The prospering family-run company Laufenberg from Hüls is also internationally recognized as a specialist for silicone-coated papers and films. The business has continuously expanded along the Mühlenweg in recent years to meet the increasing demand.
The result is an ultra-modern plant on 38,000 square meters of premises with state-of-the-art machinery and 225 qualified employees – 27 more than two years ago. Company founder Bernhard Laufenberg, who established the company in 1947, began developing release liners in 1960. The silicone-coated products are indispensable in many industries today, for example as masking paper for double-sided adhesive tapes, for the production of carbon composites for aircraft or as a cover for plasters for medical purposes.
Three employees took over the company from the founder in 1991. The Soding family has been the sole shareholder since 2016. Jörg Soding has been accompanying the generational change in the company since 2002. As a paper engineer, he places great emphasis on research and development. His wife Stephanie joined the management team two years ago, where she is responsible for marketing, among other things. “I really enjoy the varied work,” she says. As a trained architect, she has also accompanied the construction progress of the company.
“A company without a vision has no future,” Jörg Soding is certain. His goal is a customer-oriented innovation center. Production is spread over two of the eight production halls. Three machines coat industrially used papers and films on both sides with various silicones, while one machine does this on one side. The company has largely withdrawn from mass production and is concentrating on high-quality industrial applications. To this end, Laufenberg has been developing new applications on a small-scale pilot system in a kind of cleanroom laboratory since 2017. Four funded research projects are currently being carried out on the modular system, which customers are also allowed to use. Service and quality assurance are a top priority.
During a visit to the production area, the two counter-rotating coating systems, which are more than 70 meters long and allow a flying roll change, are impressive. The roll of paper or film weighs more than two tons. The film runs at up to 400 meters per minute over various rollers, is first coated on one side and fed through huge dryers, then automatically turned over and coated on the reverse side. “Operating these systems is a science in itself,” says Stephanie Soding, explaining the principle. The running speed and dryer temperature must be adjusted depending on the paper and film thickness. The type of silicone must be selected according to the task and precisely dosed in order to achieve the desired release force. Usually one side of the coating must come off more easily than the other. The coating is solvent-free. An in-house innovation is the fully automatic transport of the finished rolls via the mill path to the central assembly area in the opposite factory hall via a bridge. This will relieve traffic on the Mühlenweg and reduce factory traffic. After packaging, the products are transported by truck to a central warehouse in Krefeld, from where they are shipped all over the world.
One secret of our success is our highly trained employees. A third of them are Hüls employees, most of whom have been with the company for a long time. Training as a master craftsman and as a business administrator with a dual course of study is promoted. Ten trainees are currently learning the business from the ground up. “We love living here in Hüls with our three children,” says the entrepreneurial couple, who are committed to their birthplace. (wop)