Industry News
12
N
ovember
2014
Rattunde opens new
manufacturing facility
GLOBAL manufacturer of tube and
bar processing machinery Rattunde
celebrated the official ribbon-cutting
ceremony to open its new manufacturing
facility in Caledonia, Michigan (Grand
Rapids area), USA, recenty.
The ribbon was cut by company
president Rick Stadler, who was joined
by managing directors Ulrich Rattunde
and Martin Proksch from Rattunde & Co
GmbH and the Rattunde Corporation
staff. Approximately 50 people enjoyed
the day, complete with good food and
camaraderie. A formal open house for
Rattunde customers and the media is
slated for later this year.
Rattunde erected its new 30,000ft
2
facility on a 14-acre parcel of land
the company purchased last year in
Caledonia, initially to build tooling for its
machinery systems, which process bar
and tube stock into various end products
used by manufacturers in the auto,
appliance, off-highway, transportation
and other industries throughout North
America.
Rattunde
Corporation
is
the
subsidiary of Rattunde & Co GmbH,
based in Ludwigslust, Germany. Long-
range plans call for an expansion of this
new facility up to 100,000ft
2
for eventual
machine builds here.
The new facility also houses a
complete spare parts inventory,
training areas for both company and
customer personnel, machines for
demonstration purposes and testing
plus a state-of-the-art machine shop,
where machine- and application-specific
tooling will be manufactured, making the
company more responsive to customer
requirements.
Mr Stadler said: “Everyone in the
company is excited by the potential of
this new facility. It will create an energy
that will translate into a great working
environment for our team, plus we’ll
have more capabilities to better serve
our customers, immediately and into the
future. The growth of Rattunde sales in
North America and especially the hard
work of our team made this all possible.”
Mr Stadler also mentioned future
plans for a facility in Mexico, where
the company has substantial business
engagements.
Rattunde Corporation
– USA
Website:
Rattunde president Rick Stadler cuts the
ribbon to officially open the company’s new
facility in Caledonia, Michigan, near Grand
Rapids. He is flanked by Martin Proksch (l)
and Ulrich Rattunde (r), both directors from
the parent company in Germany, plus the
team members of Rattunde Corporation.
Mr Stadler’s sons hold the ends of the
ribbon for their dad
New 30,000ft
2
facility officially opened by Rattunde
Plasma surface treatment
applications presented
SURFACE cleaning and degreasing
is an important part of the tube
production process. Traditionally this
involves wet, chemical processes that
are potentially harmful to the operator
and the environment. One way to turn
production chemical-free is to use
plasma surface cleaning, which is a dry
surface treatment.
The subject of plasma surface
treatment has been summarised in
a technical article prepared by Igor
Rogelj, commercial director of Plasmait
GmbH, the Austrian supplier of plasma
heat and surface treatment machinery.
The technical paper titled ‘Continuous
Plasma
Cleaning
and
Surface
Activation of Welded and Seamless
Tubes’ was selected for presentation
at the Pipe and Tube conference in
Houston, USA, in September 2014.
The paper outlines the plasma cleaning
and surface activation process for small
and medium diameter tubing.
The application of plasma surface
treatment is explored in various
situations like finished material cleaning,
degreasing and surface preparation
for coating. The workings of the
plasma cleaner and its components
are explained and compared to the
traditional surface cleaning techniques.
Plasmait GmbH
– Austria
Email:
Website:
