Press

Fürth/Germany, February 15, 2022: LEONHARD KURZ, one of the world’s leading companies in thin-film and finishing technology, has released its 2021 sustainability report. The Communication on Progress (COP) report for the first time provides information on developments in the implementation of the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. These include promoting environmental awareness, developing and disseminating environmentally friendly technologies, and respecting international human rights. KURZ joined the UN Global Compact Network last year, thus reaching another important milestone in its sustainability activities. In addition, the Group was able to consolidate its position as an industry pioneer in sustainable finishing. CEO Walter Kurz explains: “As a family business, it is important to us to leave a better world for future generations. Since our company was founded more than 120 years ago, our ideas and actions have been future-driven as well as sustainable. Joining the UN Global Compact initiative was therefore the next logical step for us.” With its annual ‘Communication on Progress’ report, the UN Global Compact pursues, among other things, the objectives of promoting transparency, demonstrating the continuous improvement of business activities, and disseminating good-practice examples.

Fürth/Germany, January 4, 2022: It’s almost time: CES will be held in Las Vegas from January 5 to 8, 2022. More than 1,700 leading international companies will be presenting their new products at the technology trade fair - including LEONHARD KURZ, the expert in pioneering plastic surface solutions. At stand 4567, the company will showcase what the future of mobility will look like. Autonomous driving and e-mobility pose complex challenges for the automotive industry. The interior of the car is increasingly becoming a second living room, and design is therefore rapidly gaining in importance. KURZ has already begun to develop solutions that serve this megatrend. In doing so, it is important to develop well-thought-out products and holistic concepts that, on the one hand, inspire with unique designs and, on the other hand, contribute to the circular economy.

Fürth/Germany, January 4, 2022: CES has been one of the world’s most influential tech events for decades. It is a tradition that milestones in the history of consumer electronics are presented here for the first time - such as the video recorder in 1970, the Blu-ray Disc in 2004, and televisions with OLED technology in 2012. After a fully virtual event in 2021, the organizers now invite you back to Las Vegas: From January 5 to 8, 2022, industry representatives can once again marvel at numerous highlights live - including the innovations from LEONHARD KURZ. At stand 4567, the expert in plastic surface solutions will present spectacular and sustainable design concepts for the consumer electronics of tomorrow.

Fürth/Germany, January 4, 2022: Year after year, CES in Las Vegas is one of the world’s largest trade fairs for consumer electronics. Between January 5 and 8, LEONHARD KURZ will be using the global innovation fair to present pioneering plastic surface solutions and eye-catching design concepts for the world of tomorrow. At stand 4567, the company will give an impressive demonstration that there will be virtually no limits to design, decoration, and functionality in the future. The possibilities are more diverse than ever - even with sustainability in mind. After all, anyone looking today at ideas for the future of consumer electronics or the automotive industry can’t avoid considering the consequences for the environment, climate, and society. KURZ has no doubt that sustainability has become one of the most important success factors in the development of innovations. The thin-film technology expert actively promotes sustainability throughout the entire group of KURZ companies in accordance with its ‘Be a green leader’ customer promise, which also plays a role in its CES presentation.

Fürth/Germany, January 4, 2022: Year after year, it is considered one of the largest international platforms for innovation in the field of consumer electronics: The CES trade fair, held in Las Vegas from January 5 to 8, 2022, is also one of the most important platforms for LEONHARD KURZ to present pioneering surface solutions and exciting design options. At Booth 4567 KURZ will introduce visitors to the vehicle of tomorrow and, together with its subsidiary Schöfer, demonstrate surface finishing to the highest level of perfection. “The automotive industry is facing far-reaching changes – comprehensive e-mobility and autonomous driving will be a reality on our roads very soon,” explains Martin Hahn, Head of Application, Technology & Innovation, Business Area Decoration at LEONHARD KURZ. “The future is also going to move into vehicle interiors: With our futuristic designs, we already have the right answers for the car of tomorrow, today – and we are looking forward to presenting them at one of the world’s most important trade fairs for technology and innovation.”

Fürth/Germany, October 4, 2021: ‘Making every product unique’: This is LEONHARD KURZ’s motto for the 27th Fakuma trade fair from October 12 to 16 in Friedrichshafen, Germany, where the company will present pioneering plastic decoration solutions, particularly for the automotive, consumer electronics, and home appliances sectors. The KURZ pioneering theme applies to the IMD UNIFY innovation, the advantages of which can be experienced in live demonstrations at Fakuma, with a hybrid machine from KURZ subsidiary BAIER. With this new overprintable IMD decoration, KURZ has developed a solution for retroactively customizing IMD (In-Mold Decoration) surfaces directly during injection molding, thereby ensuring excellent adhesion and longevity of overprinting. “UV digital printing inks do not adhere well to a conventional high-resistance IMD post-cure surface, which has so far made it very difficult to customize products efficiently at a later date,” explains Nikolas Wagner, Head of Business Area Decoration at LEONHARD KURZ. “With IMD UNIFY, this problem is a thing of the past. The new premium decoration now also makes small and very small series, and the personalization of components, cost-effective for our customers.” The secret behind this forward-looking development is the additional equipment for UV inkjet printing onto the IMD premium surface.

Fürth/Germany, October 4, 2021: Climate change is considered one of the greatest challenges of our time. More than ever before, companies are therefore also obliged to put sustainability on their list of priorities and to develop sustainable solutions. LEONHARD KURZ will be demonstrating how this can be achieved at the 27th Fakuma trade fair, which will take place from October 12 to 16 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. KURZ, the expert in innovative plastic surface solutions, will demonstrate live together with its partner Deckerform how the use of recycled materials can be combined with effective decoration, and thus become an attractive alternative for manufacturers. “With RECOPOUND®, we have found a particularly effective and sustainable solution for producing high-quality recycled pellets from production residues,” says Johannes Romming, Project Manager Innovation & Sustainability at LEONHARD KURZ. “The visual properties of the recycled material are in no way inferior to those of new material. The parts manufactured with the pellets using injection molding also score points with efficient processing and a wide range of design options.” Fakuma visitors can see all this for themselves: As a giveaway for interested parties, spray-foamed watering cans made of RECOPOUND® are produced live at Booth A6-6413 by Deckerform and finished with a transfer decoration on a hot-stamping machine from KURZ subsidiary BAIER. The design of the watering cans was created in close cooperation between the partner companies LEONHARD KURZ and Deckerform.

Fürth/Germany, October 4, 2021: The 27th Fakuma trade fair – scheduled from October 12 – 16, 2021 – will once again turn Friedrichshafen, Germany, into the industry meeting point for industrial plastics processing. Under the motto ‘Making every product unique’, LEONHARD KURZ will provide INSIGHTS INTO INNOVATIVE PLASTIC SURFACE SOLUTIONS at the fair. The company presents itself as a ‘partner for future supplier challenges’ with pioneering concepts, in particular in the areas of automotive interior/exterior, consumer electronics, and home appliances. In addition, the thin-film expert will focus on its comprehensive sustainability expertise at its 120-square-meter booth (no. A4-4122) in Hall A4. “Fakuma is the world’s leading trade fair for all industries that have touch points with plastics processing. We are very pleased to be able to present the numerous highlights that we have prepared during the off-season period,” emphasizes Rainer Süßmann, Head of Business Area Plastic Decoration at LEONHARD KURZ. “We will use this important platform to make our comprehensive expertise in sustainable and forward-looking surface solutions come alive for trade fair visitors. At our stand and at our partners’ stands, a wide variety of, in some cases award-winning, exhibits are on display and live demonstrations are planned. In addition, we will provide in-depth information on KURZ’s sustainability know-how, which makes the entire spectrum of our expertise clear.”

Fürth/Germany, September 30, 2021: Together with renowned partner companies, LEONHARD KURZ will be presenting innovative and sustainable surface solutions for plastics at Fakuma in October 2021. One of the many highlights of the trade fair presentation – with the theme ‘Making every product unique’ – are the groundbreaking and in some cases award-winning concept components for the vehicle of tomorrow. “As a partner for future supplier challenges, we will be joining forces with the injection molding machine manufacturer Wittmann Battenfeld and the plastics specialist and tool technologist Syntech Plastics to demonstrate the multifaceted future of interior design to trade fair visitors by presenting an immediately functional HMI concept component for roof-lining at the trade fair together,” announces Martin Hahn, Head of Application, Technology & Innovation Business Area Decoration at LEONHARD KURZ. The lighting specialist OSRAM Automotive Lighting Systems, the KURZ subsidiaries BAIER with its CO₂ cleaning and UV curing system, and PolyIC with its 3D-shaped PolyTC® touch sensors also provided important building blocks for the successful concept demonstrated at Fakuma. The highly efficient, series-ready, one-step process can be seen via live transmission in Hall B1 at Stand B1-1204 of Wittmann Battenfeld Deutschland GmbH.

Fürth/Germany, September 30, 2021: The fully electric IntElect injection molding machine from Sumitomo (SHI) Demag is efficient, precise, and fast. Visitors to the 27th Fakuma trade fair, which will take place from October 12 to 16 this year in Friedrichshafen, Germany, will see a demonstration of this machine. Together with LEONHARD KURZ, the experts in innovative plastic decoration solutions from Fürth, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, the specialist for machines for plastics processing, is presenting a pioneering application of In-Mold Decoration for the vehicle exterior of tomorrow. In live production, the highly efficient ‘IMD second surface’ process will be demonstrated at the machine manufacturer’s booth B1-1105. This process creates an automotive design badge for the front or rear of the vehicle. In addition to KURZ and Sumitomo (SHI) Demag , KURZ subsidiary BAIER, where the cleaning station in the machine comes from, is also jointly responsible for the successful overall concept presented at Fakuma.

Fuerth/Germany, August 23, 2021: Every year, the IMDA Award recognizes outstanding innovations in the areas of In-Mold Labeling (IML), In-Mold Decoration (IMD), and In-Mold Electronics (IME) in the USA. With its new metallization option indium, which the company presented for the first time in 2020, LEONHARD KURZ was able to impress the judges and won the award for exemplary use of In-Mold technology in component production. Indium offers many advantages, particularly in the automotive, consumer electronics, and household appliance industries, and gives almost unlimited design freedom. KURZ showcases the decoration using an automotive door trim concept.

Fürth/Germany, July 26, 2021: From vehicle interiors to the smartphones we hold in our hands every day, and even washing machine control panels: As consumers, we place high demands on the technology that surrounds us. Manufacturers therefore face the particular challenge of combining smart features with excellent design – while at the same time keeping production cost-effective and sustainable. What sounds challenging can be made reality with the help of an innovative process devised by LEONHARD KURZ. The thin film expert is working with the KURZ subsidiary PolyIC and its partners Wittmann Battenfeld and Georg Kaufmann Formenbau in the implementation of the groundbreaking decoration technology IMD VARIOFORM^® with In-Mold Labeling (IML). As a result, customers benefit from bundled expertise.

Fürth/ Germany, June 3rd, 2020: The plastics industry is currently under considerable pressure as a result of the problems caused by plastic waste. Plastics manufacturers and processors are required to quickly develop effective concepts for reintegrating materials in the resource cycle. Numerous companies have already developed effective recycling concepts and increased recycling quotas. Can recyclability be made impossible due to the application of decorative or protective coatings? Do mono-materials become composites when coated, meaning that they can no longer be mechanically recycled? Then all efforts would be in vain. As the industry requires clarity on this issue, a manufacturer of transfer finishing products has now examined it. 

Packaging for short-lived consumables must be collected in accordance with country-specific regulations and returned to the waste management cycle if possible. In Germany, consumer packaging is collected in the yellow bag or yellow bin, and then sorted and recycled by recycling companies. Whether or not a plastic generally remains recyclable following the application of a decorative transfer finishing depends on two factors: Firstly, the transfer finishing must not impede the processes of the recycling company. As a general rule, the packaging is sorted, ground, washed and extruded. All of this must be possible without any disruptions. Secondly, the resulting extrudate must be of the same quality as a recyclate consisting of uncoated mono-materials. 

LEONHARD KURZ in Fürth has commissioned an institute specialising in the classification, assessment and testing of packaging and goods recyclability to test a sample decorated with a transfer finishing from KURZ. The institute has developed a comprehensive catalog of requirements and assessments for EU-wide certification, which is used to assess product recyclability. The submitted small PP bottle with silver coating was certified by the institute as 100 % recyclable.

Fürth/Germany, April 15, 2021: Flexibility and problem-solving skills are the keys for your business success. Just like you, we are pursuing the goal of supporting our customers with innovative solutions for their plastic products at this challenging time. Despite the restrictions due to Corona, we want to offer you new initiatives for surface decoration and invite you to our online seminars for the plastic decoration industry. Learn more about our latest KURZ innovations and trends for automotive, consumer electronics, home appliances, and sustainability topics from our experts. These are our topics:

Fürth/Germany, February 1st, 2021: Pioneering progress from Fürth: Thin-film expert LEONHARD KURZ has been awarded the 3rd main prize of the Bavarian Innovation Prize for the ‘IMD VARIOFORM® with Functional In-Mold Labeling (IML)’ process. This technological solution bundles the four processes of thermoforming, decorating, integrating a sensor, and punching directly in the injection molding tool in a single processing phase. For the first time, this innovation allows touch sensors to be deformed in three dimensions, injected with plastic and integrated into geometrically sophisticated and decorated components.