In this issue of Industry Update, we are delighted to select Volkmann GmbH as our transport and bulk material handling Company of the Month.
Volkmann is a leading German manufacturer of sanitary and safe Vacuum Conveyors and Powder Handling Systems: seen as the most secure systems for powder handling and explosion risk protection and prevention. The market-leading ranges of Vacuum Cownveyors were the first to be fully certified under European ATEX regulation for all dust and very soon, also gas explosion zones.
Volkmann GmbH was founded in 1973 by Jürgen and Ingrid Volkmann, as a consulting company for production automation. Thilo Volkmann has since headed the company from 1992, from the headquarters in Soest, Westphalia, Germany.
Volkmann UK Ltd was founded in 2001 by Michael Walker and the new Managing Director is Byron Fipkin. The UK daughter company is based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and there are also now several companies around the world such as: Volkmann France, Volkmann Netherlands, Volkmann USA and Volkmann Japan.
We caught up MD Byron Fipkin for more insight, “Volkmann is a specialist in the transport and handling of bulk materials. Volkmann offers customers from the chemical, food processing and pharmaceutical industry class leading standards as well as individually planned and produced systems for the safe, hygienic and user-friendly handling of powders and bulk materials.
“Volkmann supports customers in solving their conveying tasks, from the initial idea right up to the finished plant.
“This is our strength.
“We act responsibly and pay particular attention to the perfect interaction between our and other systems applied in the process. Our expertise in consulting and design, together with the high quality of manufacture and flexibility within the company, offer the best recipe for the success of a project as well as for the satisfaction of the users, thanks to equipment and plants that can be operated simply and safely.
“Pigeonhole thinking is frowned upon at our company.
“We find it predictable to offer and manufacture only the standard catalogue items time and again. Short processing times and adhering to sophisticated customer standards even in manufacturing and one-off order quantities keep us ‘on the run’ and gives us greater satisfaction.
“Customers know that we care much about safety and come to us for training in operators’ seminars for good and safe daily usage and maintenance of our systems as well as process planners’ seminars with the theory of how and why it comes to explosions and the general overview on the design of safe systems in the field of powder handling.
“Our PowTReX series enables the efficient reprocessing of build excess metal powder for applications in Metal AM. The integrated vacuum conveyor handles the feeding of the powder – e.g. directly from the build frame of the 3D printer. The recovered powder can be filled into bottles or containers or conveyed by pipe to downstream machines.”
Looking to the future, Volkmann UK are actively sourcing new facilities for further expansion. This new planned facility will feature a state-of-the-art test centre, where customer product trials can be conducted on-site.
“We are also developing a quick-ship programme for our most popular items to allow customers to receive deliveries of certain parts and even whole conveyors with a greatly reduced lead time,” concluded Byron.