Sulingen, Germany -- Ralf Knief has been appointed general manager for sales at polyurethane equipment specialist H&S Anlagentechnik, with effect from. 01/01/2010. In this role he joins the management team of H&S alongside founder and chief executive officer Rüdiger Schaffrath.
Knief, a mechanical engineer, joined H&S Anlagentechnik in 1993 as a project engineer, switched to technical sales in 1996 and was made sales manager in 2002. Knief has also been a shareholder of the company since 2005.
"Ralf Knief was essentially responsible for the disproportionate growth of the company and we are convinced that the market position of H&S Anlagentechnik will be further strengthened through him," said H&S, in a company statement.
Alongside his sales role, Knief is currently focussing on developing and introducing new products to the market. A priority in this respect are recycling plants for converting PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and PU waste materials into high-purity polyol, reactors for classic manufacturing of polyester polyols and blending stations for mixing polyol with powders such as barium sulphate, melamine and calcium carbonate.
For the future Knief sees an increasingly vigorous demand for PU raw materials and would like to establish H&S Anlagentechnik even more strongly as a synonym for economical processing of PU raw materials.
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