What began after the war as a workshop for everyday objects developed into a sought-after specialist for waterproof wristwatch cases from the 1950s onwards. In the 1970s, Julius Pfisterer underwent a decisive technological change and established itself as an innovative supplier of stamped and bent components. Thanks to continuous further development and the use of state-of-the-art technologies, we are still a reliable partner with a view to the future.
In August 1945, the company was founded as a precision engineering workshop by Julius Pfisterer and his son Oskar. In the early years, the company manufactured items for everyday use. It was not until 1948 - after the currency reform - that the company founders found a direction with the development and manufacture of jewelry and watch cases, which was to serve the development of the Julius Pfisterer company over the next 10 years. In 1952, the second son, Albert Pfisterer, returned from captivity as a prisoner of war in Russia to play an active role in building up the company. The successful development was documented by numerous patents and utility models in the field of waterproof wristwatch cases. Julius Pfisterer held the world's first patents for waterproof square watch cases.
After having to rent commercial premises twice in the 1950s to accommodate the company's rapid growth, the company was able to move into its first own commercial property in 1956. Unfortunately, company founder Julius Pfisterer did not live to see this move. He died shortly beforehand at the age of just 66. With the addition of a residential and administration building in 1960, the entire company was reunited in one location. With Brigitte, Oskar Pfisterer's daughter, the 3rd generation joined the company in 1965. She took over the commercial side of the business. At the end of the 1960s, the recession in the Pforzheim watch industry became apparent. The cheap watch cases, imports from the Far East and the appearance of the first electrically quartz-controlled watches on the German watch market resulted in a considerable drop in sales in the Pforzheim area.
This was the starting point for the restructuring of the family business at the beginning of the 1970s, which was initiated by the arrival of son-in-law Michael Ketzer, master toolmaker and specialist in the field of stamping and bending technology. With his further development of cam-controlled chain machines for the production of stamped and bent parts, he laid the foundation for the basic technology still used today. The technology, which has only been modified in detail since that time, has enabled the company to achieve an unrivaled position on the market to date and to expand its product range in the area of simpler stamped and bent parts in medium quantities.
With Andreas Ketzer, the eldest son of Brigitte and Michael Ketzer, the 4th generation of toolmakers (master toolmaker since 1986) joined the company in 1983. The purchase of the first wire erosion machine around the same time opened up far-reaching development opportunities in the field of punching and bending technology.
Today, five state-of-the-art wire erosion machines are available, without which modern toolmaking would be unthinkable. In 1986, the company moved into a new, multi-storey production building. This created the spatial basis for using additional and larger stamping and bending machines. With the use of the first Bihler automatic punching press, it was possible to meet the increased customer requirements for complex punched parts and assemblies. Today, a wide range of customer requirements are processed on a total of 60 production machines.
Among other things, stamped and bent parts are magazined on request, wound endlessly onto coils, fitted with rivets and threads during the production process and much more. In 1989, Dominic Ketzer, the youngest master toolmaker in the family, joined the company. The organization is split up, from then on Dominic Ketzer is mainly responsible for internal management, Andreas Ketzer for project development and sales. The company can now operate actively on the market. This also results in a new alliance with an American partner based in Detroit/Michigan to handle global projects for customers mainly in the automotive sector.
In January 1998, the company moved into a new 6,000 square meter building. This set the course for further positive development of the company away from being a pure supplier and towards becoming a development and value-added partner for our customers. At the end of 1999, the first products developed together with leading automobile manufacturers in the field of high-current electrical connectors went into series production.
With the retirement of Brigitte and Michael Ketzer from active management - both will continue to support the managing directors Andreas and Dominic Ketzer, who have sole power of representation, in an advisory capacity - the need to realign the company as an industrial enterprise has now begun.
The new premises now finally offer space for the comprehensive training of toolmakers. A suitably qualified specialist is employed for this purpose, and from 2000 onwards, 4 young people are constantly undergoing training to supplement the workforce of skilled workers after successfully passing their final examinations. The desired success is achieved with the first final examinations: Julius Pfisterer provides the best candidate in both 2003 and 2004, whose success is honored with the prize of the city of Pforzheim. The focus is now on direct cooperation in the development area with automobile manufacturers. To this end, a project management system is installed, the company, which now has 40 employees, has an appropriate departmental structure and the responsible employees in the individual departments are involved in the fundamental decision-making processes.
The entire organization is structured and certified in accordance with ISO TS 16949:2002.
With corresponding partners from the affiliated market segments of plastics and turning technology, customers are offered comprehensive project support in development and subsequent series supply of complete assemblies.
Following the successful sale of product and market responsibility for RADSOK high-current connector systems in 2005, Julius Pfisterer GmbH & Co. KG can now concentrate more on the production of stamped and bent components. The decision not to actively operate on the market with its own products in the future and thus to avoid competitive situations with existing customers provides the necessary independence to continue to successfully support customers and partners with the existing know-how in the development of stamping and bending products.
From now on, the focus will be on developing concepts for productively combining different materials such as plastic and metal. Here, manufacturing concepts are developed to combine plastic parts with each other via assembly. This is done, for example, as bulk material, as continuous goods on plastic or metal belts and other combinations that make sense for specific projects. Julius Pfisterer's wide-ranging expertise makes it possible to meet the respective customer requirements precisely with the most economically suitable technologies.
At the same time, new customers can be acquired in the medical technology sector. In 2007/2008, so-called "micro-punching" in particular will be introduced in series production; punched parts with a diameter of 0.22 mm made from materials that are difficult to punch are produced in series. This technology is almost unheard of on the market and represents another unique selling point.
The investment in the latest technology in the field of wire erosion enables optimum quality of the micro-stamped parts.
In 2010, Julius Pfisterer GmbH & Co. KG has 4 AGIE wire erosion machines of the latest generation.
The addition of a high-bay warehouse directly adjacent to the production facility will enable logistical processes to be further optimized from 2011. Despite a constant workforce of 40 skilled workers, annual production volumes have increased by more than 50% in the last five years.
The trend is increasingly moving towards higher quality assemblies to complement the classic stamped and bent parts. This also demonstrates the success of the partnership-based cooperation with customers right from the start of project planning. As a result, line-to-line projects are increasingly being implemented, enabling more economical further processing of the stamped products. The delivery responsibility today includes multi-stage stamping processes, taking into account adjacent technologies such as the use of pre-processed strip materials through milling or surface treatment, as well as support for downstream processes through to the development, construction and provision of stamping and bending units directly at the processing customer's premises.
In 2012, a fully automated cleaning system for bulk parts is put into operation, which enables more than three times the amount of goods to be optimally cleaned, naturally in compliance with all current environmental regulations.
The intensive training of tool mechanics bears fruit again in 2013: Isabel Knebel is the first tool mechanic to pass her final examination with 100 out of 100 points. She is honored as one of the "best of the best" at a festive graduation ceremony at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. We are delighted to be able to offer Isabel Knebel a permanent contract of employment.
If you want to be successful today, you have to face up to the growing demands and always be one step ahead of developments. Know-how alone is no longer enough to be firmly anchored in the market. JPF is available to customers with advice during the development phase, through prototyping and process engineering tests, including the design and manufacture of tools, right up to series production. In order to remain at the upper limit of technological possibilities in the future, JPF is constantly working on new solutions and also draws on the expertise of universities and institutes as well as innovative suppliers. All corporate goals have been achieved or exceeded to date. The concept of lean production, problem solving for difficult tasks and individual advice are the cornerstones of JPF's corporate philosophy and the basis of its success.
With the commissioning of the first Bihler RM-NC stamping and bending machine, JPF is well equipped for a continued successful future in stamping and bending technology.
As one of Bihler's first customers to offer this innovative technology in series production, JPF was able to integrate the first fully NC-controlled stamping and bending machine into series parts production at the beginning of October 2014."We expect this technology to further increase our flexibility for our customers in terms of short response times for order call-offs. This will be accompanied by lower set-up costs in the specific production units and therefore economically very interesting individual price calculations for complex bent parts, some of which our customers only need in small quantities," says Andreas Ketzer, one of the two managing partners alongside Dominic Ketzer, now in the 4th generation at JPF. "With this new technology, we are one of the first providers on the market to enter the eighth decade of our company's history and we believe we are well equipped to take on new tasks from our national and international customers."
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