Dipl.-Ing. Klaus Adler and Dipl.-Ing. Petar Tomić have been the managing partners of Regensburg-based TAPKO Technologies since it was founded 20 years ago. They are among the pioneers and leading experts in the KNX system.
On October 11. 2019, TAPKO celebrated a big birthday
For six hours, there was a big rendezvous of friends, associates and well-known well-wishers in TAPKO`s headquarters in Regensburg. The who's who of the KNX scene came and even Franz Kammerl, President KNX Association, was there as an old friend of the house. This contact dates back to times when Adler and Tomić were employed by a large technology group in Regensburg. At that time, the two engineers were already experts of the former EIB system. They were working on developing a worldwide standard for building automation and networking of devices before 1999. And so to speak, Dipl.-Ing. Klaus Adler and Dipl.-Ing. Petar Tomić, were the obstetricians of KNX's first hour, even before the Konnex Association was founded.
Founded as a software developer - developed into a KNX device manufacturer
Already right after the foundation in 1999, TAPKO received a first major software development order from a heating system manufacturer. From then on, the two managing directors have consistently reinvested earned money. It disturbed the two developers that their programmed software could only worked in combination with certain expensive hardware components and thus the KNX product was not attractive in price. This was followed by a software order for a driver ("physical layer"), which in retrospect was probably one of the most important orders. This is because the motto was indirectly born for many more years, TAPKO is able to map not only software but also cheap hardware. The company`s philosophy is still shaped by this know-how today. Advancing the KNX system as a whole was a declared goal and has remained so to this day. TAPKO Technologies today offers one of the cheapest KNX solutions worldwide in a joint venture with ST-Microelectronics.
TAPKO experienced a metamorphosis from a software developer to a developer (both software and hardware) for brand manufacturers, as well as producing own products and the production of hardware took place in form of delivering complete KNX devices. The path from a development service provider to a device manufacturer started in 2003 in small steps. Petar Tomić set up a production plant in his hometown, Split, together with his sister. Croatia was a good step for a permanent location in Europe. Today there is also a KNX training center there. From the initial first manufactured devices in 2004 with a placement capacity of approx. 25,000 components per year, we speak today in 2019 of an assembly of around 20 million components annually. Meanwhile, the ratio of third-party and in-house production has also shifted significantly. TAPKO manufactures 80% of its own devices, which are mostly sold as OEM products to manufacturers or KNX distributors. These companies have the opportunity to immediately deploy a ready-made KNX device with their own brand label. At the Regensburg site, TAPKO maintains its own KNX testing laboratory, an important field of performance for the fully certified product. The remaining production share is mainly occupied by regular customers, such as a Swiss company for 15 years, which focuses on presence and motion detectors and appreciates TAPKO as a reliable technology company.
Global growth market
Every two years, TAPKO is at one of the world's leading building automation trade fairs for light & building in Frankfurt. For a few years now, TAPKO has been one of the driving forces behind the introduction of KNX-RF wireless technology (including "energy harvesting") and data security in KNX. In the future, Industry 4.0 will play a major role with the "Internet of Things" (IOT). Future topics, such as networking with the building automation energy management, as in the field of charging e-vehicles, networked energy storage etc., are new growth areas.
For all new pitches, it is important to the two partners that it should always be about a cross-industry and cross-brand technology. It is important to them that the value of KNX does not lie in isolated solutions of individual manufacturers. That is why TAPKO is extensively engaged in associations and committees worldwide. New is the promotion of young development engineers under the keyword "KNX Young Generation". For this purpose, technical universities are supported with training sets and know-how.
The 20th anniversary celebration will be remembered by many, and one thing is for sure, it will not be the last celebration held under the TAPKO banner.