Company visit: PIM International, Vol.1 No. 4 December 2007, pages 44-46, 1146 words

Author: Dr. Georg Schlieper, Ingenieurbüro Gammatec, Germany

Ingenieurbüro Gammatec, Alleestr. 101, D-42853 Remscheid, Geramny

GKN Sinter Metals, a leading global powder metal (PM) parts supplier, opened the doors of its Bad Langensalza metal injection moulding plant to Powder Injection Moulding International. Dr. Georg Schlieper talked with Jens Wolf about his views on MIM technology and the outlook for business.

A history of PM manufacturing at Bad Langensalza

Bad Langensalza is a pleasant small spa town in the gently rolling hills of the German province of Thuringia. The nearest larger city is Erfurt some 35 km away. The factory in Bad Langensalza, founded in 1967, was initially a training centre for engineers and other professions. In 1969 it became part of Robotron, an East German electrical appliances manufacturer. As many Robotron products such as typewriters required large numbers of intricately shaped parts that were best made by PM technology, the Langensalza plant was selected as the PM manufacturing site. A licence agreement existed with the West German Sintermetallwerk Krebsöge Group to use the split die compaction technique (Olivetti process).

With the collapse of the East German regime in 1989/90 the plant’s economic situation had become very difficult. Jürgen Stoll, the Plant Manager at that time, needed a PM partner to help with the transformations required for the Western free market economy and found this in the Krebsöge Sinterholding Group. It is largely owing to Dr. Lothar Albano-Müller, the Chief Executive of the Krebsöge Sinterholding Group at the time, that the PM plant in Bad Langensalza was preserved and that new products were developed.

When the Krebsöge Group was acquired by GKN Sinter Metals in 1998, the plant in Bad Langensalza became part of the GKN group. The production of sintered parts by split-die compaction continued until 2001........

Further sections of this article include:

- Metal injection moulding operations

- Materials and markets

- Forecasting solid growth for MIM technology

- Process advantages versus materials costs

Figures and Tables:

Fig. 1 GKN’s Bad Langensalza MIM plant with a floor space of 4300m² (Courtesy GKN Sinter Metals

Fig. 2 Line of injection moulding machines at GKN Langensalza (Courtesy GKN Sinter Metals)

Fig. 3 Continuous MIM debinding and sintering furnace lines at the Bad Langensalza plant facilitate high-volume parts production (Courtesy Arburg)

Fig. 4 Tooling for the Shift Lever part shown in Fig. 5 (Courtesy Arburg)

Fig. 5 Shift lever in various manufacturing stages (from left to right) moulded, sintered, hardened, assembled with shaft

Fig. 6 Catch carrier (courtesy GKN Sinter Metals)