WesWorld

This concern is one of the largest manufacturers of machines, equipment and special vehicles for the mining industry, particularly the coal mining industry, in Europe. It was founded in 1855 as Schäde & Co., Eisengießerei und Maschinenbaugeschäft, in the town of Zeitz, in Saxony-Anhalt. Under the direction of the founded, engineer Hermann Schäde, the firm prospered as the coal mining and processing industry of Germany developed. It was converted to a limited liability company in January 1871 under the current corporate style.

In the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century the concern throve and became the primary supplier of coal mills, dryers and briquette presses across much of Europe. In 1899 it established a branch in Köln-Ehrenfeld to better serve the great coal mining industry of the Ruhr. In 1936 it acquired the struggling Welser Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei Ludwig Hinterschweiger, of Wels, in Upper Austria, as a third centre of production.

The concern is capable of producing all the equipment required to outfit a coal processing facility, including size reduction equipment (crushers and mills), sieves (rolling and vibrating screens), conveyors, dryers (tube and plate), granulating systems and briquetting press, together with the structural steel and accessories required to complete the facility. In addition to supporting the coal industry, the concern’s product line includes equipment for processing other minerals and raw materials such as potash.

The Swabian inventor Heinrich Vollmer founded a works in Biberach an der Riß to construct sharpening and grinding equipment for use in the forest-products and metal-working industries, including grinding, filing and saw-tooth cutting machines of proprietary designs. The firm maintains a substantial export trade for its products, with sales agencies located in Nordmark and the United States. At the present time it employs approximately six hundred workers at its plant, of whom some fifty are apprentices.

Established in the town of Waren in 1875, this firm began life as a general machine shop and iron foundry. From the 1880s however it came to specialise in the manufacture of propellers for Germany’s expanding shipbuilding industry. In this regard it remains one of the most important and successful independent firms in that field, constructing propellers for many of the largest naval and merchant vessels constructed in this country. Its present level of production represents some nine thousand tons of propellers for upward of two hundred and fifty units.

This concern, one of the leading manufacturers of packaging and folding equipment in Germany, was founded in 1913 to exploit new patents for rotary envelope machines designed by Alfred Winkler and Max Dünnebier. In the years following the Great War it licenced its products for manufacture in the Britain, France and the United States, and has developed significant export markets across Europe. The firm has since developed machines for the wrapping of food products, the manufacture of corrugated and non-corrugated boxes, and the production of sanitary paper products. The principal works of the firm is located in Nieuwied, with a secondary works in Hangelar, which was established in 1929. In 1937 it acquired the Maschinenbau Runkel at Rengsdorf to provide capacity for component manufacture.

Founded in 1880 this firm originally manufactured steam equipment for industrial use but from 1910 has concentrated on the manufacture of internal combustion engines under subcontract from the Austro-Daimler and Steyr automobile works. During the Great War is manufactured munitions components to order of the Imperial and Royal Army but with the return of peace it has gone back to the manufacture of engines and components. It has developed a proprietary line of industrial diesel engines that have found wide acceptance in southeastern Europe, where centralised power grids are less developed than in Germany or other West European nations.

This concern was established in 1921 as an amalgamation of previously independent firms to operate a wire and nail mill at Telgte bei Münster, a tool factory in Barmen-Nächstebreck and a punch and hammer mill at Haspe in Westphalia. It specialises in the manufacture of ironmongery for the building trades and the production of small parts for machines and machine tools under subcontract. In 1941 the firm expanded into the manufacture of screws, rivets and bolts through the acquisition of two Bavarian firms, the Bayerische Schrauben und Federnfabrik of Schwabach, and the Eichsfelder Schraubenwerk of Heiligenstadt, and took a significant share in the domestic fastener market.

The roots of this firm go back to 1866, but its formal consitituion dates to 1872, when the firms of Riedel and Kemnitz merged with that of Jung und Must, bringing together a manufacturer of agricultural machinery and an iron foundry. The firms principal business is the manufacture of processing equipment for beet and cane sugar refineries as well as other specialised industrial processing equipment.

This firm emerged in the 1870s as a manufacturer of mass-market flatware  spoons, forks and such. After 1900 it developed a lucrative business specialising in the manufacture of brass fittings and contact parts for the fledgling automotive and electrical industries. Following the Great War it expanded its product lines to include non-ferrous metal parts manufacture for bicycles, electrical equipment, wireless receivers and transmitters and a many other applications.

This concern was founded in 1890 in Berlin, but transferred its activities to Penig in Middle Saxony the same year. It manufactures general machinery and metal products including elevators, cranes, conveyors, transmissions, gears and precision gears of proprietary design. In 1899 the firm acquired the assets of the Maschinenfabrik von Unruh und Liebig in Leipzig-Plagwitz. The present corporate style was adopted in 1937 following the death of the heirs of the founders. It presently employs more than 700 workers at its two locations.

Founded in 1920 this Bremen-based firm specialises in the manufacture of compressed air toools for metal and stone working. Its products include pneumatic riveting equipment for shipbuilding and aircraft manufacture as well as pneumatic hammers for breaking paving and other large stone surfaces. The firm presently employs some 230 workers.

This Duisburg-based firm was founded in 1926 by engineer August Fasel, as a manufacturer of small steam boilers at Duisburg-Wanheimerort. In 1932 Fasel patented a new design for an automatic oil-fed heating boiler for commercial and industrial application. In 1937 he went into partnership with his sons and the current corporate form was adopted. The firm has expanded into project management and the design of turn-key thermal powerplants abroad; it has won a number of contracts for the construction of thermal powerplants in southeastern Europe. It presently employs more than five hundred production workers at its works in Wanheimerort plus design staff.

This firm was founded in 1924 to undertake the manufacture of precision scales and labeling equipment for the food processing industry. Its principal products are intergrated weight-measurement and label printing devices for commercial applications under the name Espera. It has representative agencies for marketing its products Belgium, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Iberia and the United States. More than three hundred workers are presently employed by the firm.

This firm was originally registered in 1921 as the Neue Maschinenbau AG of Berlin; the actual works was established in Chemnitz the following year, and the manufacture of lathes and other industrial tools undertaken. In 1925 the firm came under control of the Dresden financier Heinrich Kaiser and adopted the current style, adding to its product line the manufacture of narrow-gauge rolling stock for the light railways serving the Saxon sugar-beet industry. From 1935 it concentrated on the manufacture of tooling and equipment for the aviation industry, developing production jigs and ancillary tooling.

This concern, a leading manufacturer of equipment for agricultural and industrial use was founded in 1864 by the banker Adolph Meyer. While first engaged in the manufacture of simple agricultural implements in 1867 the firm established its own iron foundry and in 1868 marketed its first rotary piston blower engine. Over the course of the next twenty years the firm went on to adapt its rotary piston blower engine designs for industrial use throughout the German steel industry, as well as producing stationary steam engines, threshing machines, fodder shredders, hay tedders, circular saws and field smithies, the last for the Imperial German Army. By the turn of the century the firm had become a major supplier of cupola furnaces and other foundry and forging equipment, and equipment for breweries. Following the Great War the firm rebounded and in 1930 introduced the first of its rotary gas meters, while in 1943 it introduced its first turbine compressor. In additon to its line of iron foundry and forge equipment, the firms principal products include turbine compressors, rotary piston blowers and rotary gas meters

This firm was founded in 1885 by the engineer Anton Bröhl in Brohl-Lützing as Brohler Apparate Bauanstalt; the present form was adopted in 1922. In its first years the firm supplied steam engines for ships and barges plying Germanys inland waterways; from 1910 diesel engines were also produced under licence. In addition to engines, the firm manufactures capstans, steering systems, anchor and mooring winches, special winches for dredgers and cranes, supplying these for ocean-going as well as inland navigation vessels. It also manufactures patent slips for the shipbuilding industry, which are employed in many of the nations shipyards as well as in foreign yards around the world. All products are manufactured according to customer requirements and designed in collaboration with the classification societies such as Germanischer Lloyd and Lloyd's Register of Shipping.

This metalworking concern was founded in April 1911 in the city of Aalen, with Karl Kessler as managing director and Franz Dopfer as chief engineer. From the outset the firm specialised in the manufacture of large chankshafts for industrial use, primarily in the steel industry. After the Great War the firm turned its crankshaft-manufacturing expertise to the production of components for automobile engines, and followed this in 1938 with the production of gears and gear-cutting machines. In 1943 the gear segments of the firm were separated as Kessler Sondermaschinen AG. The firm holds a significant share in the market for die forgings and die forging equipment.

The manufacturer of process equipment was founded in 1863 in Hardheim by Gustav Eirich. Originally a grain miller, by 1869 he had diversified his activities to include oil, flour and saw mills on the river Erfa, which flows through the town, and which powered the firms machinery. By 1873 the firm had begun to diversify into the production of mill equipment and other agricultural machines, and over the course of the next decade had begun the manufacture of complete sawmills, water wheels and engine parts. In 1900 leadership of the firm passed to the sons of the founder, Ludwig and Josef Eirich, and in 1906 the firm patented its first proprietary mixer for industrial use. The subsidiary Elektrizitätswerkes Gebrüder Eirich was founded in 1907 to supply the growing works with electricity, which stood the firm in good stead during the years of the Great War. In 1924 the firm introduced its patented Eirich mixer which uses the counter flow principle to mix industrial compounds, a piece of equipment that has found wide use throughout the chemical industry.

Besides its plant and head office in Hardheim, the firm has subsidiary factories in France (Villeurbanne) and the United States (Gurnee, Illinois), as well as representative offices in most nations of Europe.

This firm, based in Frankfurt am Main, was founded in 1929 by Adolf Schindling, a local entrepreneur, by the merger of the Deutsche Tachometer-Werke and the Offenbacher Tachometer-Werke, two of Germany's leading manufacturers of speed measuring devices for automotive applications. It has subsequently expanded its product line to include a variety of automotive components and diagnostic equipment. It employs approximately five hundred workers.

Mill mechanic Ernst Conrad Röcker of Löchgau established in 1872 a factory for the production of shoe nails, an item in great demand for the growing German shoe manufacturing industry, which was particularly strong in Baden. In 1907, upon the death of the founder, the heirs organised a private corporation to continue the work of the firm, which by that time had become a major supplier of nails of all sorts to German industry. The present works at Löchgau covers more than 16,000 square metres, and includes wire mills, annealing furnaces and its own power station.

In 1883 entrepreneur Emil Helfferich founded a screw and flange factory in Dettingen unter Teck, and in the subsequent decade the firm became one of the three principal flange manufacturers in Germany, and the only one in southern Germany. In 1891 the firm absorbed the Ötlinger Wasser-Hammerwerk and the Speiser'sche Öl- und Sägemühle, both in Kirchheim unter Teck, and flange production was transferred thence, screw production remaining in Dettingen. New facilities were constructed at Kirchheim between 1894 and 1906 and in the latter year the all production was concentrated there, the older Dettingen facility being sold. A private siding, water and steam power, a hot-dip galvanizing institution, and a large hammer mill were built for the production of wrought iron flanges of all kinds, nuts and bolts for heavy forgings and pressings.

In 1944 the firm acquired the shares of Presswerk Teck Hans Weise, also of Kirchheim, which specialises in production of small metal components for the automotive, aviation and defence industries.