Defense business: Dürr examines new opportunities

More and more mechanical engineering companies are trying to gain a foothold in the defense sector. "Our companies specialize in fulfilling customer requests for industrial production in small or large series on a customized basis. Mechanical engineering has the know-how to make Germany and Europe safer," said VDMA President Bertram Kawlath, for example. Mechanical engineering is not an arms manufacturer and will not become one either, but the industry is also an indispensable supplier to this sector.

"You can now see that traditional mechanical engineers are suddenly trying to build drones because money can be made there. That seems to be the only sector with government contracts," also reported Markus Kuger, chief economist at Coface.

Dürr sees a need for significantly higher unit numbers

At Dürr, drones are not the main focus. Instead, the group is analyzing which technologies are suitable for the defense business and is presenting these technologies and its competencies to existing and potential customers. The company reported this in response to an inquiry from Produktion. According to Dürr, there are already orders and ongoing talks. However, silence is being maintained about them.

Dürr currently sees the greatest need in the defense industry in scaling production figures by a factor of 10 to 15 or even more compared with the base year 2022.

The topic is not entirely new for the group. According to its own statement, Dürr has also been transferring its know-how to projects in the defense industry for decades.

This includes, for example, painting technology. "With a market share of more than 50 percent, Dürr is the global number one in automotive painting and can also point to references for military and armored vehicles as well as aircraft parts," a press release states. Its technologies for the defense industry, for example in paint application or in dispensing technology for adhesives and sealants, are scalable and are intended to ensure efficiency and quality through (partial) automation.

Automation and precision for armaments production

Another point is the manufacture and optimization of engines and defense equipment for land, sea, and air. Here, Dürr is involved with balancing machines, center-of-gravity scales, vibration tables, toolings, and measuring systems for determining mass properties from the group subsidiary Schenck RoTec. "Especially for the balancing of jet engines, the highest measurement accuracy and reliable results are crucial for safety and performance," the group explains. The latest-generation moment scales are intended to enable precise measurements of mass and moment that meet the strict quality and performance requirements of the defense sector.

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Another focus is digitalization. In complex production and operating processes, systems for monitoring and controlling production equipment (SCADA) as well as higher-level manufacturing execution systems (MES/MOM/APS) are intended to improve transparency, traceability, controlled processes, reproducible quality and IT security in production. With a local installation in an isolated IT infrastructure, companies retain full control over their data.

It is therefore clear: The defense industry certainly does play a role for Dürr. The group did not want to say what strategic significance the area has. “Dürr is currently not commenting on volume or expansion targets in this area,” it said in response to an inquiry.