The Luxembourg-headquartered Ceratizit Group, like the increasingly successful WNT-Rotor Pro Cycling women’s team it sponsors, is focused firmly on success.
Indeed, the group’s ultimate goal is to be one of the world’s top-three cutting-tool manufacturers; and while this might be an ambitious objective, it is one that board member Thierry Wolter now considers to be realistic in light of the complementary tooling brands it now owns.
At a recent press conference attended by
Machinery Market, he said: “To help achieve our goal, the Ceratizit Group is currently undergoing a rebrand to bring all its renowned industry names — Cutting Solutions by Ceratizit, Komet, WNT and Klenk — under the umbrella of ‘Team Cutting Tools’.
“With some exceptions, each Group production site — there are 33 sites world-wide — has now been renamed Ceratizit, along with its location.”
Explaining the reasoning behind this development, Claude Sun, general manager of the Cutting Tools EU business unit, said: “Following the acquisition of Komet, we felt that we needed to ‘change the landscape’, as many smaller manufacturers were unaware that four companies make up the Ceratizit Group’s cutting-tool business.
“However, the challenge is to keep these leading names together and to promote the fact that —under the Ceratizit name — we can offer the most comprehensive range of products supported by in-depth cutting-tool and application knowledge in all areas of metal cutting.
“Moreover, we offer the most modern logistics system available — one that ensures next-day delivery; and with our current logistics site at Kempten now running at full capacity, a new ‘state of the art’ facility is being built across the road. This will double our capacity when it comes on stream in 2021.”
The Ceratizit Group was formed in 2002 by the merging of Luxembourg-based Cerametal and Austria-based Plansee Tizit; both had been established for almost a century and were pioneers of advanced carbide products, and they maintained growth on a global scale.
WNT has been part of Plansee Tizit since 1987, while Klenk was acquired in 2015 and Komet in 2017. The Group currently employs over 9,000 people world-wide, and it had a turnover of 1.2 billion euros in 2018.
The Group has established a world-wide reputation for its R&D and cutting-tool solutions, including those for the aerospace sector.
For example, the latest insert grade 5240 has been developed for machining heat-resistant alloys, and there are many examples of indexable-insert tooling, solid-carbide mills, drills and taps for machining other aerospace materials — including titanium.
Team Cutting Tools‘Cutting Solutions by Ceratizit’ is now one of the four complementary brands, and it specialises in indexable insert tools for turning, milling and grooving. Its expertise in the field has been built upon many years of experience in the development and production of carbide tools. Its product range includes turning tools, EcoCut, grooving tools and milling tools with indexable inserts.
Meanwhile, the WNT brand is associated with tools made from solid carbide and HSS. The product range includes sold-carbide drills, taps and thread formers, circular and thread-milling cutters, thread-turning tools, miniature turning tools, HSS milling cutters, solid-carbide milling cutters, adapters and workpiece clamping.
The Klenk brand is focused primarily on the aerospace sector with its range of solid carbide drilling tools specially developed for the aerospace industry. These highly specialised products are designed for machining lightweight materials.
The Komet brand is renowned for high-precision drilling, reaming, countersinking, boring and ‘mechatronic’ tools; and like all the brands, it has thrived through innovation and quality — and developing solutions tailored for individual customer requirements.
The new Team Cutting Tools catalogue — encompassing all four brands — has now been published, with 99% of all products available ex-stock for next-day delivery.
The Ceratizit Group is represented in the UK by Ceratizit UK & Ireland (
www.ceratizit.com), which is currently the ‘number two’ cutting-tool supplier in the UK; and while the company has a strong presence in the aerospace and automotive sectors, it also has a large number of customers in other industries — including oil and gas and medical.
Tony Pennington, managing director of Ceratizit UK & Ireland, said: “Bringing these four brands together under the single umbrella of the Ceratizit Group will deliver significant advantages to customers, as they can now access one of the world’s most comprehensive ranges of cutting tools and work-holding solutions — over 100,000 items — from a single point of contact.
“Customers can also be confident that the high levels of support and logistics that they have received to date will continue to develop, thereby ensuring optimum productivity and cutting-tool performance.”
Ceratizit UK & Ireland — a Tier One member of the AMRC for the past three years — is looking to expand into larger premises when the lease on its Sheffield premises runs out in 2020.
The company employs 67 people, 40 of whom are engineers — the latest being two recently added AMRC apprentices.