Germany’s EST chooses Kimtech for safe operation and a fast and expert response
Thanks to the latest cutting technology, Edelstahl-Schneidtechnik focuses on efficient production of stainless-steel profiles for fast deliveries to a range of quality-intensive branches of industry. For the workshop in Germany the company chooses the Swedish company Kimtech as its supplier of all waterjet-cutting machinery.
“The most important thing for us is that the equipment is easy to handle and works 24/7. And that’s the normal situation with machines from Kimtech,” says Christian Hemetsberger, CEO of Edelstahl-Schneidtechnik (EST).
EST has built up its cutting centre on historic land in Hattingen, Germany, where steel and steel products were manufactured as long as 150 years ago. The company has been a customer of Kimtech since 2011, when it was ready to develop its waterjet cutting and was looking for a machine manufacturer that met the requirements.
“We’d heard about Kimtech, and knew it was a family-owned company with a good reputation. In our contacts with them we felt that Sven Kimblad, the company’s founder and the person responsible for sales at the time, was professional, honest and highly experienced,” says Christian Hemetsberger.
Fast service with expertise
In the years since then, EST’s own experience shows that the technology is reliable and the level of service so high that it matches EST’s business concept, according to which fast deliveries are a crucial part of coping with the competition and taking the lead within the industry. The products go to customers in everything from container and civil engineering to offshore and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
“We greatly appreciate the fact that the people responsible for service at Kimtech are absolute specialists in what they do. This contributes to problems being resolved as quickly as possible. When we call, we know we can always talk to a technician, and that’s harder for a bigger company to achieve, by way of comparison,” says Christian Hemetsberger.
If a site visit is required, that also takes place without delay, even if the parties are based in different countries.
“In an emergency Kimtech sends a technician to our workshop as fast as or faster than a company from southern Germany. I assume that says a lot about how flexible they are,” Hemetsberger says.
Straightforward to make adjustments
In the collaboration with Kimtech, EST has also found it easy to propose and implement business-related adaptations of the machines. For EST, for example, it has been about the design of work tables when the desire was to start from one’s own existing drawing.
Another modification has been the installation of ‘traffic lights’ to make it easier for EST’s operators to handle the waterjet equipment.
“These types of adaptations are far easier to implement with a family-owned company like Kimtech,” says Christian Hemetsberger.
EST is absolutely certain that waterjet cutting as a method will grow, and that Kimtech will remain an important partner going forwards.
“For us, demand will increase because EST is still growing. I also think several companies prefer waterjet cutting, which does not require preparatory work, to plasma cutting – a method that may require further processing,” says Christian Hemetsberger.
