News Details

Dear Reader

on the 1 July 2016, LAMTEC America is present directly on the American market. With the branch manager Thomas Kurzawski, LAMTEC is able to attain an American-experienced employee, who is familiar with products of the optical flame monitoring, burner and burner management systems for more than 20 years and also has additional experiance in the field of measurement and sensor systems for combustion flue gases. We get to have an interview with Thomas Kurzawski to discuss about LAMTEC and his goals.

Journaliste: Mr Kurzawski, you were born in Essen, Germany but lived in the U.S. for a very long time. What difference did it make?
Thomas Kurzawski: To me the USA has always been a fascinating country with great opportunities. When I was asked, a long time ago, to work on an assignment in the US I took the opportunity and ran with it. The US is full of helpful and supportive people that appreciate the many values that I believe in. Customer service and support for the products and the company that I represent are on top of my list.

How does your Vita looks like?
As you already mentioned, I was born in Essen but grew up in a midsize city in North Rhine-Westphalia.
My education has been in electrical engineering but I have been working in the combustion equipment field for more than 20 years.
After several assignments in different industries I was offered the opportunity to establish and run the office of a different Germany based combustion equipment supply company in North America. During my time with this company the sales grew from a startup office to several Mill $ and a staff of about 20 people. I found that the combustion industry was very interesting and rewarding. I also made it a point to understand the market and the product and to establish an office that was self-supportive.
Over time, production of specialty equipment as well as final assembly of products was also established in the US operation. This gave us the ability to respond immediately to customer requirements with short delivery times which are mandatory in the US.
During this time I also had the great opportunity to work not only all over North America but also in Middle and South America as well as in China.

I have always been proud of not only presenting the equipment but also being able to commission and support the product in the field. Being able to not only understand the equipment from the manufacturers side but also from the customer’s side is one of the major reasons for understanding the need of the customers, the applications and to provide the best solutions and successful sales.

Since 1 July 2016, you are the manager of the American branch. How did you get there? Did you know LAMTEC before?
Naturally, when working in a specific industry, one needs to know the other companies present in the market. Although, I personally never had any direct involvement with Lamtec and their products, I was well aware of Lamtec. Specifically the combustion optimization products interested me.

In your new position at LAMTEC, you have an extensive product portfolio. Is this considered an advantage which you can use at the American market?
Over time Lamtec has prepared the product line for entry into the American market. Having a large product offering within the company’s core business is a definite plus. In my opinion, that will show the customer the commitment to the market by the supplier. The possibility to provide not just only one specific niche product but a bundle of products which add additional benefits if these are employed as a system will be an advantage.

When your plans are successful, where do you see LAMTEC in 5 years?
Lamtec will be a recognized and trusted name in the combustion industry in America! We have the opportunity and the goal to capture a sizable percentage of the available market share.

In your opinion, which areas of the product family should be further developed?
Lamtec’s decision to venture in to the North American market with a Corporate office, a new company direction has been set. LAMTEC has a large proven product offering in the commercial & industrial combustion market. The next step will be to adapt the existing portfolio to certain specific requirements and introduce new products to industries that have not been addressed before.

What other personal goals do you have?
I made a commitment to establish Lamtec in the American market. My goal is to do so by getting Lamtec known to the different potential industries. I want to be able to look back in 10 years and know that the name Lamtec is known as a reliable, quality combustion equipment provider.

We wish Mr. Kurzawski success in his new undertakings and we are happy to write about it in our LAMTEC News.

DOW's Huge Plant
In the expansion of NEMS, our NEMS fault indicator system is installed at DOW's huge plant and monitoring it securely. The new system has 49 NEMS, which monitors 796 indicating signals belongs the the compaby LAMTEC and is currently installed at DOW. The plant is monitored by an operating and display terminal from the control room and a thermal printer allows changes, faults, acknowledgements, etc to be printed out chronometrically. Furthermore, by using connected USB-Sticks, the last 2000 messages can be read and saved. In the next steps, DOW is also planning to change their indicator systems to NEMS fault indicator systems.

NEMS Worldwide
Due to its many customer-oriented functions which can be controlled by software, the NEMS is not only well-known in Germany. It is crossing borders, proven and tested by large corporations and is always being enquired. The NEMS is known from North Europe over the Benelux countries to France, Austria and Switzerland up to Spain. It is also known in Slovenia, Poland, Russia, and Asia.

NEMS Software
This extensive individual adjustable software is fulfilling every wish of a customer. As mentioned before, the software has been developed through customers' wishes for control of NEMS indicator plants. Functions for individual customisations through the individual channels such as "working current/closed current", "safety interlock chain (SIC)" and "alarm assignment" via the jumpers from signals to adjustable "relay configuration" shows that it fulfills every needs of a customer and can be customer-specific installed. The software will be developed further according to new requirements from customers.

Our LAMTEC Sales team can help you with solutions if you have further questions and enquiries (Tel. 06227 6052 88, vertrieb(at)lamtec.de).