On August 18th, SDS Systemtechnik celebrated its 25th anniversary at its headquarters in Calw-Stammheim, Germany.
Key Anniversary for Shearography Specialists
The event, which was attended by several local dignitaries as well SDS employees and guests, began with a presentation by Managing Director Stefan Dengler, who recalled the company’s beginnings in the retreading industry as well as outlining the current status of SDS with an in-depth company profile.
Following the official proceedings, guests were treated to a relaxed celebration featuring delicious food, drinks and music from local band “Ambience“, who performed live throughout the evening.
A machine was exhibited in one of the company’s three production halls, in addition to which many pictures from the last 25 years were hung up as a journey through the history of the company.
“It was important to us that everyone who was there (employees and families, family and relatives, friends, customers, suppliers) could enjoy a lovely evening together so that everyone could exchange ideas together and reminisce or discuss new projects,” commented Stefan Dengler. “Above all, we wanted to express our gratitude for all the support and good cooperation,” he added.
Guests of honour at the event included Hans Neuweiler from the Sparkasse Pforzheim Calw, who spoke about the good cooperation between the Sparkasse and SDS, and Jan Hambach, representing the town of Calw, who spoke about Calw’s business location and how important the SDS company is for the local community.
Also present at the anniversary party were SDS sales agents from around the world including Central Marketing from the USA, Illies from Japan, Re-Solution from Denmark and Subter Plus from the Czech Republic.
During the week of the anniversary, SDS took the opportunity to familiarise sales partners from around the world as well as employees with the latest technological developments in a training course lasting several days.
SDS has its origins in the engineering firm Dengler, which began producing mechanical and electrical parts for tyre testing systems and other products for the circuit board industry in 1992.
With the start of the series production of tyre testing systems in 1998, the company SDS Systemtechnik GmbH was founded in Althengstett, near Calw. Initially, a hall was rented and testing machines were built and installed with a handful of employees. In 1999 the construction of the first production hall and adjacent office began. The building was the first in the newly created “Stammheimer Feld” industrial area and was built on the former field of Stefan Dengler’s grandfather.
Following a rapid growth in space requirement, the adjacent property was purchased in 2004, and a second hall was built to expand the assembly area. In 2013, a further hall was built to meet the need for large OTR testing systems and the loading and shipping of the systems. Today, tyre testing systems, laser marking systems, conveyor technology and other measuring systems are manufactured in a production area of around 2000m², which are sold almost exclusively into the tyre industry. A corresponding area for warehousing with two high rack systems provides space for parts and components for production and the extremely important supply of spare parts for the now over 600 machines worldwide.
The company now has 25 permanent employees with over 2,500m² of building space in Calw.
In 2018 and 2020 the company purchased photovoltaic systems, most recently switching most of the lighting to LED technology and modernising the compressed air supply in the manufacturing plant. Meanwhile, a newly built paint shop processes paints that do not require elevated temperatures for processing. As a result, the energy requirement has been reduced by 30% in recent years and around 50% of the electricity requirement is covered by the company itself.
