

Day 2

After breakfast, the bus was waiting to take us on the short journey to the Kempchen Plant.

A Brief History of Kempchen

Heinrich Kempchen surely would have been happy if he had known that his idea to found his own company still has an impact today. The time before the turn of the century was one of change; the time of industrialization. The 23 year old Heinrich Kempchen saw his chance when he founded a company in 1889 to supply the growing mining and smelting industries with consumables.

These were products of their time: There were for example “leather butt flaps” for miners, belts for drive shafts of steam engines, but there was also already one product that the name Kempchen today is synonymous for: Kempchen produced gaskets.

With the rise of the German Ruhr Region the company also grew. The total number of employees in 1916 was already more than 400. But there also were significant setbacks: In 1927 a large fire almost destroyed the complete factory and the great depression in 1933 caused further setbacks. But in 1939 the company had already reached its old size. The Second World War lead to the total destruction of the whole plant. It had to be re-built brick by brick.

The Post War boom in the Federal Republic of Germany brought significant growth. The company was expanding continuously and had reached the limits of its factory area by the end of the 80’s. A further expansion at the company site was no longer possible.

As a result the trade division of the Company developed into HKO GmbH. Today HKO GmbH is a leading company in the field of insulation and technical textiles. The company Kempchen-Weber AG was founded in Switzerland where it is today a renowned company in the area of gasket technology.

Most recently a production facility was established in the Czech Republic. A complete line of production was transferred. Compensators and several gasket types are produced in the Czech Republic. It was during these decades that Kempchen developed into a competent partner not only in the area of stuffing box packings, compensators as well as rubber and plastic materials but especially in the field of gasket technology. Particularly in the area of static sealing systems.

New partners joined the Kempchen group to strengthen the local presence in Germany and Europe and new branches were established. A.W.Schultze, a well-known gasket die cutting company in northern Germany became part of the group.

Two sales and warehouse sites were established in East Germany: Leuna-Dichtungen on the factory grounds of InfraLeuna GmbH in Leuna and Kempchen-Schwedt on the factory grounds of PCK in Schwedt an der Oder.

Today the main customers are no longer in the mining and smelting industry but in Plant Engineering and the Chemical Industry. They depend on gaskets of many designs, in a variety of sizes, in small amounts as well as many thousands of pieces.
Today is another time of change, the time of communication and globalization. Kempchen became a global player long ago. Export makes up around 20 percent, with deliveries into more than 60 countries.

In 2004 the companies Kempchen and A.W. Schultze became members of the Klinger Group. Kempchen greatly adds to the expertise in the field of static sealing systems within the Klinger Group.

The Factory Tour

Our Plant Tour started at the Quality department, where it was explained how a variety of apparatus that we were shown, is used for testing and checking. This was followed by visits to an assortment of outbuildings starting with the warehouse and stores. The value of this stockholding must have been very high with all types of products stocked. These were primarily metal gaskets including Grooved Profile Gaskets with layers, Spiral Wound Gaskets, Corrugated Gaskets, Rubber-Steel Gaskets, and Enveloped or Jacketed Gaskets. Sheeting, Packings, Graphite and other Soft Gaskets, plus some Tooling were also stored in this area.

Manufacturing processes that were shown to us included most of the products that we had seen in the stores, together with a comprehensive range of tooling. It was very impressive to everyone seeing some extremely large Spirals and Corrugated Gaskets being made, and also complex large Graphite Gaskets being pressed.

The final stage of the tour took us to the impressive comfortable offices where we were introduced to the individual functions of the administrative side of the company. One of the main talking points after, being the smoking capsule in the centre of the office complex. Much warmer and more comfortable than having to go outside to have a drag.

At the conclusion of our tour, the bus was waiting to transfer us back to the hotel where we were treated to a buffet lunch.

After lunch we assembled in one of the Hotel’s conference rooms where Mr Schonebeck and Mr Schmidt gave a presentation on their products, and the strategic aims of Kempchen, including their impressive e-commerce ordering system for their major accounts.

It is difficult enough to perform a presentation any time, but to do this and a factory tour for a British audience, in English and not their native tongue, deserves congratulations to both Klaus and Dirk for a job well done.

All members taking part in the visit agreed on the success of the trip, and it was extremely pleasing to hear the first time participants say how much they enjoyed the networking, together with the whole event.

Our appreciation and thanks go to all the staff at Kempchen for their hospitality, and to Alan Bates at Klinger UK for his input to ensure another successful visit.

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