German company Robert Buerkle has announced that it is transferring its Card Body Manufacturing (CBM) segment to Otto Kuennecke.The two firms have confirmed that, from 1 January 2017, Otto Kuennecke will take over the design, production and development of tape laying, collation, card punching and strip cutting technology, allowing Buerkle to concentrate on its core business of lamination systems.Buerkle's portfolio will be transferred to Otto Kuennecke and benefit from the latter's expertise in software. The companies say their vision is to develop intelligent collation, punching machines and systems consisting of seamless track and trace, batch size of one, individual card designs and features, and the automation of the whole workflow, including sorting, to meet the demands of the card industry.Otto Kuennecke will integrate Buerkle's technology and knowledge into its operatons, with the latter's senior engineers moving to Otto Kuennecke's headquarters."We have been very successful with the products which we will transfer to Otto Kuennecke," said Juergen Schroeer, CEO of Robert Buerkle. "However, this product line needs technological input for future advancements to incorporate features of expanded automation and smart factory manufacturing. This development will allow Buerkle to concentrate on what we do best: lamination. We have been planning this step towards a new technological future for quite some time. We found the necessary know-how and long-standing experience in software development, innovation and automation in Otto Kuennecke.""This is an exciting development for us, significantly expanding our range of equipment into the card body manufacturing process," said Carl Otto Künnecke, CEO of Otto Kuennecke. "We have already worked on joint projects. We are particularly proud to incorporate this successful segment of Robert Buerkle's portfolio. We are delighted the transfer will also include the personnel and know-how. This will ensure development of existing and future products to deliver optimal services for customers. We can now expand our product range and card processing in a way we have wanted to for quite a while to deliver turnkey solutions."
Buerkle transfers CBM division to Otto Kuennecke
