"You can't do without strong customer orientation, especially in the current difficult market situation," emphasises Carl Pinnekamp, who has managed Teutemacher Glas GmbH since 1981.
In addition to good service, the "full-range supplier" in glass today focuses in particular on niche and special products. What distinguishes the company is the high quality standards that the Pinnekamp family sets for their work and their glass products.
Carl Pinnekamp: "With our high quality, we have built up a good reputation over the years among a clientele that appreciates high-quality glass. Which confirms this approach: Many customers who have quality problems elsewhere come to us."
The company, with its 100 skilled workers, is also very well positioned in terms of plant technology, throughout the entire process chain. This again corresponds to Teutemacher's credo: to be able to deliver quality, all parts in the production and supply chain must fit together.
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Just under one third of the company's turnover is generated by glass for interiors, while the remainder is accounted for by the building trade in the field of window, door and facade construction.
Many services for window and facade manufacturers
Matthias Rehberger / GW
Window and facade builder Thomas Pinnekamp: "The demand for safety glass, especially toughened safety glass, has risen sharply. If we had to buy it in, we would be dependent on suppliers for quality, and the longer delivery times would also make us less flexible. "And he continues: "When we talk about good service, we also mean active support for our customers. For example, if an all-glass corner is required and our metal construction customers lack the necessary knowledge in structural glazing, we are happy to take care of that, including installation."
In this way, the glass processor not only helps its customers to expand their range, but also provides the necessary expertise and the corresponding products. This offer is rewarded and also means a unique selling point for the company.
Carl Pinnekamp: "We want a win-win situation for our customers and partners and will step in at any time if needed in terms of glass construction, as a producer, as a supplier as well as with installation."
Sovereignty over quality
Teutemacher manufactures a lot of glass for shop and door construction, as well as for all-glass installations, office partitions including sliding doors, and display cases. These are all applications that require a special degree of precision. And that, in turn, was one of the reasons for acquiring their own ESG furnace.
"Since we produce a whole range of safety glass for shopfitters," says Thomas Pinnekamp, "we focus on special applications that have to meet extremely high demands with minimal production tolerances. For example, we have been supplying a display case manufacturer for some time. He has confirmed to us that, due to the high flatness of our glass, he has since been able to offer a completely different, significantly better display case than before.
With ESG, the manufacturer focuses on quality, not quantity. With this in mind, a furnace from Keraglass was purchased for a maximum glass loading of 1600 × 3200 mm. Thomas Pinnekamp: "With this tempering furnace, we can run the highest quality level. We use it a lot for interior glass, but increasingly also to temper coated glass for insulating glass applications."
Matthias Rehberger / GW
An important criterion in the acquisition of the Kera furnace was the optimised energy consumption. Furnace master Alexander Bergmann comments: "The insulation of our full convection furnace is very good because the system is encapsulated. This has a positive effect on energy consumption as well as on standstill energy." This means that the plant can be restarted after a rest period with relatively low energy consumption.
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In addition, the environmental requirements speak in favour of the plant: Against the background of increasing environmental regulations, the fact that the furnace is operated without SO2 gas has a positive effect.
The technical service is also good, says kiln master Bergmann: "We appreciate the 24-hour service from Keraglass and the sound know-how of the technicians, on whom we can always rely. That has to be the case because we only have one furnace.
Specialising in high-quality ESG
Producing standard toughened safety glass is one thing, but if you want to produce special glass with coatings and distinctive features, you need even more: experts who know their trade. Because in addition to sophisticated plant technology, ESG production is not possible without highly qualified employees who know what they are doing. After all, operating an ESG furnace requires a "steady hand", i.e. a well-balanced combination of technology, skills and intuition.
Matthias Rehberger / GW
Thomas Pinnekamp comments: "Our two main furnace operators know our furnace system inside out and have a level of expertise that is hard to beat. In addition, they also like to try out new things and see demanding enquiries and orders as a challenge. This helps to push us forward as a supplier."
The company consistently has a strong team of very good people who approach the work with sound expertise, the owners said. Many employees in the team were trained in the company in the industrial sector, like stove master Bergmann, while others were trained in the commercial departments. The result is a stable workforce, which is paying dividends today.
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Carl Pinnekamp: "The employees who have trained with us know all the departments and can also be deployed very flexibly in different places in the company, as they have become familiar with the different fields of work over the years."
Safety glass as a strong trend?
When asked by GW-News how safety glass will continue to develop, Carl Pinnekamp says: "The public's concerns over safety are increasing and thus the demand for safety glass will also continue to grow. We are already seeing this in LSG. There is increasingly a demand for safety class P4A as well as P5A. Likewise, there is more demand for ESG."
Thomas Pinnekamp adds: "We also see this trend with insulating glass. Everything made of glass below the parapet will soon have to be made of safety glass. We are prepared for these developments and can already stock the necessary glass products today."
Matthias Rehberger
