FASTENERS OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY

Linglong onto a Sustainable Future

Solvera Gaweł Technology S.A., a company from Laka, Poland, is the European leading manufacturer of fasteners. In 2023 it celebrates the 40th anniversary of its business operation.

The key area of the Solvera Gawel Technology S.A. competence is the technologically advanced production of fasteners such as screws for wood, metal and plastic. The company has specialized in this field, offering the high quality fasteners delivered for many international corporations from the home appliance, electronic, construction, automotive, and furniture industries. Filling individual and custom-made orders is its priority. Solvera Gawel Technology is a family-run company with entirely Polish capital. It is located in Laka, a small village near Rzeszow, in south-eastern Poland.

History of the success

The company was founded in 1983 under the name of Gawel Zaklad Produkcji Srub (Gawel Screw Factory). Initially, it focused on metal fabrication for the construction industry. In 1991 it started the manufacture of fasteners. Since then, they have become the company’s main specialization.

Over the following years, the company has constantly expanded its offer with new products, thus gradually becoming the industry leader. Due to its dynamic development, in 1996 it changed the profile of manufactured products from standard to special ones, made according to individual requirements and documentation.

As a consequence of the growing number of orders, in 2004 it opened a new warehouse and office complex, which significantly increased its storage capacity. In 2011 the company gained its first patent for a special thread for plastics - AlfaTech.

Next year the company opened its Research and Development Centre, and two years later a Research Laboratory was established. Over the time, the Laboratory has evolved into an independent department, which would conduct various types of scientific work, where strength and metallography, as well as mechanical and plastic parameters and assembly of products, would be tested. Corrosion resistance measurements are also within a range of activities carried out in the Lab. Two years later the R&D Centre obtained ISO 17025 certification.

In 2018 the company changed its name to Solvera Gawel Technology S.A. The very same year, it opened Solvera International Inc. in the USA and obtained the IATF 16949 Certification, which replaced ISO/TS 16949 in the automotive industry.

Current market position

Flexibility, the ability to adapt to the market needs, changing trends and requirements allowed Solvera Gawel Technology S.A for continuous and dynamic development. As one of the leading fasteners manufacturers in Europe, it successfully competes with the big global players in the industry. The company’s products are sought after around the world. The half of its sales goes to foreign markets, inter alia, to the EU countries, including Germany, France, and Hungary.

Solvera Gawel Technology S.A owns the company and distribution centre in the United States, which supplies American and Mexican markets. It is also present in the China, and Brazilia.

The company employs 245 people; its annual sales are estimated as PLN 150 million (approx. EUR 32.6 million) in 2021 and PLN 180 million (approx. EUR 38.3 million) in 2022.

2022 was exceptional year for Solvera Gawel Technology S.A. The company has completed several large investments, which greatly increased the capacity and efficiency of the production processes. It purchased 37 production machines (pressing and rolling mills), another hardening furnace, 10 optical selection machines, a Forplan coating line and an automatic warehouse for storing and transporting semi-finished products between successive production processes. In total, its production capacity increased by almost 50 per cent.

The scope of production

Monthly output of Solvera Gawel Technology S.A reaches more than 250 million products. The range of offered products includes bolts and screws for metal, plastic and wood screws, self-drilling and thread-forming screws, rivets and pins; their diameters vary steels, and copper and aluminium alloys. It has 73 modern presses including 20 multi-operational machines, from the most renowned manufacturers, as well as 61 high-class rolling mills, allowing for the production of screw threads of different shapes.

The production process consists of several important stages. Pressing and rolling give the final shape of the products and are followed by the heat treatment that gives the appropriate mechanical properties, then by the application of anti-corrosion coatings, by the 100 per cent optical selection and by packaging.

To ensure the highest quality, repeatability and security of supply, the company buys raw materials only from the best and proven suppliers in Europe, with whom it has long-term cooperation. It also cooperates closely with such big names amongst the machine manufacturers as Carlo Salvi (the leading producer of header machines) or SecoWarwick (the producer of industrial furnaces).

The company also owns fully automatic SecoWarwick heat treatment line, equipped with an automatically modified protective atmosphere and temperature control system. Products manufactured in the company are subjected to toughening or carbonitriding and then tempering to obtain certain mechanical properties.

The production capacity of the line is more than 800 kg of materials per hour.

The corrosion-resistant coatings are based on Dörken’s license. Automatic Forplan’s line ensures stability and repeatability of the coating application process guaranteeing the highest quality of the products. The ments of customers regarding the types of packaging and labelling. Solvera Gawel Technology S.A. has all the necessary certificates and confirmation of compliance with the production standards, including: IATF 16949:2016, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:2018.