As of the 1 July 2022, the Biberach-based (Germany) ‘sharpening specialist’ Vollmer, which has a UK subsidiary in Nottingham, now holds a majority share in the start-up company UltraTEC Anlagentechnik Münz GmbH, which will now be known as UltraTEC Innovation GmbH.

Dieter Münz, CEO of UltraTEC Innovation, said: “When we founded our company three years ago, it was based on our son Jonas’s successful project on ultrasonic deburring as part of the ‘Jugend forscht’ initiative, my wife’s economic expertise and my will to turn these into a start-up company. Today, we offer four different ultrasonic deburring systems, and with Vollmer we have an experienced partner that can help us bring our technology to customers worldwide.”

The ‘core expertise’ of UltraTEC is the contact-free deburring of metal and plastic components with specially developed sonotrodes. Mr Münz continued: “Burrs or protruding fibres are created during production processes like cutting or injection moulding. For tools, hydraulic components, micro components, or medical implants, deburring edges after machining is essential.

“Ultrasonic deburring is the only method that can be implemented in a fully automated, contact-free and energy-efficient manner, for virtually any material — and it is a validatable process, unlike common methods using high-pressure water jets or electro-chemical machining.”

Stefan Brand and Jürgen Hauger, CEOs of the Vollmer Group, said it was not only the innovative and patented ultrasonic deburring technology with in-house sonotrode development that convinced the company to take a majority share in UltraTEC Anlagentechnik Münz GmbH.

He said: “The start-up’s history and philosophy are a particularly good match for us. Like Vollmer, UltraTEC is a family-owned machine manufacturer — and it is based around 20km from Biberach in the town of Laupheim.

"Aside from the name change to ultraTEC Innovation, we aim to allow the innovative spirit of this outstanding start-up by the Münz family to develop with only minor influence from our side. We see our task is to expand the immense technological market potential of the technology and the current team of 10 employees, and to advance the global sales, service and marketing for current and future ultrasonic deburring systems using our years of experience.”