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Foundry Corporate News Topic Melting Shop Topic Pressure Die Casting

ZPF Group Service Division undergoes further expansion

ZPF Services GmbH, which was established in September 2011, has moved to a new location in Reichartshausen. This was an essential step due to the fact that the company’s premises at Heilbronn were no longer able to offer sufficient storage and production capacities.

 

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“We have increased our workforce from ten to twenty within the space of a single year in our quest to offer customers the very best levels of service”, says Ralf Kuchenbeiser, Head of ZPF Services since April 2012. “The constant growth in the volume of business we have received has clearly demonstrated just how positive the response has been to a separate ZPF Group Service Division. Our old premises were simply not big enough, and a move to a larger location was the only logical step”.

ZPF Services now has three times as much production and warehousing space at its disposal, just under 1000m². The new offices extend over an area of 174m².

The company’s portfolio includes after-sales service and modifications to existing and other plants. It also extends to encompass advisory and project management services relating to every aspect of smelting and foundry operations.

Spare parts and repairs to existing furnace plants account for eighty percent of the overall business of ZPF Services. The rest is made up of the installation and commissioning of new plants manufactured by ZPF Therm Maschinenbau GmbH and regular maintenance and inspection works. Just over half of the installations the company carries out take place within Germany.

ZPF Services will be opening up a new line of business from mid-February. Some parts of the aluminium smelting and holding furnaces, such as doors and lids and door and lid inserts, will be manufactured on site. A separate production area where the components can be concreted and enamelled has been set up on the shop floor for this purpose. The same applies to the in-house manufacture of the concrete agitator inserts which are required as spare parts for the chip-melting furnaces produced by ZPF Therm.

“All of this enables us to react more readily to the requirements of our customers”, continues Ralf Kuchenbeiser. “Lead times are shorter, and it is easier to hold stock. Our aim was to streamline the internal routes within the ZPF Group and thus generate benefits for our customers in particular”.

The larger space available now makes it possible to offer complete relining of existing plants at the new ZPF Services premises, something which could certainly be an interesting option for some customers. Alongside the cladding of furnace plants, the services provided by the company also include the enhancement of heating and control units in line with state-of-the-art technology. It also offers the same services for non-ZPF plants, a line of business which produced very good results in several cases during 2012. The outcome was a clearly measurable increase in performance accompanied by lower levels of energy consumption.

The plan is for further ZPF subsidiaries to join the ZPF Therm furnace plant spare parts business in being based in Reichartshausen in future. This will generate even more areas of synergy between the companies within the ZPF Group as well as offering customers the advantage of a one-stop shop.

The ZPF Group comprises the parent company ZPF Therm Maschinenbau GmbH, ZPF Services GmbH, ZPF Foundry4 GmbH, ZPF Industrial Furnaces Co., Ltd. and ZPF Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. The group currently employs around 100 staff. The main works is located in Siegelsbach in Baden-Württemberg. In its capacity as a system supplier, the ZDF Group offers a comprehensive product range of melting, holding and chip-melting furnaces, dispensers and broad service provision.
ZPF Services GmbH
was established as an offshoot of ZPF Therm Maschinenbau GmbH in Siegelsbach in September 2011. Since its foundation in 1993, ZPF Therm has developed into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of aluminium melting and holding furnaces.  Initially based in Heilbronn, ZDF Services relocated to Reichartshausen in December 2012. 

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