At the start of each year, Klingelnberg’s executive management recognizes colleagues who have worked at the company for 25, 40 or 50 years in a ceremony dictated by tradition. On February 1, 2019, this year’s anniversary celebration was once again held at Kleineichen Haus in the German town of Hückeswagen.

Eleven award recipients in total commemorated their many years of service and commitment to the company during a pleasant evening meal shared with Klingelnberg’s executive management. Awards were given to eight employees for completing 40 years of service and two employees for 25 years of service – as well as one employee now in his 50th year of service to the company.

"Whether employed in production, technology, or in our commercial operations – each one of these employees has contributed significantly, through their commitment and performance, to positioning our company as an international brand in the mechanical engineering industry," said Group CEO Jan Klingelnberg. "We are extremely grateful for this and are delighted to have another opportunity each year to celebrate the accomplishments of our long-serving employees."

The CEO added: "I am particularly pleased today to honor our employee Hans-Jürg Spiess, because Mr. Spiess already has a full half-century of Klingelnberg history behind him.” In 1968, Spiess began his training as a technical draftsman (machinery designer today) in the area of gear cutting at the Oerlikon Bührle AG machine tool factory. In the early 1970s, Spiess studied mechanical engineering at the Technikum Winterthur (now the School of Engineering at ZWAH University of Applied Sciences) in Switzerland. In 1975, he graduated with distinction as a mechanical engineer with a major in process engineering. Spiess subsequently worked as a mechanical engineer and project manager in various technical departments and was promoted in 1989 to the position of technical expert and development engineer. To this day, he has remained faithful to the division whose line of business was ultimately acquired by Klingelnberg in 1993 and continues to work as a development engineer in the mechanical design department at the company’s headquarters in Zurich (Switzerland)." 

Klingelnberg expressed thanks in his speech: “It’s always the employees who make a company. So we are all the more proud of the fact that we still manage to foster such long career trajectories in our company – something that has become quite rare in these fast-paced times.”

A successful initial public offering was not the only event to shape the company’s history in 2018 – a well-received market launch of the Höfler Speed Viper cylindrical gear grinding machine for high-productivity generating grinding and the establishment of a new company division, the Digital Unit, were further keys to success this past year. One aim of the Digital Unit is to promote concepts such as Smart Tooling, a digital identification system for tools and work holding equipment, with a view to becoming a pioneer in modern, software-driven production processes.

Klingelnberg is paving the way in Industry 4.0, as evidenced by the “Best of Industry Award” recently received for the company’s cyber-physical production system. The trade journal MM Maschinenmarkt bestowed the honor in June 2018, presenting a total of 31 nominated companies in nine categories.

And last but not least: with its entry into the robotics industry, Klingelnberg has launched an initiative to expand its business outside the gear industry. Klingelnberg’s cycloid measurement option for precision measuring centers provides a reliable solution for monitoring high production standards.