Germany-based Kurre Spezialmaschinenbau GmbH has been catering wire and cable manufacturing machines since 1979. Thanks to its customized engineering, its machines can be found in many industries. Having a worldwide market presence, the company in India is represented by Reifenhäuser India Marketing Private Limited (RIMPL). Eyeing good growth potential in India, it wants to build its base here, Mr. Stefan Plaggenborg, Managing Director, Kurre Spezialmaschinenbau GmbH informs Wire & Cable India magazine in an interaction.
Wire & Cable India: Please take us through the journey of Kurre.
Stefan Plaggenborg: Founded in 1979 as “Metall- und Maschinenbau KURRE”, Kurre offers comprehensive expertise, innovation and more than 45 years of experience in the cable and wire industry as well as in the development of specialized and customized machinery. In addition to the internal design as well as the research and development, we offer our 500 international customers a holistic in-house production thanks to our own state-of-the-art manufacturing capacities. Thus, it is possible to react fast and be flexible to customer requirements. We do installations everywhere in the world. Europe is the biggest market for us because we are a German company.
WCI: Tell us about the product portfolio Kurre caters. What is your USP?
SP: Our large portfolio includes all machines for the realization of various products in the cable and wire industry. We specialize in the customization of machine types and supply both individual components such as winders, taping systems, dancers and cooling technology as well as complete systems such as core or jacketing lines. We bear a high degree of responsibility for the quality of our products and services.
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WCI: For what kind of cables do you make these machines?
SP: We are in automotive, aircraft, data communication, medicine and building wires. The smallest product we ever handled was 30 microns thick. The biggest product for us is like an enhanced video connector line with a diameter of 60-70 millimeters. So this is small to big. And in speed, it’s from a very low speed up to 2,000 meter per minute or 2,000 RPM, if you look into a taping machine.
“India, being a price-sensitive market and looking for value, we expect around 60% of the price of a normal EU standard jacketing line.”
WCI: Please shed some light on your presence in India, and what kind of potential do you see?
SP: In India, we are represented by Reifenhäuser India Marketing Private Limited (RIMPL). This is because we want machine installations to be done with local sources. This is key for India as we have to have good support on-site. Even though we are located in Germany, we want to build a strong base in India so that we can support the customers very fast. We look into the markets which are growing, like India, and we want to grow constantly. We grew a lot last year. We want to be on-site with the customers. So this is what we want to do next year.
When it comes to potential in India, all the areas, be it simple building wire area or the medicine industry, are growing very fast. And this is why we want to dig into India. We have configured machines for standard building wires, insulation lines up to 2,000 meters per minute and jacketing line up to 100 meters per minute. The key is to have simple operations and standardization of machines specially for the Indian market. India, being a price-sensitive market and looking for value, we expect around 60% of the price of a normal EU standard fully automatic jacketing line.
WCI: Please discuss some of the recent innovations at Kurre.
SP: We have a taping unit with 2000 RPM with a very low tension force, and this taping unit is tension-controlled. So the tape we put onto the product is tension-controlled down to 1 Newton and this doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. Another good development is our database control system. We have a very good data collection system for the operation of the machines, for the recipes of the machines, for the order management of the orders onto the machines, as well as the quality control of these machines and the lines, of course.
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WCI: Tell us about your manufacturing capabilities.
SP: We are able to manufacture every single part in-house. We have laser cutting machines, milling machines, welding operations, programming, wiring, design and engineering setup, painting, bending and every operation you need to build a machine. The facility we have is now 13,000 square meters.
