GKD - Gebr. Kufferath AG: Laying the cornerstone for the new works in the USA Designed by star architect Dominique Perrault

"The expansion of our presence on the US market reflects our clear committment to the greatest and most competitive market in the world." With these words, Graduate Engineer Ingo Kufferath, Director of GKD - Gebr. Kufferath AG, Dueren, self-confidently sums up the company's decision to build a new works in North America. The internationally renowned woven wire mesh specialist has been represented in the USA since 1982. Over the years, the American branch has grown so strongly that it has now reached the absolute limits of capacity of the premises it has been leasing so far. Now the cornerstone has been laid for GKD - USA Inc's own production and administration building in Cambridge/Maryland, just an hour's drive east of America's capital city, Washington.

The building was designed by the French star architect Dominique Perrault and represents a functional and at the same time attractive solution to the requirements of the Dueren-based parent company. Comprehensive production processes of all three of GKD's business units - Filtration and Separation, Process Belts, and Architecture and Design - will soon be effected here for the American market. Operating out of Cambridge, the company will thus in a few months be able to uphold the all-important "time-to-market" sales argument even better than it has already been doing so far. GKD will soon be able to supply made-to-measure finished products to key customers in the USA with extremely short reaction times. The new works will provide adequate space for up to 80 employees to fulfil this objective. But the three- million-dollar building complex will also fulfil another key function. As a very special kind of showroom it will impressively illustrate the aesthetics, functionality and versatility of woven metal architectural design fabrics.

Letting beauty speak for itself

Even from a distance, the 4,000 square meter building in the Chesapeake Industrial Park will be a real eye-catcher. The 50 meter long wire mesh façade is an impressive visiting card for the design potential of the woven steel fabric. Every onlooker is immediately made aware of an infinite variety of possible perspectives by the expressive power of the wire mesh, which reflects the steady change of light and weather conditions in constantly novel prismatic effects and, depending on the angle of view, works like a transparent or like an opaque mantle enshrouding the building behind it. Moveable sunscreen panels on the windows add further accentuation. And inside the building, too, Perrault cleverly uses the versatile material for non-verbal promotion of the merits of GKD's products. Huge suspended ceilings made of wire mesh and stainless steel Tatami mesh carpeting illustrate the puristic aesthetics of the material. The subtle interplay between ceilings and floors inspires creative onlookers to develop whole worlds of design ideas of their own. The two mesh types mainly used in the new factory, Tatami and Omega, will also be woven in Cambridge. Furthermore, thanks to additional storage capacity, direct finishing of smaller orders for other standard types of woven metal architectural design fabric will also be possible.

Never-leak design for breweries

The new works in Cambridge will also mean an increase in customer proximity for two major manufacturing sectors of GKD's Filtration and Separation business unit. In future, filter cartridges for a range of filtration processes will be manufactured here, as well as filter plates made according to the "never-leak" production procedure specially developed for the US market. The main field of application for these filters is the brewing industry.

Production in Cambridge of wire mesh belts for the non-wovens and food-processing industries will also intensify the presence of GKD's business unit Process Belts on the American market. This will shorten reaction times for made-to-measure manufacturing and installation services and lead to a significant expansion of the range of products offered.

Move to the new premises in early summer 2003

GKD, a medium-sized proprietary family business, has over 75 years of corporate tradition of its parent works in Dueren to look back on. The two directors, Ingo und Stephan Kufferath, expect the construction of the new works in the United States, one of the most important world markets for this ambitious company, to bring significant growth. Round half of the turnover in the USA so far has been achieved by the business unit Architecture and Design, the other half being shared between the Filtration and Separation and the Process Belts units. Planning for all three units is oriented towards substantial growth. The move into the new premises is scheduled for early summer 2003, and scope has already been included for further future expansion: the location and architecture of the building are designed to allow the production area to be increased to as much as twice its initial size.