Schreiner Group is a family-owned company with worldwide activities and plants in Germany, the United States, and China. The company is a leading supplier of high-tech labels and functional parts for a variety of markets such as Healthcare, Mobility, General Industry, and Security. The three business units are characterized by specific customer and market know-how. The Schreiner ProTech business unit is responsible for the development and production of industrial markings, authenticity protection, and film-based functional parts for the automotive and general industrial sectors.
Interview with Michael Spörl, Director Strategic Marketing at Schreiner ProTech.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Michael Spörl: Summarizing that in a single sentence is not that easy because we’ve got a truly wide-ranging portfolio at Schreiner ProTech. First, we’re primarily a strategic partner for many of our customers when it comes to film-based solutions. And that’s where the diversity starts – because the spectrum ranges from self-adhesive functional parts to membranes for pressure compensation to laser markings to RFID solutions for intralogistics. It’s important that many of our products and solutions are tailored to the specific needs of our customers and that customers not only get the product from us but everything – from the initial idea to integration into their existing processes. The Mobility/Automotive sectors are clearly focus areas – some 300 parts from us are contained in any automobile! – and General Industry.
E.E: What are the ranges of products/services?
M.S: I’ve just touched upon our extensive range. Roughly speaking, our portfolio can be divided into four segments: On the one hand, there’s the area of protective films – including anything providing either temporary protection or across the entire lifecycle of surfaces and components against external influences, from display protection to paint masks. That’s followed by the wide range of marking solutions. Whether they’re resistant against high-pressure cleaning, specifically designed for high-voltage applications, or provided with laser markings: our labels ensure reliable and customized marking. As the next segment, there are the pressure compensation seals or PCS for short. They enable an exchange of air in housings and in that way protect sensitive electronics against dirt and moisture. Thanks to our many years of experience, we’re able to offer the right solutions for the challenges in engineering and general industrial settings with their variety of substrates – be it for metallic substrates, permanent marking on ESD returnable transport items, or RFID markings on glass. In addition, we’ve got the major advantage of being able to use the cross-functional exchange of knowledge and experience and the specific technologies of our competence centers under the umbrella of Schreiner Group. As a result, we’re not only engaged in continuous exchange but also have a perfect base for developing innovative solutions for our customers that simplify processes and reduce costs.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
M.S: For us, the following trends are particularly relevant: technical cleanliness and automation, and Industry 4.0. With our newly created PCS Process center in Munich, we’ve established new standards in terms of Technical Cleanliness as well as process optimization, and in that way are providing perfect growth opportunities for the pressure compensation seal business. When it comes to RFID, Industry 4.0 is the keyword to be mentioned sooner or later because RFID is a basic prerequisite for that: RFID labels provide every component with its own identity, enable autonomous control in the production process, and end-to-end data acquisition across the entire supply chain. We draw on a vast amount of know-how in that field – we were the first company in Germany to offer RFID onMetal solutions! – and we’ve successively adjusted and expanded our portfolio in recent years. When it comes to global projects, it’s very important for us as a company with international activities that at every one of our sites – be it in Germany, the United States, or China – the same quality standards apply. Let’s briefly stay with the example of the Far East: we’ve been locally present in Shanghai for as many as 15 years; the location has seen continuous growth over the years, and we want to continue that this year as well. Especially the Chinese domestic market offers huge potential in our core segment of Mobility and that again closes the loop to our pressure compensation seals.
E.E: What are the most innovative products/services marketed?
M.S: We’ve developed a film-based solution as a housing closure that provides a real alternative to conventional injection-molded covers. Our so-called Film-Based Cover features a polyester film being precisely applied and securely bonded with the housing by means of laser welding. The advantages are low installed height and very low weight – our solutions can achieve savings of up to 85%! – extreme resilience – the Film-Based Cover is steam jet-resistant, among other things – plus the option of directly integrating various value-adding functions such as pressure compensation seals. The Film-Based Cover, by the way, is especially attractive for sensor applications because it offers clearly better Radar permeability than solid injection-molded covers, which significantly enhances sensor performance.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2024?
M.S: I look toward the second half of the year with great optimism. On the one hand, we’re in a good position with our products and on the other, we’ve still got some new products in the pipeline for the coming months. The situation will by no means be boring!