The partnership principle
Submitted by:
Sara Waddington
ISMR sat down with CIDAN’s engineering manager, Haval Othman (pictured on the left), and its head of industrial sales, Joachim Schäfer (pictured on the right), at Blechexpo/Schweisstec to discuss their market views, ‘one-stop-shop’ partnership philosophy and latest innovations.
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CIDAN Machinery Group offers a comprehensive machine portfolio from manual segment folding machines and modular machine solutions to systems for fully automated sheet metal profile production. The Group and has four well-known brands: CIDAN (metal folders and metal shears) from Sweden, Forstner (coil lines) and nuIT (software) from Austria and Thalmann (long folding machines) from Switzerland.
The CIDAN Machinery Group can trace its history back to 1907 in Sweden. In 2022, it acquired long folder producer, Thalmann Maschinenbau, in Switzerland. In 2024, it expanded the FORSTNER factory in Feldkirch (Austria) and created a competence centre/showroom for sheet metal processing.
The Group presented a selection of innovative machines, controls and software solutions at Blechexpo/Schweisstec in Stuttgart, Germany, from 21-24 October 2025. ISMR sat down with CIDAN’s engineering manager, Haval Othman, and its head of industrial sales, Joachim Schäfer, on CIDAN’s stand at the trade show to discuss their market views, ‘one-stop-shop’ partnership philosophy and latest new innovations.
Innovations in focus
“The CIDAN FORMA Z 32 up/down folding machine features a newly developed vertical upper beam that ensures maximum stability. The CIDAN FX 32 folding machine, equipped with a rotating upper beam and the new nuLINK control system, enables time-saving production of boxes and interlocking profiles,” CIDAN’s engineering manager, Haval Othman, told ISMR.
Mobile, compact and lightweight, the MFB manual segmented folding machine was also on display at the trade show. The RAPIDO SSM electric guillotine shear on display delivers precision cuts and, with its soft-stacking function, is designed to protect materials from scratches and damage.
“The THALMANN TD long folder offers automatic side loading and an automatic sheet-turning unit: we are presenting it at Blechexpo in Stuttgart for the first time with a multi quick-loading head, including double-sheet detection. The double-sheet detector was built to ensure that only one sheet is picked up at a time, to prevent any damage to the machine,” continued Haval Othman.
The FORSTNER nuSLIT was also on display on CIDAN’s stand at the trade show. This modular, fully automatic and programmable slitting and cut-to-length line is also equipped with a label printer. The control offers an overview of width setting, cut length and adjustment of the complete straightening unit (according to the selected material). Nesting created in nuEVOLUTION software can be sent directly to the control.
“Rounding out our portfolio at Blechexpo/Schweisstec is intelligent nuEVOLUTION software, which enables especially efficient profile production,” CIDAN’s head of industrial sales, Joachim Schäfer, told ISMR. “We continue to develop software for higher power machines and our nuEVOLUTION control system now incorporates a box generator system to create four-sided boxes as well as cuts and punching.
“We have also just launched a new COILFARM system which automatically handles coils that can be cut to length or slit. With a capacity of up to 75 coils, it houses a wide range of different materials, material thicknesses and colour variants (maximum weight of five tonnes). We introduced this new Forstner system, primarily for sheet metalworking companies from architectural and industrial sectors, at METALCON in Las Vegas recently,” he told ISMR.
Strategic and technical focus
Both men outlined CIDAN’s strategic and technical development focus for the Industrial segment to ISMR at the trade show.
To read the rest of this interview in the November 2025 issue of ISMR, see https://joom.ag/efDd/p22