Based in Weiβenburg, the Gutmann Group has specialised for eighty-five years in the production and sale of aluminium architectural systems and custom aluminium profiles for several different industrial sectors. When the company needed a second, high-productivity coating line, they chose a vertical system by Trasmetal, with last generation MS Powder System booths.
"Anything is possible, here at Gutmann."
That is what Bruno Fijten, a member of the Board of Directors of the Gutmann Group, immediately tells us. Based in Weiβenburg (Germany), this company has specialised for eighty-five years in the production and sale of aluminium architectural systems and custom aluminium profiles for several different industrial sectors.
"The variability of products that we are able to offer on the market is potentially limitless: we already provide almost 10,000 possible combinations and we are the market leader of the DACH area1. Our way of doing business is unique but also very complex. We specialise in the production of aluminium/wood systems, which are very exclusive because they combine the warmth of wood with the high outdoor resistance performance of aluminium, thus eliminating the need for maintenance. We have ambitious plans for this market: we want to double our volume of business. Therefore, we must reduce our time to market and improve our production capacity. Our investment in two aluminium profile coating systems, a horizontal one started in 2018 and a vertical one recently completed, was a
part of this expansion project."
"Up to 2018, we worked with several local contractors for coating our profiles. This production flow was not lean and it entailed a considerable manipulation degree of our products, with negative consequences on quality levels and delivery times. A long delivery time is not acceptable in this market, where a just-in-time approach is required because decisions on colours and finishes are taken at the last minute," explains Fijten. "That is why we decided to establish Color/G Aluminium, a company entrusted with the coating of the entire Gutmann production."
"Gutmann now has a fully integrated production process, which starts from the extrusion of profiles, continues with machining (cutting, welding, and drilling), thermal break assembly, anodising, and coating operations, and ends with the quality control, packaging, and shipping phases. We combine a just-in-time flow with an excellent quality level and a maximum cycle time of 4 days from cutting to packaging," says Simon Brunauer, the architectural system production manager and the coating manager of Color/G. "In order to achieve our lean production and excellent quality goals, we decided to rely on one supplier for both our new coating lines and we chose Trasmetal (Milan, Italy), which provided us with two high-quality, technologically advanced plants while distinguishing for its design accuracy and on-time deliveries. The first plant we installed was the horizontal one, which was started in January 2018 and reached full production in one year. We chose to begin with this because it would have ensured higher flexibility in terms of workpiece type and size than the vertical one: indeed, Color/G also coats sheets, accessories, and components for our architectural systems. One year after the start of the project, however, the subcontracting issue remained, as the horizontal line was not sufficient to handle our whole coated profile volume: our aluminium/wood systems alone require us to produce 1 million m2 of window profiles in 2 colours. We needed a second, high-productivity coating line. We chose a vertical system, again supplied by Trasmetal, with last generation MS Powder System booths."
"In order to further streamline production and guarantee total quality, we also chose to only rely on two powder coatings suppliers, except for projects for which customers have different specifications," emphasises Simon Brunauer. "We have developed our own colour range including about 20 tints. Customers that select one of these colours can count on a delivery time of 1 day; the choice of any other colour among 200 standard shades provided entails a delivery time of 2 days, while for special colours the delivery time rises to 3 days, which is also our maximum time-to-market for coated products. Syntha Pulvin, a brand of The Sherwin-Williams Company, is our main supplier of architectural powders."
"Gutmann currently uses GSB/Qualicoat Class 1 powders, but plans to soon switch to Class 2 ones," says Thorsten Reif, technical-commercial specialist of The Sherwin-Williams Company. "Our Inver2 factory in Italy provides it with about 190 colours with different effects, including glossy and matt smooth, fine textured, and glossy and matt metallic finishes. These belong to three different groups, i.e. 111 (smooth/glossy), 119 (fine textured), and 123 (smooth/matt), within which each colour is defined by a code. This system enables Gutmann to quickly order tints and finishes using their codes, with no risk of mistakes. Custom colours are formulated in our laboratories in Minerbio (Italy) and Thouars (France), following the classification and performance characteristics of each coating group. Finally, we provide Color/G with a consultancy service and technical assistance within 8 hours from their requests, deliveries within 48 hours, and above all the support of our two laboratories in Italy and France for any R&D activity."
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