Zimmer Austria – Further strengthening its position in digital printing, coating and finishing systems

The company sees itself as a solution provider that can customize its units for all its customers’ demands especially to the products they want to print

Andreas Rass, CEO, Zimmer Austria

Zimmer Austria Digital Printing Systems is considered a leading manufacturer of textile digital printing, coating and finishing systems, globally. With its strong technology focus, excellent customer service and after-sales support services the company has been growing from strength to strength in recent times. In an exclusive chat with us, Andreas Rass, the company’s CEO sounded happy at Zimmer Austria’s recent performance. “We are proud to share that 2021 has given us the chance to catch up with pre-pandemic financial results. Not only that, but also the order book is well prepared for 2022, with an excellent perspective for additional growth this year,” he states.

“Easing of travel restrictions allowed us to meet our customers face to face again. Several large orders have been acquired and our highly motivated team secured on-time delivery for all projects. The well-reputed service quality of Zimmer Austria has again proven to be a strong backbone of our company,” he adds. Replying to a question on which were the important global markets that were good for the company, Rass states: “Turkey had a major share of the total volume with high focus on carpets. It seems that the broken supply chain from the Far East supported the Turkish customer gaining more momentum on the global carpet market. Nonetheless, we saw all over Europe and USA a positive buying mood and hope this continues further.”

Technology Advantages

Speaking about the advantages that the company offers to its customers to increase their efficiency, quality and profitability, he mentions: “We see ourselves as a solution provider and customize our units to our customers’ demands and especially to the products they want to print. The focus hereby is on carpets, heavy textiles and technical textiles. Then there is our unique combination of print heads, ink formulations, software and 45 years of process know- how.” “Flat woven bed sheets with pigment are not a big challenge anymore as process, chemicals, printers etc., are well available but printing a 2,5 kg/m² wool carpet with a piezo print head means many building blocks from pre-treatment, post-treatment, chemistry, RIP know-how but also a stable print machine. This is exactly the above mentioned process know-how which is part of the Zimmer package. We bring all this together at our technology centre in Kufstein where we can sample, test, and even run up to medium size production jobs,” he adds.

When queried about introduction of any new technology by the company in the last couple of years, Rass notes: “We did significant developments applying our core technology stack to new applications.”

“Besides gaining further traction of digitally printed carpets we were able to introduce a broad range of machinery and process consulting to produce military camouflage fabrics. The range is from belts for ballistic west to special forces’ suits and camouflage nets”, he added.

Back on Track

“Just like the whole industry, we were forced to sell and service our machines remotely, which happened to be a very good test for the resilience of our customer service and sales network. Now we are back on the road and look forward to meeting our customers again at exhibitions and on site,” he says. Highlighting the automation initiatives of the company, Rass points out: “We put significant efforts in further helping our customers to operate their units with minimum downtime and full control. One of the examples of such a solution is the ‘Print Head Calibration Wizard’ which operates as a smart combination of software and hardware. With this system the operators of our equipment can easily maintain the reproducibility and quality of their printed goods over a long period of time. Our solution tackles the needs of many printer operators in the industry, not only our Zimmer Austria customers.”

“Just like the whole industry, we were forced to sell and service our machines remotely, which happened to be a very good test for the resilience of our customer service and sales network. Now we are back on the road and look forward to meeting our customers again at exhibitions and on site,” he says. Highlighting the automation initiatives of the company, Rass points out: “We put significant efforts in further helping our customers to operate their units with minimum downtime and full control. One of the examples of such a solution is the ‘Print Head Calibration Wizard’ which operates as a smart combination of software and hardware.”

Achieving Sustainability Goals

Elaborating on how the company’s products help customers achieve their sustainability goals, Andreas Rass says: “By itself the application of digital printing is already the first step into a more ecological approach of textile and carpet production. Production on demand close to the customer enables to minimize overproduction which becomes in many cases directly waste. This waste is one of the biggest polluters in the total industry. Certainly, our process and machine development are driven by the optimization of resources as key decision factors. Water recycling in our washing systems is as much a topic as minimizing fixation and drying times by challenging theoretical know-how with new machinery and new process developments.”

Andreas Rass says: “We would like to maintain a leading position in our target segments like carpets, heavy textile and technical textiles. Further, we would like to invest in and commercialize the smart solutions around our equipment. And most importantly, invest in our people.”

Change in management

Andreas Rass and Thomas Mentler

After more than a decade of strong leadership, Tony Naschberger prepared the ground for the next generation in the company and appointed two experts with years of experience on his side within ZIMMER AUSTRIA, to take over the management.

Andreas Rass, together with Thomas Mentler, have taken over responsibilities as Managing Directors starting from January 1st, 2022. ZIMMER is confident that this succession plan is an excellent decision and are looking forward to continued prosperity of the company’s business.

ZIMMER AUSTRIA – financially strong, with the promise of quality equipment and service is the best guarantor for success of customer’s proposed digital printing or coating project. The company’s five business segments including Textile Printing, Floor Covering, Narrow Fabrics, Technical Textiles and Specialties will probably cover every need of its customers.

Tony remains active and will follow his passion, the carpet and textile industry, supporting the company in the fields of sales and technical development. He will also continue as Managing Director in the parent company of the ZIMMER AUSTRIA GROUP.

Tony Naschberger

Through his experience and in-depth knowledge of the carpet business, Tony gained the trust of the late Mr. Johannes Zimmer, owner of the ZIMMER GROUP who asked him to become a partner and the Managing Director of ZIMMER Kufstein operations in 2010. Celebrating his 65th birthday in September last year, it was Tony’s personal wish to withdraw from the responsible position of being CEO for the last 11 years.

Despite the difficult economic conditions in 2020 and 2021 Zimmer is proud of being again honored by rating agency Dun & Bradstreet with the Paper of Excellence classification. Throughout the pandemic scenario the company has been confirmed of lowest economic risk factor. This is an excellent proof of the stability and economic strength of our business.

Tony Naschberger joined ZIMMER back in 1976 and was from day 1 involved in the development of the first digital carpet printer in the world. The printer sold under the brand CHROMOJET became a symbol for digitally printed carpets.