Market-leading
Higher productivity and flexibility for customers
As the market leader in automated wire processing, the Komax Group possesses unparalleled innovative strength in the industry. Continuously bringing innovations to the market and thus helping its customers gain genuine competitive advantages is of paramount strategic importance.
There is huge potential for the Komax Group in the markets for automated wire processing. Long-term megatrends such as e-mobility and autonomous driving offer numerous opportunities, as do growth drivers such as miniaturization, rising personnel costs, and shortages of skilled labor. With further automation of processe along the value chain and expanded digital ser vices, the efficiency of the existing machinery base already installed in customers’ factories can be significantly increased.
11.8% of 2024 revenues were invested in research and development
To exploit these opportunities for additional unique selling points and offer customers innovative solutions on an ongoing basis, the Komax Group has for many years been investing above-average sums in new developments, the optimization of the existing product portfolio, and the expansion of its service offering. Even in challenging years – such as 2024 – this has remained a firm focus of the company. It has spent a total of CHF 282.8 million in this area since 2020, thereby cementing its leading position in the automation of wire processing. In 2024, the Komax Group invested a total of CHF 74.3 million or 11.8% (2023: CHF 78.6 million or 10.5%) of revenues in research and development. This figure comprises expenditure on internal development services (CHF 65.2 million) and the development services of third parties (CHF 9.1 million).
¹ Excluding one-time effect on revenues.
² The Schleuniger Group was consolidated as of 1 September 2022. Accordingly, four months of Schleuniger’s R&D expenditure are included in the financial year 2022.
Higher productivity and flexibility for customers
When developing new products and services, the Komax Group focuses on the optimization of various value chains. With its solutions, it can increase the degree of automation at its customers’ factories, which allows them to increase productivity and flexibility while at the same time maintaining high quality right from the start. For example, customers with the cloud-based solution WIRE Insights (formerly Komax Connect) receive comprehensive production data for their machines in real time and can therefore initiate optimizations immediately. Among other things, reject rates in production can be massively reduced. For example, as a customer of the Komax Group, the PKC Group has equipped various machines with WIRE Insights at four locations, which led to a reduction of the reject rate by more than 36%.
SMART FACTORY by KOMAX
The trend toward digitalization is in full swing, particularly in the automotive industry. More digitalization also means more data, more electrification, and more wiring and cabling. This is good for the business of the Komax Group, but presents its customers with growing challenges. A wide range of components and products are becoming increasingly intelligent and, at the same time, more complex on the electronic side. The miniaturization of contact systems is continuing, adding a further layer of complication to manual production steps. Compounding this problem are ever-rising personnel costs along with a global shortage of skilled labor.
The customers of the Komax Group have to deliver consistently high quality and reliability despite rising complexity and higher personnel expenses, while at the same time keeping costs as low as possible. The Komax Group is helping them to meet these growing challenges. Specifically, the Komax Group is developing a solution package with which wire manufacturing can be optimized in the future – the SMART FACTORY by KOMAX. It features five components.
SMART FACTORY by KOMAX
With its five components, the SMART FACTORY by KOMAX offers solutions for the wire processing of the future. The aim is to make customer production processes simpler, thereby elevating the quality, productivity, and flexibility of wire processing to a new level. The Komax Group is further developing all five components on an ongoing basis.
Actively driving forward industry trends
The Komax Group strives to actively shape key developments in its three market segments and thereby advance automation further. To this end, it partners with other leading companies in various organizations and initiatives.
Examples of current innovations
Thanks to its targeted investment in research & development, the Komax Group succeeds in bringing a variety of new products, product enhancements, and services to market every year. It demonstrated its technological leadership impressively in the 2024 reporting year with several significant product innovations. Some examples:
The Komax Group is working intensively on developing intelligent, networked solutions for the further automation of processes, such as wire changeovers, seal changeovers, and batch handling. In addition, the ongoing reduction of operator influence and the shortening of setup times are high on the agenda. In the future, the machines of the Komax Group will adjust multifaceted settings and make corrections in a fully automatic way. The objectives of further automation solutions include even greater quality and enhanced flexibility together with lower costs and emissions.