7 / 36
Passion
7
BEYOND SURFACES
Spring
16
The Surface Solutions Segment
offers an enormous spectrum of
surface solutions. How do you
actually maintain an overview?
My physics studies definitely come in
very handy here! A core aspect of the
creation of the Surface Solutions
Segment was the high degree of
complementarity of the Balzers and
Metco offerings. It is very interesting
and exciting to now bring these two
technologies together, to develop new
solutions by combining them, to shift
the existing limits of the technology, and
enable totally new approaches and thus
solutions for our customers. We are
pioneers by tradition, have already set
new standards in the history of the
coating industry, and will continue to do
so in the future.
What does the future of the Seg-
ment look like?
Our Segment brings in the highest
revenue in the Oerlikon Group. In
November, Group Management
announced that Oerlikon is to blaze new
trails to create long-term added value
for shareholders. The Group is thereby
betting on the strengths and potential of
the Surface Solutions business.
Reduced energy consumption, respon-
sible use of resources and increased
performance are themes which will
occupy us in the coming years and
decades, because megatrends, such
as population growth, increasing energy
needs, and growing mobility are rapidly
changing our world. New and intelligent
materials and surfaces will play an
important role as solutions for these
trends become necessary.
The merger of Oerlikon Balzers and
Oerlikon Metco has enormously
expanded our Segment’s target market.
A few months ago we opened up a new
strategic business area based on
Oerlikon Metco’s long-standing
expertise in the area of metal-based
powders. For this we created a
separate Business Unit ‘Additive
Manufacturing’ in order to develop the
business, the production portfolio, R&D
and partnerships in this rapidly emerg-
ing market. Probably the best known
application in additive manufacturing is
3D-printing. We are convinced that this
stepp will expand our target market by
a factor of 20 % to 11 billion Swiss
Francs.
Dr Herb, thank you for this interview.
Dr Roland Herb is the CEO of the Oerlikon
Group’s Surface Solutions Segment, which,
since June 2014, has united the sister brands
Balzers and Metco. The German native worked,
from 1997, in various positions and departments
at Oerlikon – amongst these project management,
R&D and product management – before assuming
substantial responsibility for the positioning of
Balzers in the coating area as manager of Oerlikon
Balzers’ strategic Business Units Tools, Forming Tools
and Components. From 2010 through 2014, Dr Roland
Herb managed the Tools Business Line, which remains one
of the company‘s most important mainstays.
Dr Roland Herb, born in 1963, studied Physics at Tübingen
University and, prior to joining Oerlikon, was a research
associate at the Naturwissenschaftliches und Medizinisches
Institut (NMI) in Reutlingen (Germany), and afterwards
product development manager at Buck Plasma Elektronik in
Neuenburg (Switzerland).
ABOUT
Dr Roland Herb