Company History

“We are proud to produce products with high value-added, high quality and high reliability”. ‘Made in Germany’ truly means that development and production takes place and will continue to take place in Germany. Only in this way can we meet the high-quality requirements of our customers and further develop them in line with the market, together with our customers. “It is important to us to deal with employees, customers, suppliers and business partners always fairly.”

Oliver Kehl:
“The first time I came into contact with transparent honeycomb structures was during a study exchange program with the University of Waterloo in Canada in 1993/94, where transparent thermal insulation (TTI) was welded in the form of Teflon foil stacks. A device developed by their technical staff needed a whole week to manufacture one square meter of honeycomb material. In addition, the foil stack had to be pulled apart/expanded manually in order to create a honeycomb. Our idea was to automate this process and produce a honeycomb structure from thin, flexible foils which would nevertheless be stable in itself and therefore not require expansion.”

Achim Kehl:
“Back from Canada, my brother put a lot of effort into implementing this idea. The first fully automatic honeycomb production machine was built in our father’s basement, and the first small production line was set up in our grandfather’s conservatory. Since money was tight, we partially gathered machine components from a scrap yard. From then on, things took off, a production hall was rented, patents were applied for and production was set up. This was a classic startup story with its beginnings in a garage. My brother took a big risk at a young age. It took a few years until the company made positive figures. By the end however, the effort really paid off.”

Oliver Kehl:
“Thank you, Achim for your words of appreciation! Praise also to you for your engineering and inventing talent. Many of our machines were and are designed by you and work wonderfully. But of course first, saleable products had to be developed and brought to the market. This was achieved with our TIMax® and WaveCore® honeycomb structures, which found market access as transparent thermal insulation (TTI) and served as the core material for lightweight applications. Our new honeycomb materials were so well received, that we even set up production lines for international customers.”

Achim Kehl:
“Towards the close of 2003, we achieved a project coup where we attempted to use our honeycomb as translucent insulation in glass profiles. This actually worked, but the honeycomb was difficult to install on the construction site, and the light transmission was too high for such large-scale glazing. We looked for alternatives and put meticulous effort into finding the perfect product for this application. This resulted in the patented spun glass TIMax® GL, which also provided protection from overheating in summer due to its light-diffusing properties. We are now the global market leader in translucent insulation for glass facades.”

Oliver Kehl:
“With enormous effort we set up a completely new manufacturing technology for plastic honeycombs and we had to make just as much effort to develop a technology that could bond these honeycombs with transparent cover layers so perfectly, that you could still see clearly through the honeycomb panels. We achieved this with our ViewPan® product range mid-2007. Interesting new markets opened up for this new product line. The very lightweight and translucent design panels can be used wherever glass is too heavy or interesting alternative optics are sought.”

Achim Kehl:
“It’s not easy to sell honeycomb core panels and expect the customer to provide the necessary framing systems, metal connectors or hardware. From this experience, we developed a carpentry production line, where the transparent honeycomb panels could be cut to size, provided with edges or further processed into product systems using a special bonding technique. In the meantime, we now manufacture aluminum frame systems for floor-to-ceiling partitions, complete sliding doors with hardware, door panels, movable walls with feet and accessories, table partitions and baffle systems, in addition to our plastic honeycomb panels.”

Oliver Kehl:
“After the space in our old factory in Bielefeld Brake became too tight, we decided to move to new building on a 10,000 m² green field in Herford. We do not regret the decision at all, as we can now manufacture on a level area and with optimized production routes. Of course, our innovative translucent materials have been used with abundance in the new building. For our visitors, it is ideal place to see and experience our Wacotech and Wacosystems products live in our new building. Come and visit us!”

The Corona pandemic unfortunately lead to supply difficulties for our transparent thermally insulated profiled glass business area. As a result, Wacotech GmbH & Co. KG was no longer tenable.

Fortunately behind every risk there is also an opportunity – as of 01 March 2022 Wacosystems GmbH partnered with the NWI Group as an associated company. The main focus of this partnership is the development of further business areas and markets and the increased expansion of our customer structure, for a successful future.