Heinrich Wilhelm Roth

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Heinrich Wilhelm Roth (born October 15, 1892 in Munich , † May 8, 1971 in Gauting ) was a German designer and manufacturer of welding machines .

Life

After attending elementary school, the six-year commercial school and the upper secondary school, he served as a one-year-old with the news force in Munich and was dismissed as a sergeant. Graduated from the Technical University in Munich with an engineering degree specializing in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. In August 1914 he was drafted into the radio operator and released in November 1918 as first lieutenant in the reserve.

Since he had worked as an intern at Adolf Pfretzschner (Peco) in Munich-Pasing during his semester break, he got a job there and got to know electrical resistance welding technology there. In 1921 the company Deutsche Schweißmaschinen (Desfa) in Düsseldorf made him an offer and he works for them as a sales manager, shortly afterwards he took over the technical management. In 1926 he started at the Miebach company in Dortmund as a technical manager and developed their complete range of welding machines. In 1929 he went to Canada for Miebach. The company's representatives there hoped for market opportunities for German machines to be exported to the USA. He managed to win the entire auto industry as a customer.

Roth moved to the USA in 1934 and founded the "Roth Welding Engineering Co." in Detroit. in which he developed hydraulic multi-point welding machines under the name "Hydromatic" for the companies Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. He later improved the hydromatic technique and achieved a five-fold higher performance. These were also used in the aircraft, railroad, agricultural machinery and household goods industries. In 1937 Ferdinand Porsche and Director Dyckhoff from the Volkswagen factory appeared in Roth's Detroit company. They had seen his automatic welding machines at Ford. They also visited Chrysler and General Motors together and then Ferdinand Porsche said: "That was more interesting than I expected. Can't you come back to Germany to advise us on the production of our Volkswagen?"

Roth sold his company and his American patents and came back to Germany in autumn 1938. In Frankfurt / Main he founded the company "Roth-Electric, Heinrich Wilhelm Roth". The design for a multi-spot welding machine for the Volkswagen was advanced. Then the war broke out.

Roth returned to his home in Munich. He bought a piece of land in Gauting from his aunt, Mrs. Maria Gleixner, and founded Roth-Electric. It all started with a machine hall made of wood and a barracks as an office. At first he was forced to manufacture special machines for Wernher von Braun . When the Peco was bombed out in Pasing, he granted her refuge in his buildings. It was only after the end of the war that welding systems for the automotive industry could be built again. With the automotive industry, the Roth-Electric company grew to over 250 employees. In 1959 Roth suffered a heart attack. After that he was no longer able to exercise his managerial position. The IWKA in Karlsruhe, which belongs to the Quandt Group , made him the offer to take over the majority of the shares. Roth agreed and became a member of the supervisory board. The company was renamed "Roth-Electric GmbH". New factory buildings were built. The product range was expanded and Roth-Electric was able to make a name for itself around the world with a special machine for wire mesh and welded wire mesh. Exports to South Africa and East Asia accounted for up to 40% of sales.

His friend Fritz von Opel once called 'courage and modesty' Roth's decisive qualities. Roth had a broad level of humanistic education. He painted, wrote books and donated a culture prize. In 1966 a volume of his stories, Homecoming in April , was published, which deals with the preservation of the human in the age of technology.

Roth died in Gauting on May 8, 1971.

Services

During his stay in the USA, through his pioneering designs in resistance welding technology, Roth made a particular contribution to the further development of the relatively new technology so that the efficient series production of automobile bodies was made possible. He has improved various novel welding controls and existing ones. In Germany, too, he was one of the pioneers of modern bodywork technology.

Fonts

  • Coming home in April . Munich: Osang, 1966.

literature

  • PATENT 429632 Electric welding process June 1, 1926
  • U.S. Patent 1,985,107 CURRENT TIME CONTROL FOR ELECTRIC WELDING MACHINES DEC. 18, 1934

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Roth, Heinrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German designer and manufacturer of welding machines
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1971
Place of death Gauting