Committed to 'Made in Germany'

Johs. Boss GmbH & Co. KG has invested heavily in recent years, thereby renewing its commitment to positive development of the company and to the Onstmettingen site. The Albstadt-based family company, which is now in its sixth generation, develops and produces precision thread tools and testing tools and sells these worldwide.
'JBO' is the market leader for threading dies and one of the first ports of call in Europe for thread milling cutters and thread gauges. As a brand, JBO stands for excellent product quality and comprehensive stock, all around the world. The company will be celebrating its 175-year anni-versary in three years.
The company has begun with the manufacturing of precision balances – the switch to threaded tools took place during the 1st World War.
To allow for steady growth, continuously changing market requirements and to meet the company's own requirements, JBO is investing in the future. While many companies are reducing spending to a minimum, JBO is releasing funds for optimising processes and improving supply availability.
For example, process stability in production is one of the most important aspects for SMEs when manufacturing products that have tolerances down to the thousandth of a millimetre – µ. A number of measures have made it possible to significantly improve this production-relevant variable at JBO's Albstadt site. Energy efficiency, temperature stability, heat recovery and a reduction in the CO2 emissions are all key aspects that played an important role in the planning of these measures.

Several measures were put in place in 2019/2020 with the construction of another production hall, the third in the last 17 years, and the extensive renovation of air conditioning systems and cooling lubricant machine cooling in existing production areas. The company's investment into a central cooling unit with free cooling, renovation of the ventilation and air conditioning and a special, clever building control system have enabled JBO to keep electricity consumption constant, despite the expanded production area and air conditioning for temperature-critical production areas. Energy advisers expect savings of around 70 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The replacement of 8 compressors for process cooling of cooling lubricant systems in the existing production space with plate heat exchanger systems, which are connected to the new, external cooling system and the investment in a new energy-efficient central cooling lubricant system for the new building make a significant contribution. Temperature stability in the production areas and the cooling lubricant used are the result of and a pre-requisite for µ-precision production.
Architecture firm Queisser GmbH worked on the planning and construction.
The final construction measures took place last year with the renovation of the four-storey main building and the redevelopment of the external facilities. The courtyards and the two additional parking areas, which opened in 2018, have been paved.
 

Further projects involved the installation of a new fire alarm system and several fire-resistant doors, a complete switchover to LED lighting, installation of new windows and the renovation of the sanitary equipment.
The architecture firm Marcus Czernoch were responsible for the planning and construction of the two new parking areas and the renovation work on the existing building.
JBO has also made sustainable investments in the expansion and modernisation of the mach-inery. Alongside investments in new technology such as laser machining and the latest generation metal cutting machines, maintaining and modernising the existing machinery is one of JBO's ongoing objectives.
The in-house mechanical enginee-ring department took on a large proportion of the projects. As well as maintenance and modernisation of existing machines, their tasks also include developing special new machines and the manu-facture and sales of automation components.
This department is also where industrial mechanic training takes place. In ideal circumstances, the company covers its needs for higher-level employees from this 'treasure trove'.