Author: a.manzo

The Supervisory Board of SLM Solutions Group AG has announced new appointments and nominations to its leadership ranks, while a capital injection of €13 million will continue to fund growth and development projects.
After the announcement in late 2018 that Uwe Bögershausen would not extend his contract beyond June 2019, the Supervisory Board of SLM Solutions resolved last week on appointing a new CEO to complete its Executive Board. Meddah Hadjar will join the company effective May 1, 2019 as CEO. Meddah Hadjar brings a wealth of international experience in product management, additive manufacturing and engineering, having served in key leadership roles within the aviation, oil & gas and power & energy business units at General Electric, to which SLM Solutions has sold many of its selective laser melting systems.
Hans-Joachim Ihde, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, believes that Meddah Hadjar’s broad international experience makes him the ideal candidate to lead SLM Solutions. “We are very happy to have signed Mr. Hadjar to bring the company back on its growth track.”
Furthermore, three current members of the Supervisory Board have announced their retirement or stated that they will not stand for reelection in June: Peter Grosch, Lars Becker and Bernd Hackmann. Michael Mertin, Magnus René and Thomas Schweppe have been recommended to join as new Supervisory Board members. They will complement and strengthen the Supervisory Board by bringing additional experience in additive manufacturing, industrial manufacturing and capital markets to SLM Solutions. Michael Mertin was former CEO of Jenoptik, Magnus René was former CEO of ARCAM and Thomas Schweppe is Managing Director of 7Square and former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. “We thank Peter Grosch, Lars Becker and Bernd Hackmann for their services and are encouraged by the fresh perspectives and unique experiences that the candidates Michael Mertin, Magnus René and Thomas Schweppe will bring to SLM Solutions,” Hans-Joachim Ihde stated.
Moreover, the fresh injection of proceeds from the capital increase will bolster the company’s funding for further growth and R&D projects. Elliott, SLM’s largest shareholder, together with ENA Investment Capital, emphasized their commitment to the company and its future prospects with a total investment of approximately €13 million to allow the company to further focus on growth. Franck Tuil, senior portfolio manager at Elliott, stated, “The commitment of additional capital is based on our belief in SLM’s technological leadership in the additive manufacturing industry and its strong customer base. We look forward to continuing our collaborative relationship with the Company and are confident the newly appointed CEO and a strengthened Supervisory Board can successfully position SLM to realise its significant potential, delivering compelling value to all of SLM’s stakeholders.”

Prima Power has signed an agreement with Gasparini for the distribution of products in the Gasparini range with Prima Power brand and colors. Thanks to this collaboration Prima Power expands the range of its press brakes, combining the models of the servo-electric eP series, produced in the Prima Power plant of Cologna Veneta (VR), with the new family of hydraulic bending presses hP, ten medium format models – large covering a range from 270 to 650 tons. At the base of the agreement there is a real industrial project, valid at a global level, which foresees that the hP press brakes are not only marketed but also assisted by the Prima Power network.

The two technologies, electrical and hydraulic, have advantages and complementary uses. EP servo-electric bending presses are ideal for processing sheet metal with medium-low thicknesses. Powerful and flexible, the hP series products cover the highest tonnage range of applications. Hydraulic press brakes are ideal for the agricultural and earth-moving sector, characterized by high-thickness components, and thus become complementary to high-power and large-format laser machines dedicated to this sector, considered strategic by Prima Power. The hydraulic bending presses, the 10 kW fiber laser for 2D machines and the new Laser Sharp of size 2060 are designed for customers who need particularly flexible products in terms of materials, thicknesses and sheet metal sizes to be processed.

The hP series is the perfect combination of the strength and versatility of hydraulic technology and the energy savings and sustainability of the ECO package. The Adaptive Crowning and Reflex system also make this press brake the most precise machine in its category.
The Adaptive Crowning and the Reflex system make it possible to compensate for deformations of the structure, which are inevitable during the bending process, thanks to sensors and control systems that allow constant angles to be maintained on each material and thickness.

The DSP laser safety system protects the operator from the danger of crushing between the upper and lower tool. It represents the evolution of the safety of the bending press and allows a reduction in the duration of the bending cycle.

The hP series can be connected in tandem or integrated into automated lines or robot cells. Furthermore, the performance of the hP press brakes can be further increased thanks to the possibility of configuring the machine according to the customer’s production requirements. The front supports, the folding guide for large or very heavy sheets, the digital wireless gauge for the automatic correction of the bending parameters, the fold-squash table that increases productivity and facilitates operations, the Laser Check, which measures the ‘bend angle and automatically corrects it using a laser beam and a video camera, are some of the main options available.

To further increase energy efficiency and environmental compatibility, the hP series can be equipped with the innovative ECO system: the motor is controlled by an inverter that manages speed and power. In this way flow and pressure in the hydraulic circuit are optimized according to the actual bending requirements.

AutoPol bending software is the solution for the most demanding programming tasks. It is an easy to use and effective tool for off-line programming of Prima Power hP series machines. The sophisticated bending simulation allows to study the feasibility of the pieces to be executed, check the bending sequence and directly produce the machine program.

Like all Prima Power products, HP press brakes are also Industry 4.0 and feature a number of software solutions such as Data Logger and Tulus Reporting View, for monitoring and reporting on production and system performance, or as a Production Manager, for communication with the customer’s ERP and the creation of work lists.

Orders received by the German machine tool industry in the first quarter of 2019 were 21 per cent down on the same period last year. Orders from Germany fell by 10 per cent whereas those from abroad were down by 27 per cent.
“These dips are due not least to the extremely buoyant first half of 2018,” said Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of the VDW (Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenfabriken – German Machine Tool Builders’ Association), Frankfurt am Main, commenting on the result. This base effect is expected to decrease significantly in the second half of 2019.
“Nevertheless, the cooling of the global economy is now finally impacting on the German machine tool industry, too,” Schäfer continued. Domestic business, long a counterweight to the decline in foreign orders, has lost a great deal of momentum. The only bright spot is the euro zone, which is now much more stable and saw only a 3 per cent downturn. However, it can only stabilise the loss from the non-euro zone to a marginal extent.
The causes of the downturn are easily identified: politically motivated disruptions to world trade which affect the emerging markets, weak growth in China, structural weaknesses in the automotive industry (the largest client market), and the slump in the semiconductor industry. “In 2018, the international automotive industry halved its capital spending to less than 4 per cent compared with the previous year, and it is likely to plan an even lower figure for 2019,” explained Schäfer.
Machine tool order levels are below those of sales for the first time again since mid-2014. Sales increased by 6 per cent in the first three months of 2019. “Many companies are currently relying on their order backlog from the previous boom,” said Schäfer. The excessive delivery times are shortening again. This makes procurement more flexible again for customers and reduces plant production throughput times for manufacturers. Capacity utilisation In April of this year was at 86.5 per cent and thus below last year’s average.
“The VDW nevertheless expects production to grow by 1 per cent in 2019,” emphasised Schäfer from the VDW. On the other hand, he is expecting demand to pick up in the second half of the year. The order backlog should also provide sustenance for some time to come.