FACE TO FACE market , is essential to reach this target . We almost doubled our annual machine output from last year and support 1200 Q-Fin machines across Europe , Australia and the United States for customers ,” he added .
The German market is a key strategic focus for the company . It has gained a foothold in the country by establishing its own sales office in Düsseldorf in 2019 , with two account managers and a dealer in the south of Germany . In the meantime , many machines have also been installed in Germany .
“ We mainly focus on Europe i . e . The Netherlands , Benelux countries and Germany , in particular . We always exhibit at Blechexpo and EuroBLECH , two important exhibitions in Germany . Over the last three / four years , we have focused strongly on the German market and have also invested in more engineers ( there are now eight engineers out of a total workforce of 35 people ). Half of our turnover is from the Benelux countries , but the German market is about 7 / 8 times larger . The growth , for us , will mainly be focused in Germany ,” continued Joost Kouwenbergh .
Its head office , with showroom and demonstration centre , is based at Bergeijk ( Noord-Brabant ), The Netherlands . All its machines are assembled there , although all metal components , after engineering , are sourced from its sister companies in the group .
The last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the company ’ s turnover but also taught it new ways to communicate with its customers which it still employs today ( such as online machine demonstrations ).
“ The second half of 2021 , when the first exhibition in Holland took place after the pandemic along with two events in Germany ( including Blechexpo last year ), helped a lot . In the last quarter of 2021 , our sales exploded as customers had been waiting until then to make their investments ,” added Kouwenbergh .
reversing units have since been sold . Last year , the company developed a machine for removing slag from metal parts which had been cut by plasma or oxyfuel . It also unveiled three new surface-finishing machines , as well as networked software , at the Blechexpo trade show in Stuttgart last November . This year , Q-Fin will announce the world premiere of a new deburring machine , the SER1200 Multibrush deburring system , at EuroBLECH in Hanover , Germany ( 25-28 October 2022 ).
“ Innovation is very important for us , as is the continuous development of our machines . We are always looking for opportunities to improve / upgrade our machines , as well as to launch new technologies ,” Kouwenbergh told ISMR .
The fully programmable , ‘ all-in-one ’ SER1200 Multibrush deburring system provides flat sheet-metal parts automatically with a wide range of finishes : deburring ; grinding ; edgerounding ; oxide removal ; directionless finish ; line finish and Radius 2 . All machining stations are individually adjustable and programmable for reproducibility of products and to eliminate the risk of operator errors .
“ The machine is very fast ( our edgerounding is two-five times faster than our competitors ) and can provide a non-directional finish . It can also perform 2mm edge rounding . We won a prize for this machine at Blechexpo for its ability to provide Radius 2 finishing on steel products . The new machine can now process parts with a maximum width of 1200mm and is fully automated . It has a smarter structure , uses much less energy and can also be connected to an ERP package or scanner , so that the machine is no longer dependent on settings by the machine operators ,” added Kouwenbergh . The first two SER100 machines have already been sold prior to the official launch . Both will be sent to Dutch customers .
Innovation in focus
Q-Fin has set itself the task of introducing at least two technology innovations every year .
In 2020 , for example , its Q2S reversing unit ( for automatically turning sheet metal ) went into the test phase with a customer . Several
The SER1200 Multibrush deburring system .