The inventor of the original klem panel connector
How passion and conviction gave birth to an innovative panel connector system that is used all over the world. From the first sketches to global distribution, the Klem story is a success!
The simplest solution is the best solution
What was needed was a universal connector for trade fair construction and display that was as simple as possible to use and equally versatile in its implementation options.
Introducing Klem: an incredible system empowering anyone to achieve anything. Simple yet endlessly versatile. Aesthetic, prestigious, and timeless. Klem, the universal connector, is globally renowned and omnipresent.
Theodor Puschkarski
He invented the successful Klem panel connector over 50 years ago. The inventor has stood behind this amazing product ever since, optimized it in several stages, and developed it into an entire system of connectors, accessories, and lights.
Theodor Puschkarski is still selling the original Klem connector today with the support of a small, dedicated team and a worldwide network of distribution partners.
An ingenious connector
Developed in 1969 by Teddy Puschkarski in the Architecture Department of the Vienna Institute of Technology, Prof. Dr. Karl Schwanzer Institute. In the meantime, more than 2.5 million units have been sold around the world.
It is a universal connector made of die cast aluminium, the size of an egg, which allows panels of all kinds to be connected at various angles using a clamping function. Like a child’s building set, Klem is the key to exciting, unusual, yet highly economical structures in the exhibition and display industry.
The significance of this product was underscored by the award of the Austrian State Prize for Design and its inclusion in the permanent collection of industrial design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
Klem is the result of a student research project
The genesis goes back to a student research project at the Institute of Structural Engineering and Design, which called for the conception of a variable exhibition system over the summer vacations.
Teddy Puschkarski, an architecture student at the time, worked as a tennis coach at the Südbahnhotel in Semmering and took the work there with him. A particularly rainy summer left many hours out and the student with plenty of time to think.
The first sketches were playfully thrown onto daily newspapers with felt-tip pens - and were also included as an attachment in the finished work in the fall of 1968. To the regretful remark that no other paper was available at the time, the then assistant Dr. Günther Feuerstein replied: "If the idea is good, you can also draw it on toilet paper ..."
It was good and was not only given the grade "Excellent" but also an impulsive "Bravo!!! " across the cover.
By bike to the patent application
The next step was the Austrian patent application - with the bicycle into the patent office at the Kohlmarkt where one recommended to the student perhaps nevertheless a patent lawyer to engage... The first order was placed by the "Austrian Building Center" and the rest is history.
Worldwide patents follow
Despite patent protection in many countries, plagiarism did occur. Patent suits in London and Paris ended with the destruction of the imitator's tools, but the damages awarded had to be passed on to the imitator's own lawyers.
"Please, pass me a Klem"
Licensed products in Japan, Brazil, Canada and Mexico complemented the company's own distribution network and led to Klem being used and still being used as a generic name for wall panel connectors in trade show construction. "Pass me a Klem!" For a while the connector was also called "Klemetric".
This is the connector from the inventor
Despite about a dozen imitations, Klem was able to assert itself over the years through careful further development and material improvements and today - over 50 years after patenting - is sold worldwide. Thus the motto "The connector from the inventor." was born.
"There is a part of my story, my passion and my creativity in every Klem connector."
Theodor Puschkarski - The Inventor
Convince yourself of the possibilities of the Klem panel connector. With Klem, you have a great deal of design freedom when building stable structures and flexible room systems.