Through the excellence network in composites production technology of the Aachen Center for integrative Lightweight Production (AZL), the two partnering companies Katcon and M.TEC have announced their strategic cooperation in order to establish a high-class product portfolio to serve automotive and aircraft interior customers.

As an established automotive supplier, family owned Mexico headquartered company Katcon has been serving directly and with great satisfaction over 60 OEM´s in the worldwide automotive industry.

Financially strong, the company decided to expand and strategically divert its profitable activities in entering the composite market.

Project

Dr Michael Effing, Founder of AMAC, Senior Advisor to AZL and as of now, also European Representative of Katcon Advanced Materials, commented: “We started advising and introducing Katcon, the worldwide renowned manufacturer for automotive exhaust systems, to the composite industry only in 2014. To see this project alive and operational already now shows efficient project management.”

AMAC is an industrial and business consulting company in the field of lightweight construction materials, based in Aachen, Germany. The business model of AMAC is based on three pillars: establishment and development of networking and clusters between universities and industrial companies, training in Sales and Marketing excellence, as well as Management of Industrial projects.

Collaborations with top players

Fernando Turner, President of Katcon Advanced Materials said: “Katcon is proud to invest in the fascinating and innovative composites industry with machines, people and business development: The AZL and the excellence in business development of AMAC helped us significantly to establish collaborations with international top players of the composite industry.”

“In record time, we have chosen the latest advanced material’s manufacturing technology and equipment and bought state-of-the-art machines for processes like RTM for thermoset and for thermoplastic, thermoforming and hybrid moulding, as well as related post-processing technologies.”

Katcon focuses on automotive and aircraft interior applications like external and internal body panels, underbody and structural components, doors, tailgates, floor pans or seats.

While developing its in-house engineering capabilities, Katcon is relaying on M.TEC´s cooperation expertise.

German engineering specialist

“Starting as a spin-off from Aachen University´s Institute for Plastics processing (IKV) over 20 years ago, we are now established on the market as a specialist in calculation, designing and engineering of parts,” commented Dr Volker Gorzelitz, CEO of M.TEC, German engineering specialist, with focus on integrated product development. “We are happy to support Katcon in entering the advanced materials industry with our know-how and expertise.”

In the cooperation of these four partners, AMAC assures business development and establishing Katcon’s market share on the European market, whilst AZL leads the process development and manufacturing, and M.TEC takes care of design and engineering.

“This cooperation is an example of the efficient usage of our network and its specialized lightweight know-how along the entire value chain – a complete new working team has thus been set up,” said Dr Kai Fischer, Managing Director of AZL Aachen.

“To see how quickly AZL and its high quality lightweight competence network bears fruits is extremely satisfying for us. We wish Katcon and M.TEC best success as world-class supplier cooperation in serving the worldwide transportation market.”

www.amac-international.com