Maurer Services GmbH (MS) & Maurer Engineering UG (ME)

The MAURER SERVICES GmbH (MS) is a family managed SME located in Ebertsheim, Pfalz (Germany), formerly known under Wolfgang Maurer GmbH founded in 1973. MS’ business is focused on the printing industry with customers mainly from the graphic industry. MS is working with many printing houses in the newspaper and commercial sector with offset printing as well as with companies in the packaging, decorative and web-fed publication gravure printing sector. Furthermore, companies using flexographic printing are also among our customers.

MS’ scope of business comprises services and repairs of printing machines, complete retrofits, and reconstructions in mechanical and electrical aspects. MS has profound experience and know-how with (re-)constructions of newspaper presses, offset presses, particularly for book production and gravure presses. Tasks related to electrical drive engineering and development of machine controlling systems are outsourced to Maurer Engineering UG (ME). Dependent on the application and customer requirements, the machine control can be partly replaced by own software solutions.

Machine constructions and modifications are planned in an experienced construction department. To the greatest possible extent, the mechanical manufacturing, realization and execution of the assembly are carried out in MS’ own mechanical workshop. The equipment is installed and taken into operation by MS technicians. Machine services, maintenance and repair of machine damages are performed by specialized MS & ME technicians.

In the MS coating technology department wear parts can be overhauled. Coatings with a wide range of properties can be realized depending on technological requirements and in accordance with the in customer with layers of different metallic and ceramic materials.

Business areas of MS & ME

Close collaboration with research institutes, especially with the Institute for Printing and Media Technology of the University of Technology in Chemnitz (pmTUC), is an essential part of the company’s strategy to stay at the forefront of technology and work on topics of high engineering and commercial interest.

In collaboration with the professorship Print and Media Technology under the lead of Prof. Arved Hübler, different projects and research topics have been realized, e.g. an electronic retrofit of the drive unit in a printing machine at laboratory scale or the design and construction of different experimental setups for investigations of drive units in the graphic arts industry.

Printing machine in laboratory scale from MS & ME, built and set up at the pmTUC.

National and international business activities and projects:

MS has been engaged in a large variety of technically challenging projects with national and international renowned customers. To increase the technical possibilities of printing machines, upgrades or extensions with new printing units, direct drives, transmitters, additional splicers, folders and control desks have successfully been conducted. In a recent project, the extension of a folder superstructure on a heat printing press with the integration of an additional ribbon, two plow folders and a second cross fold delivery were successfully realized.

Extension of a folder superstructure on a heat printing press realized by MS & ME.

The development of the machine control, drive engineering and human-machine interface (HMI) programming was done by ME.

Control desk of a printing machine. Machine control and HMI programming by MS & ME.

In all mentioned projects, the machine controls were adapted to the new technological requirements.

These example projects demonstrate that MS and ME together have outstanding technological expertise and highly specialized employees for performing challenging tasks to fulfill the various customer needs. One of the biggest advantages is that all required working steps and processes can be realized within the two SME’s.

Main tasks within the project

The main task of MS & ME in the IMPETUS project is the development of a R2R inline chip mounting system. Commercial pick & place systems currently available on the market transfer microelectronic parts in non-continuous motion processes (stop-and-go approach) from their source locations, either directly from wafers or from several standardized storage systems such as carrier tapes, reels, trays, to their final destination. In contrast, the novel chip mounting system developed in IMPETUS handles microchips in a continuous motion process. In order to feed the module with microchips we use Surftape, in which microchips are already placed and centred in pockets. Our module separates the microchips from the pockets of the Surftape and, once the module is installed in the IMPETUS pilot line at tagtron GmbH (TT), it will place the chips very accurately on the target location on the paper web in a roll-to-roll process. The tasks of MS are development, installation and set-up of the chip placement system in the pilot line. Development and programming of the machine control, HMI programming and drive engineering are tasks of ME.

Other activities of MS and ME in the project are the installation and setup of a screen-printing and a flexo-printing unit in the IMPETUS pilot line at tagtron GmbH as well as supporting the installation and setup of the inkjet module of the project partner RICOH.

Further information can be found on the homepage of MS.