Rochling Automotive USA LLP

With more than 4,200 employees, the Rochling Automotive Group is a global partner to automotive manufacturers and system suppliers. Its 22 manufacturing plants, spread across four continents, ensure customer proximity. The Group's four R&D locations produce long-term benefits for end customers. Extensive support services for automotive manufacturers are predominantly provided at local sales and customer service offices.

Rochling Automotive's core competencies include aerodynamics and acoustics in each segment of the vehicle. Air management consists of the optimization of airflows within the vehicle - whether in cooling air ducts, intake pipes, and intake manifolds in the engine compartment, air channels within the passenger compartment, or at the underbody. It is all about airflow, aerodynamic drag, and air turbulence. Ultimately, an efficient flow distribution means less energy input and, consequently, less fuel consumption.

Another strength of Rochling Automotive that positively affects emissions is the increase of acoustic comfort while taking into account the laws of lightweight construction. Normally, an optimization of acoustics is accompanied by a weight increase of the vehicle, which is not exactly light to begin with. By combining acoustic functions with other component functions, Rochling Automotive succeeds in stopping or even reversing the weight spiral.

Other important topics for Rochling Automotive include fluid components and interior applications. Cost efficiency and, of course, lightweight construction are key aspects here in addition to the high level of function integration. The various special disciplines are systematically interlinked within the Group by following precisely regulated processes so that competencies are pooled. This approach allows Rochling Automotive to develop system solutions as well as fascinating components. Equal importance is placed on innovations and great service.

History:

From Coal to Plastics

The history of the Rochling Company begins in 1822. During that year, Friedrich Ludwig Rochling founded a coal trading business in Volklingen. His four nephews - the "Rochling brothers" - began with the production of hard coal coke and processing industrial iron in 1849, the year of revolutions.

The acquisition of Volklinger Iron Works in 1881, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, marked the beginning of the steel era. But that was not the only material Rochling bet on - in 1922, it acquired its first plastics company, thus becoming a trail-blazer in plastics processing.

The acquisition of Rheinmetall Berlin AG, supplier of the newly constituted German Army, in 1955 was another step toward diversification and away from dependence on steel. In 1978, Rochling finally left the mining industry entirely and instead aggressively pursued diversification into various business areas outside of materials trading during the 1980s and 1990s.

The Company did not lose sight of plastics, though, but rather expanded its product range to add it through acquisitions, in automotive plastics for example. At the end of the millenium, it adopted a fundamental change in strategy: Rochling focused on its core expertise in plastics and sold all other holdings. Along with the restructuring, the Company intensified the globalization of the plastics group in Eastern Europe, America, and Asia and tapped into new markets, particularly in medical engineering.

The Rochling Group

Structure of the Rochling Group

Headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, our global plastics group encompasses 60 companies. Together, they employ 7,500 people in 20 countries around the world.

Our globally positioned Group of small and medium-sized companies is a world leader with a wide-ranging technology base in all areas of plastics processing.

With our High-Performance Plastics and Automotive Plastics divisions, annual sales revenue from business in Europe, the Americas, and Asia amount to EUR 1.3 billion.

Strong growth and the swift pace of innovation characterize the market environment in which the Rochling Group does business. Few industries can compare with the plastics industry's current potential. In recent decades, plastics have spread at an unparalleled rate. Plastic has made its mark on the lives of people from Greenland to South Africa and from Columbia to Australia. In the twenty-first century, no other material will rival plastic in significance.

Material of the Future

These factors form the basis of the Rochling Group's long-term entrepreneurial growth strategy. In focusing on plastic processing, we are concentrating on a material with outstanding future prospects. We have substantially promoted the development of plastics in recent decades and now benefit from the experience and specialized knowledge that our employees have amassed over the years.

Three corporate principles have been the foundation of the Rochling Group's rise to the leading international ranks among plastics companies - Competence, Quality, and Innovation.

Competence means that Rochling companies are leaders in their business. The Group covers the full range of quality plastics and all major plastics processing techniques.

We at Rochling believe Quality means that our products and our service meet our customers' exact requirements. We keep our promises.

A spirit of Innovation is required in order to competently advise our business partners. That is why Rochling leads the field in the technological development of products, applications, and processes.

For example, the innovative product range of the High-Performance Plastics division encompasses a wide range of semi-finished products, profiles, cast and injection-molded parts, as well as finished parts made from standard plastics and technical high-performance plastics that are machined, coated, and ready to use.

The Automotive Plastics division provides automobile manufacturers and system suppliers all over the world with technologically superior plastics applications that are being implemented to solve the current challenges of the automobile industry - reduction of weight, fuel consumption, emissions, and costs.