Wittur and LM Liftmaterial celebrate 50th anniversary

Together over 100 years of experience, technical knowledge and high quality standards: Wittur GmbH and LM Liftmaterial GmbH celebrated the 50th anniversary of Wittur in Germany together.

The two managing directors Klaus Gerhards (Wittur GmbH) and Urs Affolter (LM Liftmaterial GmbH) organized the 50th anniversary of Wittur in Germany together.

Antoine Doutriaux (CEO of the Wittur Group), Christoph Kaml (CFO of the Wittur Group), Geoffroy Durandet (Managing Director Europe) and Ahmet Kanbolat (Managing Director Eurasia and Systems) gave the guests a hearty welcome.

Managing directors welcomed the guests

Horst Wittur established Wittur-Aufzugteile GmbH & Co in Miesberg near Munich in 1968. Just a year before, Liftmaterial in Haar near Munich had been established by Rudolf Diemand and Klaus Neumann. Quasi a double anniversary, which was celebrated on 25 October in the company headquarters in Wiedenzhausen as WeDay – "day of the open door".

The more than 80 guests were welcomed by the two managing directors Klaus Gerhards and Urs Affolter. They took turns in giving talks, documented with videos, about the past, present and future of the Wittur Group.

Industry 4.0 in the Wittur production system

Several special features of the production process at Wittur were emphasised. Among other things, the introduction of Industry 4.0 in the production system was explained: currently, robots are used in the various production locations to apply glue to the panel cladding, supply the bending machine for door cladding and check the presence of each component in each package at the end of the assembly lines.

Moreover, the new paperless concept of the Wittur production lines was presented, in which each technician can check the assembly sequence and package contents on video monitors. Furthermore, additional end controls are carried out to ensure that each package is correctly prepared.

Visually guided into the heart of Wittur TIC

The fully automatic powder coating lines, available in the Italian Wittur plant, were also presented. Each part is automatically scanned and a robot painting station used to reach the most difficult areas of each part correspondingly. This guarantees the best result, even in the case of differing component designs, and the best repeatability of the painting process.

The participants were visually guided into the heart of Wittur TIC, the research and development centre for catches in Scheibbs (Austria). The test tower there is equipped to carry out freefall tests on all catches and it is intensively used during the development phase to improve the performance and safety level of the safety components.

World referee promotes team work

After this, the auditorium was transported to the emotionally-charged world of football by the referee Dr Markus Merk. Merk, who was voted world referee three times, gave an entertaining talk about the difficulty of reaching good decisions within seconds. He underlined the importance of trust-based team work in this regard.

The customers were able to learn more in various workshops – for example, about the new joint component portfolio of Wittur and LM, LM’s service organisation, the different options for lift controllers and the range of Wittur drives.

Continuous improvement and expansion

In addition, the entire product range of Wittur doors, catches and gearless drives was presented to the visitors in the completely renovated showroom. The range of controllers for LM systems, the online configurator tool for LM ONYX and the Wittur gearless drives were also shown.

Two new products were unveiled in the showrooms: the new MCS1 car series, available for the LM product line ONYX and the Sematic C-MOD doors, now also optionally available with the Wittur ECO+ door drive.

It was evident that Wittur and LM Liftmaterial intend to go on working on the continuous improvement and expansion of the synergy effects within the Group. Sincere thanks were expressed to all of the customers who had come to Wiedenzhausen. Their direct feedback was essential for realising the core message of the day, "Building the best lifts together!"

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