With multiple successful joint ventures already in place, KLINGER brings rubber-coated metal (RCM) manufacturing to the United States.
For years, KLINGER’s Polystrat has been a key component in the automotive and industrial markets. First developed by KLINGER Switzerland, this rubber coated steel is used to manufacture brake shims and gaskets for automotive, heavy duty/off-highway vehicles, compressors and industrial applications. In 2018, KLINGER began a partnership with Sinyuan Industry Group to produce Polystrat in Ningbo, China. By duplicating the successful process already used in Switzerland, the team was soon ready to take on China, the world’s largest automotive market. With European and Asia-Pacific markets fully supported, the KLINGER team was now positioned to take on North America.
Groundbreaking for the 25,000-square-foot addition to KLINGER Thermoseal’s facility in January 2023.
At the same time, KLINGER Thermoseal in Sidney, Ohio was ready and willing to expand. Scott Peters, KLINGER Thermoseal’s Managing Director and Daniel Schibli, CEO of KLINGER Group, suggested rubber coated metal as a path forward. Scott explains: “KLINGER has a presence in two other countries and knows how to build the manufacturing equipment and successfully produce rubber coated metal material. There was no KLINGER RCM presence in the U.S., so the foundation for the collaborative effort between three continents was laid.”
Soon after, David Schweiger, then serving as KLINGER Thermoseal’s Director of Engineering, became a key player in the expansion effort. They broke ground on the new 25,000 square foot addition in January 2023, and the building was completed in autumn. The new factory addition was specifically designed to solely house KLINGER RCM USA’s advanced production equipment. In November 2023, David was promoted to General Manager of KLINGER’s newest subsidiary: KLINGER RCM USA.
One critical factor in getting the new division up and running quickly was the wealth of support from other KLINGER sites. Just as the original Swiss team helped the Ningbo team, the Ningbo team paid it forward to the US team: Sinyuan played a pivotal role in the design, construction and installation of the production equipment. They followed up by sending a skilled six-person crew from the Ningbo facility to support and assist the Ohio team with unloading and assembling the production equipment. Additional expertise and assistance including product and sales support was provided by KLINGER Switzerland.
Production at the new KLINGER Thermoseal facility will be ramped up in phases.
Grand opening in May 2024
Jackie Riley, Marketing Manager for KLINGER Thermoseal explains, “There are many challenges to overcome with a global project like this. Strong relationships were built and it was both rewarding and exciting to celebrate the success together.”
A grand opening was held on May 15, 2024, and featured a ceremonial ribbon cutting, followed by refreshments and tours. On hand to celebrate with the KLINGER RCM USA and KLINGER Thermoseal teams were Gabriel Williams (Managing Director of KLINGER Switzerland), Daniel Schibli (CEO of KLINGER Group), Yilin Yuan (President of Sinyuan Industry Group), and Jingjing Qiu (General Manager of KLINGER RCM Ningbo). While it was a priority to recognize all the international team members that contributed to the process, it was also important to involve local support: City of Sidney officials, members of the local Chamber of Commerce, suppliers, and customers were also invited to the event.
On May 15, 2024 a grand opening was held at KLINGER RCM USA.
Ensuring consistency for Automotive markets
The KLINGER RCM USA team is ramping up production in phases, performing trial runs to ensure that each step of this specialized process performs flawlessly. As David points out, the Swiss and Ningbo teams have been invaluable in shortening the learning curve: “There are a lot of lessons learned taken from the other facilities, and we want to distill all that down to learn from those actions.” As their process improves, eventually KLINGER RCM USA hopes to share their own lessons with the other RCM locations. This is not only beneficial to the group, but to customers as well.
“We've been doing a lot to globalize operations, so when material comes off the machine in Asia, Europe, or the United States, it's exactly the same. It's a big hurdle in the automotive industry. If it's not exactly the same, the customer has to retest it, and retesting is very, very expensive. Making sure you have things that are the same globally is a tremendous benefit.”
David Schweiger, General Manager of KLINGER RCM USA
