Above: Burghardt + Schmidt continually develops coil slitting technologies to meet future demands.
February, 2025- Burghardt + Schmidt is a family owned company that has been designing and building machines and lines to process a wide variety of materials since 1945. Based in Remchingen, Germany, its lines include slitting, cut to length, multiblanking, stretch leveling, traverse winding and packaging. It also has an automation division, in operation since 1995. Worldwide customers include ArcelorMittal, AMAG, Aurubis, Wieland, Allegheny Technologies Inc., Bekaert, Chinalco, Constellium, NGK Berylco, thyssenkrupp, Mitsubishi Materials, Arbon Steel, Carpenter Technologies Inc., Zapp Precision Strip, MK Metalfoils and Tata International.
COLLABORATION
DOOR TO DOOR
Services provided by Burghardt + Schmidt to customers seeking new equipment include:
• Detailed project consultation
• Customer-oriented kick-off meeting
• In-house design office
• Intensive interaction between mechanical and electrical design
• High value-added chain with in-house manufacturing and assembly
• Close exchange with b + s and the customer’s logistics • External assembly and commissioning with b + s mechanics
• Project completion
Stretch-leveling of sheet products helps immensely with downstream processing such as laser cutting.
According to Alex B. Trevino, North America sales and marketing manager for the company, “Most customers are trying to expand their existing capabilities or replace existing equipment with a new line that could offer better quality, higher productivity and more reliability.
“One hurdle many of our customers face is the obsolescence of their electrical systems,” Trevino notes. “We have a whole division dedicated to upgrading and supplying electrical retrofits to existing lines.”
Burghardt + Schmidt has a team of engineers that works with customers to develop the right systems for each situation. Trevino says the company consults with the clients’ engineers in many cases, “especially in larger corporations that have their own project management division. For customers that have smaller staffs, we make sure to work closer with them so they understand every aspect of the equipment.”
The processing capacity of each machine that is built will vary greatly. “We have instances where the customer is processing very light-gauge material, just a few thousandths of an inch thick,” Trevino says. In that case, “a single coil can take a couple of hours to be processed. Compare this to an application where we are processing a coil of 1/8- or 1/4-inch thick. This could only take 15 to 20 minutes.”
In most cases, the capacity of processing using a metric such as tons is directly proportional to the gauge of the coil. “A coil with thicker material would have fewer linear feet compared to one with 0.01-inch thick—the second example could be measured in miles,” says Trevino.
Fencing, whether physical or electronic, is used to prevent workers from harm in the processing of materials, such as near cut-to-length lines. Access can be controlled remotely, too.
AUTOMATION + SAFETY
“We take pride in our ability to supply highly automated lines where the operator seldom has to manually manipulate the material,” he continues. “This is an inherent [request] from the market we service. In addition to automation, our lines are supplied with a high degree of safety. All our lines are fenced around, and this fencing can be physical or electronic. Every aspect is tied to the central controller with a variety of permissions, from light curtains and lidar scanners to floor-sensitive surfaces, etc.”
UTMOST CARE
Burghardt + Schmidt’s typical customer “gravitates toward lines with critical surface requirements. We specialize in supplying equipment for these lines and treat the material with the utmost care,” Trevino says. “We have even supplied lines inside weather-controlled chambers to eliminate impurities and control humidity.”
Other features clients might expect from a line supplied by Burghardt + Schmidt include “the quality of the construction and the ethos behind our equipment. We never cut corners. We offer one of the tightest shoulder play tolerances of any slitter on the market, allowing the customer to provide tighter tolerances to their customers.”
Among the materials processed through lines built by b + s are those developed for aerospace and defense applications. “This type of customer demands very high standards for their incoming material.
“We have also supplied many lines to the copper and brass market. This industry is unique and a subset includes red metals service centers.” The usual requirements “are similar to those of the typical service center, but they are scaled down. The coil sizes tend to be smaller, but the demand for surface quality is sometimes greater,” notes Trevino.
A typical development cycle lasts 14 to 18 months, from concept visualization to manufacture and delivery.
Burghardt + Schmidt, 216/744-5502, b-s.group
