KraussMaffei adds $3 million technical center in Kentucky

Florence, Ky. — KraussMaffei Corp. has created a new innovation center at its U.S. headquarters, a $3 million project designed to help the company help its customers.

The company, a subsidiary of KraussMaffei Group in Munich, renovated about 20,000 square feet of existing space. Work included a new inventory management control system and additional meeting space for customers.

"I would say it just gives us a better image to the market in professionalism and training for our customers in a world-class environment," said Paul Caprio, president of KraussMaffei Corp.

"We've become rather large in the Americas in terms of market share. I felt we needed to look better than we did. I think it was good, but I think it's better. It's a reflection of who we are. I think you have to look how you want the market to perceive you," he said.

The project took place between January and September and was on display at the company's recent open house for customers and suppliers.

That gathering attracted about 750 attendees and featured displays from 80 other firms showing off their products and services to the industry.

KraussMaffei undertook creation of the technology center during a time of strong growth for the company.

Employment has increased by about 20 positions this year for KraussMaffei Corp., which covers the United States and Canada, to about 220 workers. Those jobs are located at the company's U.S. headquarters in Florence, which now has about 100 people, and elsewhere in the United States and Canada, Caprio said.

The Florence location provides sales and service for the company's three brands — KraussMaffei, Netstal and KraussMaffei Berstorff. Both KraussMaffei and Netstal make injection molding machines, while Berstorff makes extrusion machinery.

"We completely overhauled this 20,000-square-foot space. New floors, new LED lighting, new air conditioning for climate-controlled space. New power to run extrusion equipment trials, injection machinery trials for Netstal and KM, as well as training for all equipment," Caprio said in an additional email interview.

New machinery in the space includes equipment for trials and testing for "extrusion, pipe, profile, sheet, pelletizing and color batch, as well as KM injection and Netstal injection," he continued.

"We also added a new shuttle inventory system to better handle incoming and outgoing spare parts inventory as we better space management," Caprio said.