Studer’s senior management team (left to right): COO Stephan Stoll, CEO Jens Bleher,
CSO Sandro Bottazzo, and CTO Daniel HuberFritz Studer AG, a global manufacturer of high-precision cylindrical grinding machines, last week invited 60 journalists from around the world to its annual press event at the company’s headquarters in Steffisburg, Switzerland. The company reported that it had significantly increased sales in 2022 and that the outlook for 2023 is looking equally positive with a large order backlog.
Studer also reported that it had successfully navigated the supply chain challenges faced by all machine tool manufacturers last year, and impressively, had maintained competitive and reliable delivery times throughout. The company managed this feat with the risk-based supply chain approach which it has been following for several years and is designed to minimise single-source dependencies wherever possible.
Studer CEO Jens Bleher opening the press conference, said: “Exactly 111 years ago, Fritz Studer founded his company here in Steffisburg and since then, the pioneer in cylindrical grinding has presented countless technological innovations — a long tradition that we will continue into the future.”
Studer CSO Sandro Bottazzo said: “Overall, it was the third-best year in our company’s history for order intakes and expectations were far exceeded in all sales regions. Some countries, such as Turkey, even recorded the highest order intake in Studer’s history. All in all, we once again succeeded in expanding our position in the most important markets in the world and increasing our market share.”
In 2022, almost all international markets showed growth in orders with new customers accounting for 37% of these. Furthermore, December was the second-best individual month in the company’s history with aerospace and the energy sectors in particular accounting for this positive development.
The tooling, die and mould, and machine manufacturing segments remained stable, while the precision engineering segment with the small- and medium-size supplier companies and contract manufacturers remained the largest individual sector. On a less positive note, the automotive sector saw a decline, which specifically affected demand for production machines. “However, our good positioning and broad portfolio are helping us greatly,” pointed out Mr Bottazzo.
Broad portfolioStuder’s success has been buoyed by its broad portfolio of machines that can fulfil a wide variety of customer requirements. Last year, universal and internal cylindrical grinding machines proved extremely popular. The bestseller was once again the versatile S33 CNC universal cylindrical grinding machine, which is capable of producing small and large workpieces in both single and series production, and this was backed up by the favorit, the S31, and the S41.
In the sales of internal cylindrical grinding machines, Studer achieved its second-best annual result ever. Another area that reached a record high was the company’s patented WireDress technology, which enables the precise dressing of metal-bonded grinding wheels.
Mr Bottazzo continued: “All customer care business areas also did very well, with service, maintenance, and individual businesses all setting new records. We will continue to grow our customer care areas in 2023 to provide even better performance and to be even closer to our customers.”
2022 also brought numerous new developments and an expanded product range. Daniel Huber, CTO at Studer, said: “With our product offensive, innovative, and application-specific solutions, we can even better address the needs of our customers.” The Chinese market saw the introduction of the latest generation KC33 CNC universal cylindrical grinding machine, and also the ecoGrinder — customers now have an economical entry-level solution available — and it has already found numerous buyers in the country.
Energy monitoring conceptMr Huber added: “In 2022, we presented an innovation at almost every large trade show.” This included the S36 production machine at GrindingHub in Stuttgart. The grinding machine closes a gap in the portfolio between the S11 and S22 and is particularly well-suited to applications and components in the field of electromobility — it is available with the option of an innovative energy monitoring concept. Meanwhile,
BIMU in Milan saw the launch of the new S100, an entry-level option in the field of CNC universal internal cylindrical grinding machines.
The revolutionary and cross-brand hardware and software architecture of the United Grinding Group can also be found on an ever-increasing number of machines. C.O.R.E. offers smart networking of several machines, freely configurable and user-friendly operation, and latest generation contact sensors. C.O.R.E. also features a modern, large-scale multi-touch display with intuitive operation and numerous visualisation options for more efficient production. In 2022, Studer was already able to convert four machine types to C.O.R.E. and will continue the roll-out on the internal cylindrical grinding machines in the coming year.
Mr Huber continued: “Only manufacturers that offer intelligent machines with intuitive operation, digital assistance, and monitoring systems, automation options, as well as efficient process management will be successful in the future.”
Regular and systematic investments in all areas of the company are part of Studer’s company philosophy. Mr Stoll concluded: “We are convinced that this will keep our locations competitive and that ‘Made in Switzerland’ Studer machines will have a strong foothold on the world market in the long term.”
Following the redesign and modernisation of assembly, the focus has been on manufacturing over the past few years. In 2022, several projects contributed to ensuring that the production resources remain ‘state of the art’, with a special focus on automation and digitalisation. In the coming year, spindle shaft production will be renewed and expanded, and plans are afoot to comprehensively modernise the warehouse and logistics infrastructure by 2025.