Newsletter

21.01.09  New structuring of the Sales Division at THIEME GmbH & Co. KG, Germany In connection with the establishment of the subsidiary JRT Photovoltaics, THIEME is rearranging its responsibilities in industrial and graphics sales. In the future, the new sales management will also be filled with long-time THIEME employees, who vouch for continuity among the screen printing machine manufacturers. In the sector of printing systems, Peter Geiger will assume the Technical Director leadership from Markus Bau – now the new Managing Director of JRT Photovoltaics – and will simultaneously relinquish his earlier sales responsibility to Thieme Managing Director Frank Thieme. Peter Geiger has been employed in positions of responsibility at Thieme for more than 20 years. The sales responsibility of both business sectors of industrial and graphic screen printing will in the future be taken over by Christian Schweickert (Industrial) and Oliver Beck (Graphics). Christian Schweickert, who has been employed at Thieme in the industrial sector for nine years and possesses strong customer and industry contacts, will succeed Klaus Messmer in this position. Messmer has accepted the position of Sales Manager of the new company JRT Photovoltaics. Oliver Beck, who is taking over the position of the Sales Manager of graphics from Juergen Weischedel, was previously active in the sales team of the industrial machine business sector for one and a half years and recently shared responsibility for the international sales of various Thieme screen printing installations. Training Sector is Being Strengthened Juergen Weischedel, who successfully managed the sales division in the graphics sector for many years, will henceforth assume responsibility for the training sector. "The training sector is increasingly important for us and our customers", comments Weischedel about his new task. "For this reason we want to become more active here in the future and to place our customers in a position to use their screen printing installations optimally." In addition to customer training programs, an increasing number of training programs should be carried out for existing and new Thieme colleagues in order to expand their know-how. "We want to assure that all our customers are provided with optimal consultation regardless of their location," emphasizes Weischedel. Moreover, the experienced screen printing specialist will in addition to the existing Thieme sales regions increase the efforts to build up new international markets and support his successor in the graphic sales management, Oliver Beck.

01.09.08  THIEME and Jonas & Redmann establish JRT Photovoltaics THIEME and Jonas & Redmann co-operate in the sector of metallization of solar cells and accordingly have founded the new company JRT Photovoltaics GmbH & Co. KG. On 1st September 2008, they informed the guests about the new partnership on the booth of Jonas & Redmann during the exhibition EUPVSEC in Valencia/Spain. At 6:00 p.m, the time came. After welcoming the guests, Lutz Redmann informed them about the new partnership and explained the reasons why the common subsidiary was founded and officially introduced JRT Photovoltaics GmbH & Co. KG. Stefan Jonas and the new General Manager of the JRT Photovoltaics, Markus Bau, uncovered a display with the company logo and a short description of the company. Afterwards, Frank Thieme showed the printing line on the THIEME booth and explained the machine concept which was jointly developed. The interested visitors had the opportunity to ask questions and to further inspect the machine. Short Profile: JRT Photovoltaics emerged from the know-how and market experience of two strong partners: Jonas & Redmann and Thieme. The offering includes an optimal service spectrum in the sector of metallization and handling technologies and the partial coating of crystalline solar cells. Here, the highest quality standards, innovative technologies and the synergy of years of experience come together in the respective core competencies. We understand "leading technologies" as a daily challenge to implement the requirements of our customers with a passion. The trust in a strong partnership is our motor, the establishment of successful customer relationships our goal. We stand for that. Let us go forward together.

10.04.08  LARGE - LARGER - LARGEST: THIEME 5000 XXL For many years, the screen printing division states that their customers are printing more and more large sizes - no matter whether the substrates are screen printed, digitally printed or offset printed. THIEME is able to meet these requirements: LARGE: In 2001, THIEME realized the needs of the market and built the first screen printing line with a max. print size of 1600 x 2600 mm. LARGER: Three years later, the above format was not big enough! By the construction of the THIEME 5000 XL generation, the print size was increased even more. LARGEST: Last year, THIEME received an order from POSTER PRINT PUBLI, Belgium, and produced a four-colour line with a max. print size of 2600 x 3700 mm. More information:THIEME 5000 XXL

10.04.08  Slim format, slim process THIEME screen printing lines automate the production of decor foils for the ski manufacturer Elan. Since February 2008, eleven special versions of the screen printing model series THIEME 3000 S have been in operation at the two locations of the Slovenian company Elan, one of the world's leading manufacturers of skis and snowboards, producing the unusually long and narrow PE decor foils. More information: Screen printing lines at ski manufacturer Elan

10.04.08  THIEME News Inquiry Results We would like to thank everybody who sent back the questionnaire about the THIEME News. More than 14% of the questionnaires were sent back to us so that we got a representative result. The result showed that you read the THIEME newsletter regularly so that we will continue to send it out in 2008. As in the past, we will send the newsletter as a pdf-file four times a year. We will respect your proposals and do our best to send you valuable information about the different business fields. You will find more information on: Inquiry Results

10.04.08  Improved Availability To improve the availability of our service team, the organisation of the info desk was modified and a further person will be available for you. This will help to reduce waiting times and to connect you very quickly. You can reach our info-desk by the phone +49/(0)7641.583-112 from 8.00 a.m. until 5.00 p.m. Please note that the waiting times will be reduced even more if you inform us about the machine number which is indicated on the type plate of your machine. This enables us to identify the required information about your machine very quickly and to give you an answer within a short period of time.

04.03.08  Werner Thieme celebrates 80th birthday: pioneer and entrepreneur by conviction Werner Thieme, a man whose curriculum vitae has been characterised above all by a pioneering spirit, flexibility and trueness to himself, is celebrating his 80th birthday. After serving his apprenticeship as a fitter, he then worked as a draughtsman before going on to become a wholesale merchant. In 1960, he went out on his own with the foundation of the THIEME Maschinenfabrik OHG, and by 1965 he had founded a second company: Kunststoffe Werner Thieme KG. Today THIEME GmbH & Co. KG, with its two business divisions for polyurethane and printing systems, is regarded as an independent family company which can look back on decades of success on the international market. The special distinguishing feature for success has been flexibility to customer needs. Thus, THIEME has always changed and is still constantly changing to meet the requirements of the evolving markets it services. Now the company founder Werner Thieme is 80 years old and is still fully consumed with pioneering and enterprising spirit. But, in one respect he has always been conservative in the best sense of the word, specifically in the subject of location. Down through all the years he has remained loyal to his home in Teningen, Germany. Second-generation leader Frank Thieme now manages the company. The father remains as an adviser at his son's side and supports him with his vast experience. THIEME is today in an extremely solid position. Specifically, 2007 was an outstanding year with an increase in turnover of €20 million. It is clear that Werner Thieme can look back at his life's work with great satisfaction.

04.03.08  Innovative system concepts for solar screen printing At the Photovoltaic Technology Show, taking place from the 2nd to the 4th of April 2008 in Munich, THIEME will be presenting three innovative screen printing system concepts including two new developments for the production of thin-film solar cells. THIEME already has presented its fully automatic system concept for the coating of silicon wafers at trade fairs last year, with strong interest industry wide. In order to keep up with the increasing growth of thin-film technology, THIEME is extending its product range for the solar industry by two system concepts for the thin-film sector: R2R (Roll-to-Roll) print line for the production of flexible solar cells, as well as a flat bed system for the printing of flat glass. You can find out more about all three screen printing system concepts at the THIEME booth at the Photovoltaic Technology Show, booth no. L9 in hall C1. A fully functioning print line for Si cells is also installed at the THIEME technical centre in Teningen, Germany for demonstrations and tests.

29.10.07  High-precision screen printing with camera-controlled positioning For technical screen printing applications, THIEME has developed a special version of its proven model series THIEME 1000 and THIEME 3000. The flatbed screen printers are now optionally available with a camera-controlled print stock positioning system which automatically corrects position deviations of a tenth of a millimetre within one second. These print systems have two CCD cameras fixed on a robust housing over the print table, which can be set for different print formats on a linear guide. The camera system used achieves a maximum resolution of one half a pixel (0.015 mm), which defines the smallest possible positioning range. More information: camera-controlled positioning.pdf

29.10.07  THIEME customers expand their multi-colour lines Within the past three years, our customers expanded their existing multi-colour lines by additional printing stations. Two examples taken from our statistics: 20% of the THIEME 5000 multi-colour lines produced within the past three years were expanded. 1/3 of the THIEME 5000 two-colour lines produced within the past three years were expanded to four-colour lines. What is the reason?