ALT Technologies Romania chooses RotoMetrics

Plant manager Csaba Hajdo said: ‘The products we manufacture need a right first time, every time approach, with a fast response should something go wrong. We are dealing with safety products that are part of an intricate manufacturing chain, where a stoppage in one sector can have serious consequences downstream.’

The supply agreement, which was negotiated by James Wellsbury, of RotoMetrics UK, is based on the die maker’s commitment to meet ALT’s requirement for just-in-time (JIT) production. To serve ALT and other important customers in the region, RotoMetrics entered a joint venture with Romanian distributor Graphic Open Systems (GOS), based in Brasov. RotoMetrics South East Europe, as the facility is known, provides the company with the ability to repair and resharpen rotary dies on a same-day basis.

‘The automotive industry in Europe waits for no man, so it is vital that we have instant response from our suppliers to any emergency, as well as a local source to meet our planned program of die refurbishing, re-sharpening, repair and replacement. No other die manufacturer was interested in making that commitment,’ said Hajdo.

The strictures under which ALT works with its customers are an object lesson to many in other industries, with attention to detail extremely high as the products being manufactured all relate to passenger safety in cars, where there is no room for error or second chances.

‘Many of our dies in use at ALT are cutting metal-to-metal, so die life can be short,’ commented Wellsbury. ‘We are dealing with an industry that works in microns – we take drawings and convert them into dimensioned die lines. There must be no deviation at any stage because lives depend on the absolute accuracy and flawless repeatability of the work being done here – and RotoMetrics’ dies are a key component.

‘We are both engineering companies so were immediately on the same wavelength. Today’s JIT production leaves no room for buffer inventories, so we see our investment in the Romanian facility as the type of long-term commitment required to build and diversify our business.’

ALT Technologies has its headquarters in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established initially in 2002 as part of the Sentega Group through a management buy out from Avery Dennison, the plant in Romania was opened in 2004. In 2008 the company opened a sales office in Shanghai, and in 2012 added a production facility there, as well as a warehouse in El Paso, USA. Today, the group employs more than 350 people across all locations, and is building business steadily in the specialist markets in which it operates.

Read more about the automotive labeling market in L&L issue2, 2017, and here