SGL KüMpers Moves to New State of the Art Facility

The company is continuing to benefit from the rapidly increasing demand for composites in the automotive sector.

The joint venture, founded in 2007 by SGL Group and Kümpers GmbH, has relocated from its development site in Rheine-Gellendorf to the new production facility in the Rheine-Nord industrial park in Salzbergen-Holsterfeld in Westphalia.

In addition to the existing fabric and braiding machines, this new production facility has been equipped with a wide range of customised, highly automated production lines. Continuous production up to seven days a week is planned at the new location, with full production capacity expected later on in the year.

The facility in Rheine will be used primarily for the production of carbon-fibre preforms for the automotive and aviation industry. Another highly innovative product is a glass-fibre fabric, which is already used in automotive series production in the form of leaf springs for the Volvo XC 90 as well as in the commercial vehicle sector. The new site is also home to the SGL Kümpers development department, which creates innovative technologies for series production in vehicle construction. Key reasons for the decision to relocate to this site included not only the state-of-the-art premises but the excellent transport links.

SGL Kümpers is one of Europe’s leading companies for the textile processing of carbon and glass fibres in the field of fabrics and braidings for the wind, automotive and aviation industry. Given the ongoing high demand, particularly from the automotive sector, the dynamic growth is set to continue over the next few years.

The joint venture currently employees around 150 people at the Lathen and Rheine-Nord plants. Sales volumes have been increasing continuously over the past few years, with sales rising from €10 million to almost €40 million between 2006 and 2013.