Insight

PennEngineering^® is a company that has both innovation and new technologies at its core. Here, we speak to Gerard Quaid, vice-president of sales and marketing Europe, about how the company is continuing to push the boundaries and deliver the best possible fastening solutions.

How does PennEngineering^® work with customers to provide optimal fastening solutions and services?

“What makes PennEngineering^® so different from our competitors is that we aim to offer complete fastening solutions. Even with over 2,000 part numbers in our catalogue, we provide thousands of specifically tailored custom designed PEM^® fasteners to meet the unique requirements of our customers’ applications.

We work closely with our customers to understand their applications and what they are trying to achieve with their end product. This enables us to ensure that a customer is presented with the most cost-effective, high performance fastener during the design and installation stage, which we fully support via our range of Haeger^® and in-die installation equipment. 

It’s all about the relationships we build and our customers having complete trust in us. We consider our customers more as partners because we share knowledge and collaborate. As part of this we encourage our customers to make use of our testing facilities and laboratories.

Over the past five years, our customers’ requirements have become increasingly challenging, particularly with the transition from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EV). This transition has tested us and pushed PennEngineering^® into new product development, as well as new industries, which is something I feel we have really excelled at.

If you look at some of the standards that our customers have to work with, from cleanliness to IP-rated fasteners, we are able to design a new fastening solution, produce it quickly, install it in the customer’s material of choice, test it in-house and then present all performance criteria back to the customer. Our customers rely on this service for each product generation as the requirements get stricter.”

What are the key markets for PennEngineering^®? What are the current challenges within these markets and where do you see opportunities? 

“PennEngineering^® originally started out serving the electronics market and has since moved across to a number of industries, such as automotive, automotive electronics, consumer electronics, datacom and telecom, defence, EV, power management and charging, industrial and commercial, medical, as well as sheet metal and metal enclosures. 

An area with opportunities at the moment is the rapid increase in busbar manufacturing for electric vehicles, power management and charging stations, which is pushing OEMs and tiers to look for new cost-effective solutions to reduce electrical resistance. Therefore PennEngineering^® has launched PEM eConnect™ Contact Bushing, which can be used to make reliable electrical connections between copper or aluminium busbars, PCBs or cable terminals. This new range not only answers the need to be more cost-effective but also answers the specific needs of our customer base. 

PEM eConnect™ Contact Bushing from PennEngineering® on Vimeo.

One of the most significant challenges currently facing the market is speed. Customers want products quickly and don’t want to be burdened by supply chain issues. This is where PennEngineering^® is different. We make our products where they’re being sold and used – whether that’s in Asia, the USA, or Europe – so our customers can get their products quickly. 

We have 25 locations worldwide, with over 4,000 employees and eight product development centres. Our European headquarters is in Galway, Ireland, where we produce over one billion fasteners a year with our cold forging, cold heading, screw machining, heat treatment and electric plating facilities. 

In addition, in 2023, we set-up a Haeger^® Europe facility in Galway, where we assemble the full range of Haeger^® installation equipment as well as design and manufacture the tooling for fastener installation. This enables us to ensure installation confidence and optimal production performance, which is key in today’s market. 

We are proud that PennEngineering^® delivers the complete process to customers – right the way from the design to the end product. When we say ‘Made in Europe, for Europe’ we mean it. We have full control over our products and can bypass common supply chain issues that our customers are commonly facing.”

What investments has the company made in recent years? Why did you decide to make these investments? 

“PennEngineering^® is constantly investing, but one of the most important investments has, and will continue to be, our employees. 10% of our workforce is in further education at any one time – with many completing engineering qualifications at a master’s degree level. 

As well as this, one of the biggest investments we have made is the transition to digitalisation at our manufacturing plant in Galway. Whether that’s through new equipment or digitising old equipment, we now have full visibility over every piece of essential equipment on the shop floor. That means we now have visual control of multiple operational productivities via dashboards and integration between different business elements, which has been a key turning point for us – changing the way we operate every day. 

Because of these investments, we were honoured with the Medium Lean Business of the Year Award 2023 from Lean Business Ireland for continuously innovating and thinking outside the box in the fastener industry. 

We also recently announced the opening of a UK office in Burnley to renew our commitment to this important market. The site features a comprehensive stock of fasteners that will streamline logistics and provide customers with prompt access to the entire portfolio of PEM^® fasteners. We also have a new UK sales team to ensure we are readily available and accessible to meet the unique needs of our customers.”

Sustainability continues to grow in importance within markets. What steps has PennEngineering^® taken on this topic and how do you see this area developing?  

“PennEngineering^® believes in doing what’s right for our employees, our communities, and the environment, so we are constantly looking at ways to stay ‘one step ahead’. With our manufacturing facility in Galway, we manufacture our products near our European client locations, as well as source our materials close to our manufacturing locations, to reduce the carbon footprint of material shipping. We have also made changes within the facility, such as updating the rectifiers on plating lines and upgrading equipment so it’s more energy efficient. 

We also have a waste disposal programme that involves composting and recycling, as well as our water usage and how we can reduce it – whilst still efficiently operating our heat treatment furnaces and plating lines. Reducing usage involves changing our process, including draining, filtering, etc. The Galway site has also recently attained ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 in 2024 and is run according to Lean Manufacturing procedures. All these efforts add up to PennEngineering^® being a responsible and thoughtful manufacturer. Traceability and transparency is extremely important to us. We have a responsibility to work together with our facilities, customers and suppliers to encourage sustainable behaviour. 

As part of our global environmental sustainability plan, we are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 and being a ‘net zero’ company by 2045. We have also implemented a sustainability team of around 30 people worldwide who review and provide suggestions that are aligned with business demand. Our sustainability report will also be released in 2025.

There is also a considerable drive from the EV market right now, in particular, to ‘track’ a product’s carbon footprint. Obviously, with the CBAM legislation, our customers are demanding more information, and rightly so. PennEngineering^® takes away the headache of CBAM paperwork and submissions. We have carried out comprehensive studies and reviews of our manufacturing processes and, as a result, can supply documentation relating to the carbon footprint of our products. PennEngineering^® customers do not need to worry about compliance in that area or risks to their supply chains.

PennEngineering^® stays close to our customers and delivers innovative fastening solutions that enable our customers to develop new products. We want to help drive change and our commitment to sustainability and protecting our environment is reflected in the many efforts we practice every day.”