ChinaFastener.com has organized a group of more than 30 leaders of Chinese fastener companies to have a business trip from March 25th to April 2nd in order to investigate European fastener market. 

On March 27th (local time), the investigation group drove to WAFIOS, the first stop of this trip, to see how the company was running.

Photo of our group with leaders of Wafios

As a Germany enterprise with years of experience, the company has focused on the manufacture and R&D of fastener equipment. Its cold forming technologies are far ahead.

Based on the introduction, the annual sales volume of Wafios has reached €0.12 billion. The company has more than 1000 staffs and it can produce 56 types of machines. The one die two blow screw manufacturing machine could produce 900 pcs per minute at maximum speed. What’s more, 71% of its products were sold abroad and it had close cooperation with many big aerospace enterprise.

Introduction meeting of products of Wafios

During the visit in the factory of Wafios, we were surprised that the brass screws used in a product of the company were produced by the company of a member of our group which meant that the product quality of Chinese fastener companies were getting better and better and were accepted gradually by the high-end market.

On March 29th, the group drove to the head office of Schatz, another fastener company in Germany. Wilfried, sales manager of the company welcomed us with open arms and led us to their factory.

Photo of our group

According to the introduction, the company has been founded in 1955 and it has committed itself to developing the solution of various kinds of bolt assembling and other fastening technologies. Schatz has become the one of the biggest companies with the most advanced technologies in bolted joint assembly. The main products of the company are SCHATZ®-INSPECTpro Mobile test system, SCHATZ®-ANALYSE, and other service relating to software, hardware. By using the service, companies could monitor the assembling quality of production process and review and improve manufacturing techniques and assembling techniques through analyzing data and statistic, which could help efficiently improve the management and control of factories.

After  the visit in the factory, technicians of Schatz shared their experience and answer the question about how to ensure the quality of bolt fastening and the production process and techniques under Industry 4.0. Our group members said that they benefited a lot.

Meeting of Schatz

On the afternoon, the group came to Zwick for another visit.

Founded in 1854, Zwick is one of the Top 500 companies in Germany, ranked at the fifth. It has employed 1,400 staffs of which 125 are R&D staffs. The company mainly develops globally top testing machines, especially in static testing field and fatigue testing field. It has set offices or technical service department in 56 countries or regions. The factory we visited could produce more than 4,000 testing machines of which 70% were sold abroad.

During the visit, we saw some local students caming to the factory to study. Based on the introduction, their workers were graduated from vocational schools and these workers would work from the basic position for 3 years for training and after that, they could be allowed to operate machines of higher level.

After that, the host shared its Fatigue Testing Systems which further enhanced our understanding of its products.

Meeting of Zwick

While in the full-automatic storage center, we saw its intelligent operation system operated by robots. These robots offered testing service automatically for 24 hours every day which could save time and costs. We were all impressed by the professional and intelligence of the company.

On March 31st, the group ended the business trip in another company, Bossard. We were welcomed and accompanied by three leaders in purchasing department. They introduced Bossard’s company history, purchasing requirements of fasteners and non-standard fasteners to us.

Photo of the group with leaders of Bossard

As one of the biggest fastener distributors in the world, Bossard was established in 1831 with its head office in Zug. The company has more than 2,100 staffs with its annual turnover reaching more than CHF 0.7 billion. Its offices were set up in nearly all over the world except South America and Russia.

Meeting of Bossard

The group was led to its storage, offices, testing rooms and other places. We were impressed with its fully automatic storage system and packaging system.

After the investigation and visit, we were shocked by the science and technologies of Germany. Their continuous innovation, first-rate products, the sense of pursuing perfection and caring about quality are what we have to learn.