Tooling manufacturer Walter AG has opened a new €30 million manufacturing plant for carbide insert production in Münsingen – in the Swabian Alb region some 40 km from the parent site in Tübingen, near Stuttgart.
With this investment, completed on a 40,000 m2 greenfield location in barely nine months, the company now has the capacity to double its output to literally multi-millions of inserts to meet growing global demand, in particular for its world leading range of Tiger.tec products.
Plans for the new site took shape immediately after a disastrous fire at the Tübingen site, and the construction of the factory began in May 2006 adjacent to Walter’s existing (but smaller) insert pressing and sintering plant.
The fire at Tübingen destroyed two production halls, involving tool body/toolholder production as well as insert production. By relocating all insert production to Münsingen, Walter AG’s ongoing renovation of the Tübingen site is now freeing up much-needed space for tool body production.
In the aftermath of the fire, tool body production was relocated nearby – underpinned by a massive investment in high-technology multi-axis production machinery – and it will return to Tübingen once the renovation programme is complete.
Until the fire – in January 2006 – Walter’s insert production was split between Münsingen and Tübingen, where the pressed and sintered inserts were ground, coated, packaged and despatched.
Now everything is carried out at Münsingen on the 15,000 m2 air-conditioned production floor, where all existing 150 employees involved in insert production have transferred. Due to the expansion, employment has already risen to 500 people and another 150 jobs are planned.
During 2007, Walter AG will invest a total of €50 million in production, new machines, buildings and new subsidiaries, to complement the €30 million invested in the new site at Münsingen.
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