Stories

Our Asian subsidiary Fullchamp produces around 200,000 high-quality forged wheels for the commercial vehicle sector and our SPEEDLINE TRUCK brand for us in Nantou (Taiwan) each year. We asked Yahn-Shen Tsai, managing director at Fullchamp since 2013, a few questions.

With this award, the government of the Spanish autonomous community of Aragón certifies that RONAL IBÉRICA has achieved more than 500 points in the European excellence model. For our Spanish subsidiary, this is the admission ticket to an exclusive club of only 15 companies to have been awarded this seal.

In the middle of April, our trainees at our Härkingen location in Switzerland took an annual field trip. Michelle (design engineer trainee) and Levin (management assistant trainee) summarized the eventful day in the following report.

On October 10, 2017 our second plant in Teruel (Spain) was opened with a ceremony. Now, around 18 months later, managers from various departments of the company look back to the construction and start-up period and report on how they experienced it all.

In the second part of our interview with Christian Götz, the former active member of Team KA-RaceIng of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) tells us of the challenges, advantages and highlights of his time spent in the Formula Student.

As in 2018, RONAL GmbH will once again be sponsoring one of the three racing cars of the KA-RaceIng team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2019, with which the students will participate in the Formula Student international design competition.

September 20-27, 2018 SPEEDLINE TRUCK, the RONAL GROUP’s truck wheel brand, exhibited its products at IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover. Our trade show visitors who took a voluntary survey had the chance to win a SPEEDLINE TRUCK wheel engraved by wheel tattoo artist Eddy Schuster. The exclusive prize has now been presented.

Geothermal energy is sustainable, ecological and sparing in the use of resources. In Forst, geothermal energy is used all year round for heating and cooling. A heat pump is powered using electricity from renewable energy sources, so in terms of its energy supply, the site is largely CO2-neutral.

A special event was held in Bern at the end of September as part of this year’s meeting of the executive board members from all our sites: a special motor racing event – with 0% CO2 emissions.

Alongside Trucker Princess Christina Scheib, we had another exciting visitor to our stand: on Saturday 22 September and Sunday 23 September, wheel tattoo artist Eddy from Berserker Metal Tattoo & Paradise Lost Tattoo engraved some of our SPEEDLINE TRUCK wheels in a live demonstration. You can see the result below!

SPEEDLINE TRUCK chalked up its 4th appearance at IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hannover on September 20-27. In addition to the comprehensive product range, there was another highlight this time around: on Friday, September 21, Trucker princess Christina Scheib (33) visited us at our trade show booth.

The ROWE 6-hour ADAC Ruhr Trophy race took place on the Nürburgring Nordschleife (north loop) on Saturday, 18 August. It was the fifth of nine races that are held every year as part of the VLN Long Distance Championship at the Nürburgring – the biggestendurance racing series in the world. And our CEO Yvo Schnarrenberger was there as a driver for the first time.

Bärbel (21) and Moritz (21) are both 5th semester students studying industrial engineering at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in Karlsruhe, and work for RONAL GmbH in Forst. At the beginning of September, they both travelled to Härkingen for two days to get to know our headquarters in Switzerland.

In March we introduced our RONAL POLSKA Run Team, consisting of our colleagues from Poland. The team members have been very active and have been taking part in different races during the last few months. Here is a little update on their activities and the races they have completed recently.

As previously reported, our factory in Landau (Germany) is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in 2018. To thank our staff, who play an important part in the success of our company, there was a big family day in June.

Our plant in Landau, which went into operation in 1988, is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year. As in every company, the success of the RONAL GROUP depends on the commitment of its staff – and this is most appreciated!

On June 2 and 3, 2018, we were delighted to take part in the Aviation Fair in Pardubice. The fair, which attracted outstanding pilots and famous aircraft, also featured a firework display, military land vehicles and equipment, and historical re-enactments. In addition, visitors were treated to performances by world aerobatics champions.

As part of our PLANBLUE sustainability concept, we launched the Bike2RONAL campaign last April. Our mission: All employees are called upon to travel to and from work in a way that is as CO2-neutral as possible. This is where we present the results.

At the end of February, former Formula One driver Alex Zanardi (51) visited our Italian forging company App-Tech. Following a severe accident, he began a successful career in hand cycling and founded his own association to support handicapped children. We talked to this incredible man.

Some of our colleagues are not only working together but have also formed an athletic team: At the beginning of 2017 a formal running group was created in one of our plants in Wałbrzych, Poland. It is called RONAL POLSKA RUN. Find out more about its formation process here.

We operate cogeneration units at our factory in San Luis Potosí in Mexico. We also plan to use them at our factory in Italy in the foreseeable future. We would like to explain why we are doing so in this article.

With Bike2RONAL we have set up an environmentally friendly, in-house campaign to try and persuade all employees around the world to travel to and from work without making their carbon footprint any larger. Our colleague René has seized on this campaign to combine work and pleasure.

Alron Lda, our toolmaking site of the RONAL GROUP in Cantanhede (Portugal), came in for a special mention at the 17th award ceremony of the energy supplier EDP, recognition corresponding to third place.

There was a catastrophe in central Portugal in mid-October: the dry weather caused forest fires, and over 40 people lost their lives. Others survived, but lost everything they possessed.

A good one and a half years after laying the foundation stone, the time had come: our new plant in Teruel (Spain) was officially opened in mid-October!

In collaboration with the staff, RONAL Querétaro carried out a fund-raising exercise to help the victims of the mid-September earthquake.