Insight

Thanks to continuous investment and modernisation to its Łańcut factory machine park, Koelner Rawlplug can guarantee the highest quality for its products – whilst incorporating sustainable practices to become a responsible business partner. Here, the company outlines the processes and innovations that makes it a leading manufacturer of fasteners in Europe. 

The magazine last focused on the eastern European fastener market in 2020, what have been the key developments at your company since then?

“Investments in modernisation and development of our production are a key part of our long-term strategy as a company. As part of our development strategy, we are constantly working on further growing our production capacity of cold forged parts, by investing in new state of the art machines.   

We are expanding our possibilities of manufacturing more complex parts, with additional operations such as turning, drilling, tapping and milling. All these operations can be performed in the Łańcut factory with our new and still growing CNC machining department, equipped with modern robotic machinery and a capacity of up to ten million pieces per year. 

In the last decade, we have focused on modernising our machine park, investing in a thorough renovation of all manufacturing divisions, as well as the retrofitting of the existing equipment. By continuing to strategically invest in this modern machine park, and innovative production processes, we hope to meet increasing customer demands and attract more interesting projects.   

We are also constantly working on growing the company’s product portfolio and manufacturing capabilities, with special focus on more technologically advanced, special parts.” 

How have the investments into the Łańcut factory machine park, and your capabilities, helped improve your offering to customers?

“The Koelner Rawlplug bolt factory in Łańcut specialises in the production of custom bolts, tailored to individual customer requirements. Most of the parts manufactured here are technologically advanced products, the recipients of which are world leaders in the automotive industry. In Łańcut we also produce bolts for many other sectors of the economy, such as the power industry or the construction industry. 

Bolts with the ‘ŁF’ marking can therefore be found not only in cars, but also in agricultural and industrial machines, pressure equipment, steel structures and wind power plants. Each of these industries has its own specific requirements, and thanks to modern machinery, as well as research and development facilities, this production plant is able to meet them. 

At Łańcut, we produce various parts from M5 to M24, with available lengths from 5mm to 260mm, depending on the shape of a specific element. We are also able to manufacture bolts in mechanical strength classes from 4.8 to 16.8. 

We are one of the few companies on the market able to perform most of the production processes in-house. The constantly modernised and expanding machine park currently consists of 50 state of the art cold forging machines – able to produce more than 350 bolts per minute; 4 heat treatment lines in accordance with CQI-9 specifications; and a machining department for turning, drilling, threading and milling – which also includes modern, fully automatic CNC robots. These specialised machines and production lines are complemented by a wide offer of protective coatings, selected depending on the required corrosion resistance and intended use of the products – available thanks to the coating company operating on the premises. 

The ability to perform all production processes in-house gives us independence, full control over all stages of the process and absolute certainty of maintaining the highest quality of the final product. While most of our production consists of ‘made to order’ parts, manufactured according to customer requirements, we have also broadened our offer by adding HV and SB bolts, available directly from our warehouse. The EN 14399 sets, available from M12 to M36, are one of the fastest developing products in our sales portfolio. 

Most importantly, we do not simply offer another product like many others on the market – we provide a comprehensive solution, supplemented by full after-sales service. For instance, for the HV and SB sets, we can offer active technical support in the challenges related to the design and assembly of steel structures. Additionally, we have published a comprehensive user guide on HV and SB bolts and created our own assembly guide for EN 15048:2007 products to provide our customers with support in choosing correct assembly parameters. 

We understand that the connections made with our bolts must be reliable, with no room for compromise. In heavy snow, fog or rain our HV sets are resistant to even the harshest weather conditions, making them a safe choice even in the most challenging constructions, such as wind turbines at sea or bridges. 

A team of qualified engineers and quality control specialists also ensure the high-quality of products and processes. The well equipped research and laboratory facilities in Łańcut include metallographic, measurement and chemical laboratories. A comprehensive range of tests carried out in our laboratories allow us to confirm the highest quality and compliance of processes and products with the relevant standards.”

To go alongside the investments in the product portfolio and production capabilities. What steps has Koelner Rawlplug taken regarding sustainability?  

“A business should not only be profitable, but also responsible. This is why we consider the well-being of our planet, its inhabitants, and our employees, in every business decision. We are ISO 14001 compliant, the most widely recognised international standard for environmental management systems. Its correct implementation is confirmed annually, through a positive certification audit. In accordance with this system,
we continuously monitor the company’s environmental impact and implement solutions aimed at minimising our negative impact. 

We are also looking to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, as we calculate our carbon footprint for scope 1 and scope 2. In 2022, we managed to reduce our emissions in the Łańcut factory by 4.4% from the previous year. Our goal is to learn the exact carbon footprint of our products at every stage of their lifecycle. 

We are also expanding our solar power production capacity, as last year Rawlplug Group installed an additional 6,440m² of new PV installations around our production facilities. We are planning to add more PV panels and further increase the share of renewable energy. By installing LED lighting, we are also lowering our energy consumption. Plus, our natural gas consumption has been reduced – we used three times less natural gas in 2022 compared to 2021. 

Our other projects include increasing water retention by implementing rainwater harvesting. We are also utilising our on-site sewage treatment plant and seeking solutions to increase the amount of recycled water. Using bailing presses, we are minimised the volume of waste, which allows us to adapt waste to direct recycling. Also, we are refraining from mowing green areas around our facilities and maintaining meadows that provide shelter for pollinating insects and helps retain rainwater in the soil.

Most importantly, we are looking to the future with further investments, including alternative energy sources as part of the company’s strategy, combined with the pursuit of maximum manufacturing independence – with care for the natural environment. The long-term measures underlying these efforts translate into the day-to-day work of all departments across the company, joining forces to create a well thought out sustainability strategy.”