From cotton spinning to nonwovens
From its origins in providing repair services for wool and cotton spinning mills, Burckhardt’s 3D perforation is now a standard option for many nonwoven products Christoph Burckhardt – a family business in its third generation – has continually recognised new trends; innovation, precision and quality as being key to its success.
“Burckhardt was founded by my grandfather in 1941 to provide repair services of needle combs for local wool and cotton spinning mills,” explains CEO Teddy Burckhardt. “During the 1970s and 1980s the business specialised in the production of pinned equipment for cotton spinning and plastics processing. Over the years we have built up a strong team with solid know-how and qualified skills to meet our clients’ technical challenges.”
The production site in Basel, Switzerland is equipped with the most advanced CNC machines – many of them developed by Burckhardt’s own engineers.
“Thanks to highly qualified personnel we are able to produce a wide ranging program of machines and tools,” continues Burckhardt. “In addition, we design innovative and special precision parts with pins and holes. Our products are delivered as original equipment to machine manufacturers and producers of technical textiles or plastics.”
Concerted efforts to increase globalisation has resulted in an extensive network today of 50 agents all around the world. The business has developed from a parts manufacturer producing predefined standard spare parts to an application specialist developing solutions for simple and complex perforating challenges.
“Our solutions comprise precision perforating parts (pinned segments in various designs) – mostly tailormade to our customer’s machines or processes, says Burckhardt. “We also offer standard parts but they are only used in industries where there are existing standards; perforating tools (pinned rollers and counter rollers); and machines for hot and cold perforation.”
Toll perforation
Being a one-stop-shop supplier in the field of perforation Burckhardt offers a comprehensive range of services to its customers including:
● Toll perforation: on its in-house perforating line jobs can be run for customers who do
not wish to invest in their own equipment.
● Product development: in its perforating laboratory Burckhardt can trial and develop solutions using customer’s materials, thereby considerably speeding up definition of new products.
● Consulting: during product and material development the company is able to draw on 30 years’ experience in perforation.
Global business
Burckhardt supplies products to a worldwide customer base. Currently 50% of production goes into the EU and Turkey; 50% to the US, South America and Asia.
“As a Swiss company we are traditionally in the top niche of the market where expertise, quality and service is important and paid for,” explains Burckhardt. “At the same time we are able to cater to the mid range of the markets as our units provide excellent economics (speed, reliability, service) which is appreciated by many producers of perforated materials who tend to calculate cost of ownership rather than investment cost.
“Our vision for the future is to further strengthen our position as the leading provider of perforating solutions and equipment providing a one-stop-shop for manifold technical solutions
“Reacting quickly to market trends we actively develop new solutions based on long experience. Our new HotSpeed perforating unit is one example as it is faster and more reliable than existing solutions in the industry as well as providing improved strength of the film/material after perforation. We also try out new concepts.
“The nonwoven’s 3D perforation we developed a few years ago is today a standard option for many nonwoven products in the market (especially diapers),” concludes Burckhardt. “As we are a small and flexible Swiss company we can quickly adapt to the needs of our global customers. Our lean organisation and closeness to the customer in combination with long experience in the perforation business are a prerequisite for this ability.”
Christoph Burckhardt AG
T: +41 61 638 18 00