The company createch ag

Different in every way from the average

"The average is the start of a struggle for existence. The average is the start of frustration and boredom": That is the basis on which René Affentranger founded createch ag in Langenthal on 10 April 1995. He thus created an innovative and creative company for industrial laser machining.

A quarter of a century later the virtually limitless scope of applications for laser technology is still as fascinating as we saw it on the first day. Laser cuts the most subtle contours, creates micro holes in a fraction of a second and joins the most diverse materials. The electromagnetic waves are equally well suited to creating profiles of parts, removing material without noise or residues and evaporating layers from a surface.

Our partners benefit from our expertise, all around the globe. With our highly motivated and creative personnel, our modern laser applications and our laser machine tools developed in-house, we satisfy the highest demands of our customers in the watchmaking industry, aerospace, the energy sector, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and other fields.

On the foundation of our quality assurance we have built a lean, transparent and effective management system. This system supports our competitiveness and continually promotes the satisfaction of our customers and our employees.

The history of the company

How within a very short time a 1-man company has become the largest provider of precision laser machining in the country.

The most important events in the history of createch ag, shown on our time line.

The founding year

createch ag was founded on 24th April 1995 by Sylvia & René Affentranger, based at 4900 Langenthal. They had no experience at all in precision laser machining, but were totally convinced of the potential for success hidden within this little-known technology.

Quality management system

In the early years not only did we develop our technical expertise, we also created in parallel a quality management system, and on 25th September 1998 we were successfully certified to ISO 9001:2000.

Apprentice training

René Affentranger completed a 4-year apprenticeship to become a mechanic at the company Nencki AG in Langenthal, and during that time laid the foundation stone of his successful vocational career. Quite simply, it is our duty to train apprentices. As early as the August 1999 createch ag recruited our first poly-mechanic apprentice.

New company building

Our own company building was erected at Gaswerkstrasse 67, into which we moved at the end of 2000. In our new building we were able to apply all our creativity and innovative capability true to the motto “First impressions count".

Laser welding with filler material

The variety of materials and material combinations to be welded poses a great challenge and their melt characteristics set limits to the laser welding process. Since 2002 we have been working intensively on laser filler welding, searching for suitable filler materials that satisfy the most diverse requirements.

ERP system

We accepted the challenge to create optimised procedures, not only in manufacturing but also in administration, and we evaluated several ERP systems. At the end of 2003 we implemented the "Mechanik 3000" ERP system.

New structures and growth

With the founding of createch holding ag and createch invest ag we set our course for further growth and sustained development projects.

The doubling of the production area (new building II) permitted us to set aside a dedicated area for medical technology. The entire infrastructure, logistics and manufacturing are completely separate from all the other products and sectors.

In respect of medical technology

Our quality management system is continually modified to satisfy the requirements and regulations applicable to medical technology, and on 21st April 2006 it was certified to ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 13485:2003.

Aerospace

The validation for manufacture of attenuator tubes for the Ariane 5 cargo rockets smoothed our path into a growing market. Since then our attenuator tubes have been fitted in the Ariane, Vega and Atlas cargo rockets.

Clean room ISO 7

Setting up a production line for implants in the clean room. All production steps such as good inwards inspection, assembly, laser welding and quality control including packaging are performed under ISO 7 conditions.

New technology - ultra-short pulse lasers

Entry into in the ultra-short pulse laser technology with the first picosecond laser. With only a few exceptions we develop and build our own equipment. Our first ultra-short pulse laser machine was no different.

SAP - ERP

Despite many misunderstandings and much scepticism on all sides we decided to satisfy our customers’ requirements in the field of ERP also. In 2013 we went live with SAP live and thereby equipped ourselves to meet future EDP challenges. SAP, a truly far-sighted decision.

Sales Office, West Switzerland

We seek to bridge barriers, including language barriers, and to that end we have opened a Sales Office in La Chaux-de-Fonds. This helps us to offer quick and competent support to our French-speaking customer base, in particular in the watchmaking industry.

Upgrading with ultra-short pulse lasers

Our UKP department with 4 picosecond lasers has been extended with femtosecond lasers. This will enable us to take on even more exciting and unique applications. We now deliver manufactured components across a size ratio of 1:780,000.

Electronic Archiving

Introduction of ELO, a document management system which ensures secure electronic archiving of all documents and records relevant to the business.

Certification to the latest standards

We endeavour to orient ourselves to new standards and to satisfy them on time: Monitoring audit and upgrade to the new ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016 standards in May 2018.

Building rights agreement

A building rights agreement was successfully signed with the council of Langenthal for an area of 18,000m2 in the "Steiachermatte". This will allow createch ag to implement its long-term growth strategy for future innovations.

Retrofit

The existing machinery was analysed and evaluated on the basis of a checklist. An important part of our considaration ist based on the future requirements of our customers. Some machines were retrofitted to bring them to the latest state of the art.

New laser world

With the building approval and the ground-breaking ceremony in February, the foundation was laid for the innovative and creative further development of createch ag.

René Affentranger

Founder and CEO

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René Affentranger