KraussMaffei acquires Pultrex

KraussMaffei (Munich, Germany) recently signed a share purchase agreement with Pultrex (Manningtree, U.K.), which became effective on Feb. 21, 2019. The agreement, KraussMaffei says, strengthens the company’s system competence in the area of pultrusion, given Pultrex’s more than 40 years of experience in the field of pultrusion. More than 600 Pultrex pultrusion systems are in use worldwide, and the company’s product portfolio includes complete pultrusion, pullwinding and filament winding systems. In addition, Pultrex manufactures profiles for customers in industries such as construction, transport and wind power.

KraussMaffei entered the pultrusion market in 2017, setting new standards with the iPul system. The Manningtree location of Pultrex will be the KraussMaffei Competence Center for the construction of pullers, filament winding and pullwinding systems. At the same time, Pultrex expertise and experience will be used in the design of resin-impregnating bath systems for pultrusion.

Profile production in Manningtree will continue on the same scale. This, according to KraussMaffei, will result in customers being able to test their prototypes and the respective series production on location and take the experience and knowledge gained into account in their development work.

The metering machines for the iPul systems come from Munich, the molds from KraussMaffei’s Harderberg location in Germany. "We are thus concentrating the pultrusion system knowhow specifically at the locations which already have the competence," says Nicolas Beyl, president of the reaction process machinery segment at KraussMaffei Group.

"With the company Pultrex, we have a valuable, experienced partner at our side, with whom we will expand our pultrusion business division for the long term," Beyl says.

Colin Leek, managing director of Pultrex, is also looking forward to the cooperation under the umbrella of KraussMaffei: "The range of use of pultruded profiles is extremely diverse and continues to grow. Thanks to the cooperation with KraussMaffei, completely new opportunities and applications will arise for us and our customers. Our partnership with the globally active technology leader, in particular the worldwide sales and service network, will be of great benefit to all our customers."

The KraussMaffei core competences include the expertise and experience with mixing and metering systems, as well as mold technology. "With the expertise and experience of Pultrex, we are complementing our system competence and now offer the entire value chain from a single supplier. At the same time, we will together pursue the aim of promoting standardized pultrusion system construction, thus offering our customers solutions with optimum price-performance ratios," adds Beyl.