News

The state of the order book has improved somewhat since the start of the year, but there are no hopes – as yet – of repeating the levels seen in the boom year of 2008. The market as a whole is therefore still somewhat tense, but we are nevertheless investing in new machinery, despite the general state of the economy.
We are still fully convinced of the decisive advantages to be had from our combination of centrifugal casting and highly-precise and efficient finishing options, and the quality and reliability that they deliver.

With this in mind, we have just replaced one of the older centrifugal casting machines in our foundry with a new machine that was both designed and built in-house. This supposes a further great leap forward for us in terms of reliability and operating safety. We have also expanded on the metal-machining side of the operation, with the acquisition of another two large Okuma four-axis lathes, designed to let us handle even larger diameters with extreme precision and efficiency.

Full process control with maximum efficiency and reliability sums up our goals in this respect. This is why we are also continuing to invest, despite these economically difficult times, as part of our efforts to offer you long-term reliability on the basis of our state-of-the-art plant equipment.

Our subsidiary has much to offer after its relocation and expansion.

Kuhn Special Steel Taiwan (KSST), with its new, centrally-located production facilities and offices in the region of Yunlin, is well prepared for future success. The new site fulfils all the conditions that this success requires, including a well-trained workforce and the required means of production.

Construction is currently under way on six melting furnaces, with a maximum capacity of 250 kg to one metric ton per furnace. The number of centrifugal casting machines capable of handling both vertical and horizontal items is also being increased considerably.

Major resources are being invested in plant machinery. Examples include the 19 vertical ball-making machines designed for the production of shifting balls used in valve construction, which form part of a new set of working procedures intended to deliver a considerable increase in productivity. Thanks to these changes at a production and processing level, we are now also able to manufacture such items as decanter components, heat-resistant tubes for use in the construction of industrial furnaces and valve seat rings.

Our focus is to shift in the near future to the further development of our mechanical processing facilities and an increase in the number of materials that we handle, in order to offer Asian markets the widest possible range of products, all made to Kuhn’s renowned quality specifications.

We are supporting KSST with all the resources at our disposal. Our process engineer Christian Laudenberg has been working since August at KSST in Taiwan, for example. He is there to ensure that the production processes used at KSST are as compatible as possible with those of Kuhn Special Steel.

Many of our customers have been following developments at KSST with great interest, and have welcomed this daring venture, as it gives them a chance to invest in an Asian market that can now be served by KSST with short transport routes and products made to Kuhn’s quality standards.

The table below shows the current production performance of KSST in comparison to earlier periods.