Company Profile

data M Sheet Metal Solutions GmbH

From software developing to technical roll forming services.

Valley.

The beginning

data M Sheet Metal Solutions GmbH’s history began long before the actual founding of the company. Dipl.-Ing. Albert Sedlmaier, the founder of the company worked from 1982 until 1987 as a research engineer at the Technical University of Munich/Germany in the field of mechanical design, CAD/CAM and roll forming.

On behalf of the Studiengesellschaft fuer Stahlanwendung/ Düsseldorf, Germany he worked and graduated on investigations concerning the subject roll forming (CAD/CAM, expert systems...). Co-founder Stefan Freitag graduated at the same University.

The results and developments in those days of research inspired the young engineers to found data M Software GmbH in June 1987 with the objective of developing mere software. At that time everyone was convinced that as much as possible in a production process should be automated.

That was the mainstream trend in those days. Out of this work arose slowly the process simulation sector, but very soon the founders realised that the design software alone was not sufficient. Consequently they in 1988 offered services and commenced design work themselves. Beside the work with software developing this sector very soon became an important business pillar of its own.

Thus the engineers had an excellent tool at hand, which enabled them to also offer engineering solutions and controlling technology in addition to their manifold software solutions.

Says Sedlmaier: “Meanwhile we had learned to understand the rollforming process in detail and we were then in the position to take the company another step forward by offering design services ourselves.” With immediate effect the software development was adjusted and nothing was automated any longer. Even the marketing was changed accordingly and data M insisted from that time on that its software cannot automate everything.

“That changed a lot with us”, continues Sedlmaier, “after that the designing engineer was our friend and not our enemy any longer, as before. We increasingly focused on process simulation, i.e. a designing engineer de-signed something and we wrote an analysing program, which calculates the result of the roll forming process and simulates the roll forming process. In those days we invested a lot into research & development and collaborated with diverse universities and scientific institutions even in India and China. From the beginning our contacts into these regions were notably good, and I can say that today, in times of an economic crisis, our company generates about 15 % of its turnover in Asia.”

Customer proximity is exceptionally important -
data M expands its business all over the world

R&D work is daily routine for the data M team. That is what established the reputation of the company as being a problem solver or, as Albert Sedlmaier comments with a smile, as a troubleshooter. Companies from all over the world called for the Upper Bavarians and asked for assistance.

Very soon Sedlmaier realised the high potential that derives from the internationalisation of his firm and its services. Consequently he and his co-founder began to look for distribution and engineering partners in Europe and overseas with whom they can market not only their software products but also their services.

This local presence helps data M to improve its customer proximity and its practical relevance, which is most important for its work.

Goal of this expansion policy is to establish many of the so called “data M competence centres”, in which the parent company holds the majority. By establishing these branch offices the roll forming experts can any time keep an eye on the market developments and are able to react fast and flexibly to the wishes of their customers all over the world.

data M Sheet Metal Solutions - a highly technical
service centre

So far data M delivered the feasibility studies and the tooling as well as the roll forming concept to its customers. These services will in future be added by a machine, which can produce prototypes of rolled sections.

Not only on the basis of “flexible roll forming”, on which data M has been working for many years, the company in future will be in a position to offer its customers a complete concept consisting of theory and practical experience – from feasibility studies and the tooling concept as well as the roll forming concept to the prototype of the section.

Once a client has accepted the overall result data M will as a consultant assist the roll former in realising the concept.