Tue, 09 February, 2021
Based in the Netherlands, Intertech were founded in 1986 and are experts in power transmission and motion control products. Working in industries ranging from petrochemical and power generation to marine and other more general industrial applications, they represent a number of well-known manufacturers around the world while also supplying and manufacturing friction materials and composite bearings for marine and offshore applications.
We took some time to speak with Intertech’s Alexander Kühne to find out more about what they do and how they work alongside TWI.
Intertech offer a range of services to industry, can you quickly tell us more about what the company does and how it serves industry?
Intertech represents companies around the world to distribute products varying from power transmission components to test stands, as well as providing technical consultancy and knowledge transfer, which we perform alongside TWI.
As a company, you have great experience in the marine and power generation industries, but are also working more in automotive too. Can you tell us more about branching out and how you are helping to progress automotive technologies?
Obviously, we are in an exciting time for the automotive industry, with the trend towards battery-powered cars moving at an ever-increasing pace. Challenges for traditional car OEMs as well as newcomers to the market in regards to the electrical power train (battery trays for instance) are increasing, and TWI’s extensive knowledge and presence in this world is greatly beneficial.
You mention that TWI’s knowledge is useful to Intertech, can you explain how we began to work together and what the collaboration delivers?
We first started out doing joint customer visits to welding engineers, where we were able to learn about their processes, possible problems and wishes for improvements or new developments.
However, more recently, Covid put an end to this for the time being and now we do online meetings with potential Members or interested parties for joint industry and direct one-to-one customer projects.
How do you think this work benefits TWI’s customers?
The most beneficial thing in our opinion is the opportunity for companies, and their welding engineers in particular, to have an independent ‘go-to’ option for knowledge and advice. This can be on day-to-day matters or a more in-depth matter when, for instance, a new product is being developed or failure analysis is required.
How about the future of Intertech and TWI, is there anything notable in the pipeline that you can talk about?
Obviously, we see a lot of potential for some of the traditional joining methods that TWI has had long experience with. For example, there are still a lot of untouched applications for friction stir welding. We are especially excited about the new CoreFlow and friction stir welding of steel capabilities.
There are a lot of new developments happening right now, whether the push towards electrification or finding new applications for different welding capabilities and we are proud to be able to work with TWI to progress these advances across industry.
You can find out more about Intertech here.