In the course of its 102-year company history, DIENES Werke für Maschinenteile GmbH & CO KG based in Overath near Cologne has developed into a leading supplier of knives, knife holders, cutting systems as well as valves. The family company with meanwhile approximately 500 staff is now managed by the third generation, the brothers Bernd and Rudolf Supe-Dienes. In an interview, Bernd Supe-Dienes talks about trends in the printing and paper industry, chances of digitalisation and about his euphoria with a view to Industrie 4.0.
Mr. Supe-Dienes, could you please give those readers who do not know your company a short survey of the history of your company?
Supe-Dienes: The company was founded in Remscheid in 1913 by Carl Rudolf Dienes. When the social unrest increased in the Ruhr Region after WWI, he settled in calmer Overath in an old water-powered mill. Before the company's establishment, he worked for a cutting tool supplier. He was an inventor who implemented his own ideas. His first patent was about how to fix the bottom knives on a smooth shaft in order to keep the cutting width constant. As a second pillar, he manufactured valves for piston compressors. This stood to reason from a technical point of view since they are rotationally symmetrical like rotary knives.
The diversification is still going on. When did Dienes become an international company?
Supe-Dienes: Our grandfather travelled a lot in Europe right from the start – often as a trio together with the bosses of Körber and Kampf. After WWII, my father, Bernd Horst Supe, made contacts in the USA. At the end of the 1970s, he established a subsidiary with production facilities there. When the decline of the piston compressors set in, he made vigorous marketing efforts for our knives. For that, he sent direct mailings to addresses all over the world. Since then, we have had representatives in very many countries, with big and small sales volumes with our products. Since the 1990s, we have had a production site in Hungary and distribution subsidiaries in other countries, also in Asia.
Do you also manufacture in Asia?
Supe-Dienes: No. On a global scale, our business is so small – and our knives and cutting systems are of such high quality – that transportation doesn't really matter. We live on the quality of our products. We still think that the expenses that would be necessary to uphold this superior quality in a production site in Asia would be too high. This admittedly restricts us with a view to wear parts.
You have an in-house slitting laboratory. Why and what it is used for?
Supe-Dienes: The possibility to cut material of customers under laboratory conditions and hence to look meticulously for solutions for very specific cutting jobs is important. Sometimes we make our laboratory available to customers without us when their developing engineers test specific cutting processes. After all, cutting often involves very sensitive know-how.
Dienes is active in many industrial sectors. Your rotary and straight knives cut rubber, paper, textiles, aluminium, adhesive tapes, labels and many more things. What are your top priorities?
Supe-Dienes: They shift with the business development of the industrial sectors. Until 2006/07, paper did very well. Now this sector is very quiet. The same applies to printing. At present, business is better with metal and plastic films/foils, nonwovens and packaging. Cutting is a cross-sectional technology. We are not tied to one market.
How do you see the further development of printing and paper?
Supe-Dienes: The final chapter has not yet been written. There is a strong structural change going on in this industry. The added value achieved by the manufacturers will show a downward trend. They will purchase more and more components and focus on system integration. That suits us. After all, we have built modules that are fully integrated into the control of the machines of our customers for a long time.
In which market segment are you operating?
Supe-Dienes: With our knives, we cover the top five percent of the world market. As far as complex knife holders are concerned, we hold the top 30 percent. Our customers demand maximum precision and solutions that are reliable even in highly automated processes. They must be fault-tolerant and must anticipate malfunctions before they occur. Our systems are able to do that. Using intelligent sensor and drive technology, they are designed to exclude faults by operators. After a knife change, for instance, they measure automatically how big the new or reground knife is. This is a precondition of any automated change and minimises change-over times with manual knife changes. Our solutions are in demand wherever the pressure for rationalisation increases and the manufacturers automate their production processes.
Are the customers prepared to pay for that?
Supe-Dienes: In the long run, the better technology is the less expensive solution, despite the higher initial costs. Anybody who shrinks from making investments will fall behind in highly competitive markets. Awareness of this fact is growing. However, new concepts take time. Thus far, no papermaking company has responded to our offer to pay us per ton of cut paper although they would then always get the best technology at an exactly calculable price. I am firmly convinced that such concepts will come. As a full-range service provider, we would then no longer sell knives but the cutting process.
To which extent do you notice the trend towards digitalisation?
Supe-Dienes: Digitalisation goes hand in hand with shorter runs, fast change-overs of end formats and a larger diversity of substrates. Printing houses must make change-overs much more often, which is very time consuming and takes up a lot of manpower. Unless the change-over is carried out fully automatically within minutes, including the knife change. Digitalisation offers big chances for automated cutting systems.
What are the drivers of automation, apart from the productivity pressure?
Supe-Dienes: Especially in printing, this is the cutting quality. Formerly, there was a lot of dust in newspaper printing. In 4c printing, dust is taboo. Papermakers must supply dust-free paper rolls, and absolutely no dust must be produced during cutting in the printing centre. This requires highly developed cutting systems with optimal knives. The textile industry was the first to request automated knife changes. In nonwoven production, it is impossible to simply stop the machines. Therefore, the cutting tools must be exchanged during the running process. The faster this is carried out, the less waste will be produced. They key to that is the automated recognition and positioning of the knives. Now, this technology ensures higher productivity in other areas as well. For instance, in the production of cardboard tubes where the cutting machines are retooled up to 25 times per day. Thanks to automation, one cutting machine can now handle volumes for which previously three machines were needed.
Isn't, as a result, the number of machines you sell much lower?
Supe-Dienes: Of course. Above all since wear also decreases drastically thanks to the improved process control. Therefore, our customers benefit in multiple ways – and they are prepared to pay for the superior solution. Especially since they often save cost in other respects. For instance, with a view to cardboard tubes where the tendency goes towards single-layer board, which reduces the cost of material. For that, precise cutting systems are required, and we offer them. This is just one of many examples. All over the world, the pressure as regards productivity and quality in production increases because the labour costs are rising. This offers chances for high-wage countries like Germany. With Industrie 4.0, production processes will come back because the wage costs will decrease.
Is Industrie 4.0 also of importance for the production at Dienes?
Supe-Dienes: Yes. With us, Industrie 4.0 has different dimensions, starting with QR codes on our knives. The operators can use them to get in touch with our service teams. We will incorporate further smartphone apps into our process world. Of even greater importance are the possibilities in our own production facilities. For nearly 30 years, we have pored over automation, which previously came to nought due to our small quantities. Now, everything is clicking into place. I am nearly euphoric. After all, automated production enables us to satisfy our high quality demands at places in the Far East as well. For us, this opens up completely new business horizons.
How big is the difference compared to the last 30 years?
Supe-Dienes: In the machine tool segment, we have reached a level of networking that facilitates the combination of different machines into a complete process chain ranging from the preproduct to the packaging of the finished end product. Even for one-digit numbers of pieces. What is common practice with photo books will also be possible with our knives. Thanks to automation, our competitiveness will increase considerably. As before, we prefabricate blade blanks in large numbers. The following finishing process is fully automated – running in reproducible high precision and with considerably shorter delivery times.
Where is the innovation potential of your products after 100 years of development?
Supe-Dienes: Just look at sensor technology! Our focus is on the contact point between the top knife and the bottom knife. Before, during and after the cutting process it needs to be controlled exactly how the two knives interact in order to achieve maximum cutting quality with lowest-possible wear. Where, for example, heavy board must be cut, the brittle board presses the knives together. We use sensors to monitor the pressure between the top knife and the bottom knife and, where necessary, apply counter-pressure in the knife holder in order to minimise wear. As a result, the service life of the knives is much longer. Only ten years ago, this would have been unthinkable. High-performance chips, increasingly precise sensors and networking will help us to overcome problems that were long considered unsolvable.
Even for the cutting of new materials?
Supe-Dienes: For sure! Just think of fibre-reinforced plastic materials, electrodes of lithium ion batteries or flexible solar cells. There are many new fields of application with highest demands on the cuts. We watch these future markets and participate in the development. Besides that, we examine whether new processes can advance the production of our knives. Be they additive processes for coating or the targeted placement of molecules into the materials. There are some very interesting developments going on.
Definitely your VarioCut cutting system in which the weight of the knife has been halved from 20 kg to 10 kg so that just one person can exchange it.
Supe-Dienes: We are looking forward to the feedback of the market. First customer orders have been received. News about their advantages will get around. The system was developed by an external partner. Actually, the knife consists of two parts. Only the blade is exchanged, which is additionally facilitated by mounting aids. Machine manufacturers who use the VarioCut can fully integrate the fixed knife holder so that their customers will only need to exchange the lightweight blade. We are very excited about the response. With such solutions, with our contributions to automation and our high-precision cutting systems we hope to be able to set ourselves apart from the increasing number of Asian competitors on a permanent basis. For a long time, we have had only one-digit growth rates in our market. It is not easy to maintain our share. However, we are working hard and have always been able to show our customers that our solutions will be profitable for them.
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