Kläger SPC is realigning itself strategically. What is behind this step?
We are not starting from scratch. We are building Kläger SPC up step by step. Over decades, we have built extensive expertise in developing and manufacturing demanding plastic components. At the same time, our customers’ requirements are changing: development cycles are getting shorter, resources are becoming scarcer, and solutions need to be more flexible.
That is why we are now bundling and sharpening our expertise in three clear areas: the K_Engineering Hub, the K_Tomorrow Factory and K_Precision Parts. This creates an end-to-end value chain, from the first idea through development, design and prototyping to small-batch or industrial series production.
Our goal is clear. We want to become faster, connect our capabilities even more closely, and offer our customers more services from a single source. We are also addressing a much broader target group and opening up new fields of application beyond high-performance plastics such as PPS and the automotive industry.
With the K_Tomorrow Factory, additive manufacturing in particular is moving into focus. Is 3D printing an entirely new business area for Kläger SPC?
No, quite the opposite. Prototyping and additive manufacturing have been part of our work for years. Our designers and developers have developed and designed numerous prototypes themselves. For manufacturing, we have used both our own capabilities and specialized external partners.
In recent years, we have brought additional in-house experts on board and expanded our know-how in a targeted way. So when it comes to 3D printing, we are not starting from scratch.
What is new is the scale on which we will use this expertise in the future. With the Tomorrow Factory, we are bringing know-how, technology and industrial processes together in-house to a much greater extent. A supporting technology within our development work is becoming a service offering in its own right. This opens up new opportunities, especially for industrial and mechanical engineering customers as well as companies in the defense industry.
The three Kläger SPC units and their services at a glance
What will the K_Tomorrow Factory deliver in the future?
We want to go well beyond the classic visual prototype. Our aim is functional, durable components for industrial use, from one-offs through functional prototypes and production aids to pre-series and small-batch production.
We see great potential in spare parts and in rapid tooling, the toolmaking of the future. Many companies know the problem: a component is urgently needed but is no longer available. Or the quantity is simply too low to justify a new tool economically. This is exactly where additive manufacturing offers exciting possibilities. We can keep spare parts and tools stored digitally as CAD data and produce them quickly and flexibly when needed. We are also versatile when it comes to materials. In addition to conventional filaments and granulates, we process TPU for flexible soft components, for example. This opens up numerous new possibilities for industrial applications. In the short to medium term, we also aim to process the granulates used in our own injection molding on our 3D printing systems.
This also creates new opportunities within the Kläger Group. In the future, we could, for example, additively manufacture pre-series, small batches, production aids or spare parts for the Group’s products and production processes.
This opens up a new market for us. It is not separate from our existing expertise but built on it.
What role does the new K_Engineering Hub play in this?
The Engineering Hub is a key building block of our strategy. Here we are building on expertise that Kläger SPC has had for many years. Development, design, material selection and the production-oriented design of plastic components have been part of our everyday work for decades. What is new is that we are now bundling this know-how in a targeted way and opening it up more widely to external customers as a standalone service.
We see it as an external development department for our customers. Many companies have good product ideas but do not always have the necessary development resources or in-depth knowledge of materials and manufacturing. That is exactly where we come in. Our development engineers and designers provide support from the first idea through CAD design, material selection and simulation to the manufacturability assessment.
We also support our customers with technical questions relating to patents and handle the international tendering of tools, parts and assemblies. Our aim is to support the entire development and procurement process from a single source, from the first idea to the right technical and economic solution.
Our independence is important here. We start by looking at the technical and economic task at hand. The result does not automatically have to be 3D printing or injection molding. What matters is developing, together with the customer, a reliable, economically sound solution that creates the greatest possible value for them.
That can then be a component from the Tomorrow Factory, a conventional series solution, or a combination of different technologies.
How exactly do the K_Engineering Hub, K_Tomorrow Factory and K_Precision Parts work together?
The K_Engineering Hub is where ideas, designs and production-ready solutions are created. In the K_Tomorrow Factory, these can be turned into functional prototypes, samples, pre-series or small batches within a short time. And with K_Precision Parts, we have decades of experience in high-precision industrial series production of technical and high-performance plastics.
The key point is that the three areas complement each other but also work as independent units. A customer can use only the development and design services of the Engineering Hub, go straight into additive manufacturing at the Tomorrow Factory with finished CAD data, or commission K_Precision Parts as a partner for industrial series production.
At the same time, we can seamlessly combine these capabilities when needed. A customer can come to us with a sketch, an existing drawing or CAD data. Together, we then decide which services are needed and which manufacturing route makes sense technically and economically.
If requirements or quantities change, we can adapt the manufacturing route accordingly. This makes us flexible and reduces interfaces.
K_Precision Parts represents the established core business. How important is this area in the new strategy?
Very important. The strategic realignment does not mean we are leaving our existing business behind. On the contrary, K_Precision Parts, with our long-standing manufacturing and materials expertise, forms an essential foundation.
We have been manufacturing demanding precision components from thermoplastics in Saxony since 1992. We have a great deal of experience with high-performance plastics such as PPS and with plastic-metal hybrid solutions in particular. We manufacture complex parts with tight tolerances in both small and large quantities.
This knowledge flows directly into the new areas. Someone who has been developing and producing components for robust series production for decades looks at different aspects even at the prototype stage than someone who only makes prototypes.
That is one of our great strengths: we factor in later series production right from the start.
What does this change in concrete terms for Kläger SPC’s customers?
Above all, one thing should become easier for our customers: getting from a technical challenge to a working, economical solution.
Instead of having to coordinate different contacts for development, design, materials consulting, prototyping, small-batch production and series production, they can get much more of this within a single network of expertise. We can act as their One-Face-to-the-Customer.
We also gain speed. When development and additive manufacturing work closely together, components can be designed, manufactured, tested, optimized and produced again. This principle of developing, testing and learning can shorten development cycles considerably.
And our customers stay flexible. Not every component needs a tool right away, and not every additively manufactured component has to move to injection molding later. What matters are the application, quantity, quality and cost-effectiveness.
Where should Kläger SPC stand with this strategy in the coming years?
We want to position Kläger SPC even more strongly as a technology and development partner. Our customers should not come to us only when a finished drawing needs to be produced. Ideally, they should approach us early, when a technical challenge needs solving.
To do this, we combine more than 40 years of engineering experience, decades of series production expertise and our growing know-how in industrial additive manufacturing.
The Tomorrow Factory is an important evolutionary step. We are bringing existing know-how more firmly in-house, expanding it on an industrial scale, and turning it into a scalable offering for our customers and the Kläger Group.
This is how three areas of expertise become one shared ambition: finding the right path from the idea through the first functional component to economical series production – fast, open to any technology, and from a single source.
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