Our Company
Traditional, Innovative and a Market Leader for Decades
The company started life over half a century ago as a one-man engraving business, and we are now market leaders in the construction of special machines for pad printing and laser engraving.
Over the years, printing has grown to mean far more than decoration and lettering, and TAMPOPRINT has been pivotal in turning mere objects into effective products: the graduations on a syringe, the numbers on a dial and the active ingredient on a nicotine patch are all printed using our technology.
Take bottle tops: once a simple cap, today they display brand messages and have become collectors' items, or bear competition-winning codes.
But we still love a challenge, from supposedly unprintable surfaces to substances that were previously unusable as print media, or special requirements in terms of operation and durability. If anyone has ever said to you "That won't work", just ask us.
Our History
More than 60 Years of Excellence in Pad Printing
1956 – 1961
Working out of the Basement
Beginnings as a sole trader
| 1956 | Wilfried Philipp founds his first company Opening balance of “Firma Wilfried Philipp” as at 9/1/1956 was 500 DM |
| The one-man business, based in basement rooms in the east of Stuttgart, primarily engraved pressure plates for print shops |
1961 – 1968
Zuffenhausen
The first “real” business premises
| 1961 | Company renamed “Wilfried Philipp Industriegravuren” (industrial engraving) |
| Move to larger, leased premises in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart | |
| Hiring of first employees | |
| 1965 | First prototype for machine pad printing (still using gelatine pads) |
| 1966 | Patent for automatic coin engraving system (sold to the company Deckel) |
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The company's first car Excellence –
from the beginning.
1968 – 1989
Kallenberg
The engraving shop becomes a machine construction firm
| 1968 | Move to Kallenberg Business based out of the ground floor of the family home |
| The TAMPOPRINT team has around 60 employees | |
| Wilfried Philipp invents the silicone pad Industrial pad printing is now possible |
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| 1969 | The current pad printing process is patented 8/2/1969, patent no. DE 19 39 437, Patent office Munich, Germany |
| Patent for a gravure unit for printing packaging foil made from aluminum | |
| 1970 | Construction of a flat-roofed building, initially on just one floor |
| Prototype for the first pad printing machine presented at the Hannover Messe trade fair | |
| 1971 | The series-ready pad printing machine TS 100/1 presented at Düsseldorf K71 trade fair |
| Swiss watch industry places a large order for 100 pad printing machines leading to: end of engraving business and start of machine construction |
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| 1972 | Addition of a second floor to the building |
| 1974 | Extension in the form of a corner building |
| 1977 | Name change to TAMPOPRINT GmbH |
| 1978 | Construction of the 3-floor rectangular building with a new main entrance Start of special machine construction |
| The TAMPOPRINT team has around 170 employees | |
| Company founder Wilfried Philipp makes first world tour after learning English, French, Spanish, Serbian and Czech through independent study | |
| 1981 | Rotary pad printing enables high-speed printing and transfer printing through 90°/180°/360° (Circumference printing of rotationally symmetrical parts) |
| 1983 | Hermetic pad printing using sealed ink/doctoring system (ENCODER, still standard today) |
| 1984 | Launch of closure printing (CLOSURE-PRINT series) |
| 1984 | First rotary high-performance pad printing machine as standard machine (CONTINUA) |
| 1987 | Launch of direct printing onto music cassettes |
| 1988 | The electromechanical RAPID series achieves speeds previously only possible using pneumatics |
1989 – today
Korntal-Münchingen
From machine construction firm to system supplier
| 1989 | Ground-breaking ceremony for the new company headquarters in Korntal-Münchingen |
| 1990 | Move to the new company headquarters |
| 1993 | First laser-produced clichés |
| Start of development of cliché imaging machines for end customers | |
| 1997 | First multi-color installation using sealed ink system (TSG) |
| 1998 | Belated celebration of the 40th anniversary, which was actually in 1996 |
| 1998 | Printing two colors onto one print position (V-DUO) |
| 1998 | First transverse doctor system (TSQ) |
| 2001 | Ground-breaking ceremony for extension building, move to new premises in 2002 |
| 2001 | Change of company status to TAMPOPRINT AG, as it remains today |
| 2002 | Concentra initially prints up to four, from 2008 up to six colors |
| 2003 | First laser etching of metal |
| 2003 | First laser marking of drinks closures on the inside (MOF-PROMO-ALFALAS) |
| 2006 | 50th anniversary of the company |
| 2006 | Patent for laser marking of synthetic wine corks (ALFALAS) |
| 2007 | Introduction of hybrid machines: integration of cliché production and printing process in one machine |
| 2009 | The TAMPOPRINT team has around 150 employees |
| 2010 | The name says it all: at 9000 cycles/hour, the SPEED 40-2 is the fastest pad printing machine in the world, reaching the physical limits of non-rotary printing |
| 2011 | New rotary pad printing process in which the workpiece is guided using baffle plates (HSC) |
| 2014 | Complete automation combined in a standard machine (CLOSURE PRINT COMPACT PROMO PLUS) |
| 2014 | Introduction of MAP (software and automation platform) |
| 2014 | Electromechanical PP machine for the price of a pneumatic one (ENTRANCE) |
| 2015 | The TAMPOPRINT team has around 170 employees |
| 2016 | Semi-Automation in Modular Design: MODULE ONE M |
| 60th anniversary of the company | |
| 2017 | Expansion of the modular machine concept: MODULE ONE S |
| 2018 | Introduction of standardized manual workstations: MODULE ONE XXS and MODULE ONE XS |
| 2019 | New automation platform concept consisting of autonomous and exchangeable components |
1969 – today
ALFA TOOLS
in Westerheim
| 1969 | Hermann Kneer founds “Wittinger und Kneer” which would later become ALFA TOOLS |
| 1980 | TAMPOPRINT owner Wilfried Philipp acquires 50% stake in “Wittinger und Kneer” |
| Company renamed ALFA TOOLS | |
| Start of special machines construction | |
| 1985 | Complete takeover leads to ALFA TOOLS becoming part of the TAMPOPRINT Group |
| 1988 | Move to the extension building |
| 1995 | Start of series production of large installations |
| 2001 | Move to new company building “Im Runs 20” |
| 2003 | Setup of dedicated development department for special machine construction |
| 2011 | 50th industrial mechanic begins his apprenticeship |
1974 – today
Global Presence
as market leader
| 1974 | JAPAN: first Japanese sales agency in Tokyo |
| 1970s | Other trading branches and appointed dealers in: Argentina, Australia, China, Columbia, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand |
| 1977 | USA: Establishment of a TAMPOPRINT® distribution outlet in Chicago |
| 1980s | Other trading branches and appointed dealers in: Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, USSR (Czechoslovakia, today the Czech Republic) |
| 1989 | FRANCE: Opening of TAMPOPRINT® S.a.r.l. in Lyon |
| 1994 | USA: Establishment of TAMPOPRINT® International Corporation in Vero Beach, Florida |
| 2000 | SPAIN: Establishment of TAMPOPRINT® IBERIA S.A.U. in Barcelona |
| 2019 | Expansion of dealer network with new dealers in Russia and South Africa |
