“Body care becomes a wellness program. Let your everyday cares drip away,” German shower manufacturer Hansgrohe says in one of its promotional pieces. An innovative two-component jet body from Freudenberg Sealing Technologies ensures that the customer’s new showerhead offers “a shower experience extraordinaire.”
Andrej Gede says Hansgrohe is the “Mercedes of shower makers.” He has supported the Black Forest-based company for years, working in external sales at Sales General Industry (GI). He is especially happy that a new contract is renewing FST’s long-standing partnership with Hansgrohe.
The new showerhead for a Hansgrohe wellness shower is 26 centimeters across – the size of a large dinner plate. Building on its past work, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) has developed and optimized a jet insert for it. Forced through 200 tiny openings, each with a diameter of 0.35 millimeters, the fi ne jets of water spray onto skin and hair – at different angles for an allaround relaxing yet water-conserving experience.
Complex liquid silicone demo
The jet technology by itself is nothing new for FST and has already been fi eld-tested with liquid silicone. This project involved delicate, so-called micro-core borings carried out in a two-component design, and it was new to the market. Only a few producers have dared to tackle a design of this kind. “Two-component, now that is in a league of its own,” Gede said. It makes handling easier for the customer and allows greater freedom of design. The new, highly complex, demo product is made of liquid silicone. Formed into several strip-shaped circles, it creates a fi rm bond with a main body made of a thermoplastic – the second part of the component.
The project posed a range of challenges. FST’s facility in Öhringen specializes in liquid silicone technology, and Product Manager Denis Glonning cited some of the issues: “We had to find a combination of materials that adhered to one another reliably and could be produced in consistent quality with a dependable process without rework. Both the delicate borings and the size of the component posed special challenges. As it is removed from the tool, thermoplastics of this size and thickness tend to deform.” A word about the tool: The price of a tool is an indication of how demanding a job is, and this one costs as much as a Rolls Royce.
Another of Freudenberg’s strengths came into play. The machinery at the Öhringen site, where FST’s expertise for such tasks is concentrated, was unable to execute the project. A solution was found within the same FST division at the company’s Losenstein, Austria facility a few hundred kilometers away. “Losenstein had the right machine as well as ample experience with the two-component technology,” Glonning said. So in the same “Innovating Together” spirit, another partner teamed up with the customer and FST’s experts in Öhringen. The results were fast in coming and recently the new two-component jet body went into series production at the Austrian site. Feedback from the market and the target quantities are promising.
The successful cooperation on the prestigious product holds out the prospect of more business. “Two projects with similar volumes are nearing a decision,” said Andreas Schmitt, Global Segment Director, Sales GI, said. Once again, they involve jet bodies for showerheads. But in these cases, the products are one-component variations without thermoplastic base bodies. Still, they demand precision in the micrometer range and promote wellness in the bathroom of your home.
