Losenhausenwerk
| Losenhausenwerk, Düsseldorf mechanical engineering company
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1880 |
| resolution | 1989 (end of operational business) |
| Seat | Dusseldorf ( Grafenberg ) |
| Branch | mechanical engineering |
The loose house Werk AG , since 1966 Losenhausen AG (LOS), since 1973 Case-Vibromax , was a German manufacturer of Vibromax -Baumaschinen, Plattenrüttlern , balancing machines , materials testing machines , elevators and other engineering products, based in Dusseldorf . The company ceased operations in 1989.
history
Company formation
In 1880 the company was founded as a craft business with seven employees in Düsseldorf-Friedrichstadt as a brass foundry and fittings factory by Robert Franz Joseph Losenhausen (1852-1919). In 1882 the company was entered in the commercial register of the city of Düsseldorf under the name J. Losenhausen . The main business of the company was the iron and machine trade. In addition, equipment and fittings for shipbuilding and mining were produced. These were in particular condensate pots , lubricating devices , valves , pumps and measuring instruments . In 1889 the workforce had increased tenfold, so that a new factory was built on an area of 6,500 m² at Schlüterstrasse 13-19 in Düsseldorf-Grafenberg . This remained the company's location until its closure in 1989. Cranes , trolleys , cable winches , scales and testing machines were also produced at the new location . An iron foundry was attached to the previous brass foundry , so that one was now able to cast most of the required components itself.
Structure of the stock corporation
In 1897 the company was converted into a stock corporation with a share capital of around one million gold marks , which Joseph Losenhausen brought in himself. The name of the company was now Düsseldorfer Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft, before. J. Losenhausen. Co-founders were the merchants Ferdinand and Wilhelm Bigenwald from Gerresheim , the engineer Paul Klingen from Chemnitz and the chief engineer Josef Hansen from Düsseldorf. Joseph Losenhausen was the sole director of the AG . The first annual report shows the company's strong growth. At 1.25 million marks, sales exceeded that of the previous year by almost a quarter. The plant made a profit in 1900 that allowed a 10% dividend . In 1900 the product range was streamlined into four main areas: fittings , weighing machines , hoists and testing machines. In 1900, Losenhausen moved to the AG's supervisory board, which he chaired until his death.
Testing machine construction
At the turn of the century, the company began building testing machines. In 1902, the company received the silver medal at the industrial and commercial exhibition for Rhineland, Westphalia and neighboring districts in Düsseldorf for its testing machine program, but especially for a 100-tonne rope testing machine for conveyor ropes and a cast iron bending machine . The company was present at this exhibition in its own large pavilion with gantry cranes, lifts, transmission systems, goods scales and material testing machines.
From 1914 the Losenhausenwerk also manufactured military equipment , especially grenades . Such army orders caused sales to increase sharply in 1916 and 1917.
From 1900 Joseph Losenhausen gradually withdrew from the company, he died in 1919 on his estate in Breitenbend near Linnich . The coal wholesaler Peter Glasmacher took over the majority of the capital of the AG. In 1914 the AG already had around 500 employees. Joseph Losenhausen's successor in the chairmanship of the supervisory board was the building officer Ernst Lechner, general director of the Kölner Maschinenbau AG , later Berlin-Anhaltische Maschinenbau AG in Cologne. The occupation of the Rhineland after the First World War and the associated reparations made the company very difficult. The stabilization of the mark at the turn of the year 1923/1924 showed itself in the company that the Goldmark opening balance showed the share capital with 1.5 million Mark common and 10.000 Mark preferred shares.
Patents and innovations
In 1923, then carried the patent application for an Pulsatormaschine developed by Oskar von Bohuszewicz and for material testing brandishing loaded (alternating load) components or materials used. The pulsator drive, which can reliably generate and measure large, changing forces, has proven to be extremely fruitful for later advances in the field of materials testing technology. In 1926 the company was renamed Losenhausenwerk, Düsseldorfer Maschinenbau AG and the production and further development of the balancing machines division was taken over by the Krupp company. In 1928, Hugo Glasmacher (1899–1962) became CEO of Losenhausenwerk AG. In the same year 1928 the production of flow metering scales was started. After 1929 a difficult period began for the economy, which bottomed out in 1932/1933. At the end of 1933 the loss had risen from 62,000 marks in 1930 to 722,000 marks and thus to almost half of the share capital. The so-called invention was patented load cell which replaced the force measurement by means of complicated scales by a simpler hydraulic force measurement.
The crane construction division was transferred to Schenck & Liebe-Harkort AG in Düsseldorf in 1934. Instead, the conveyor and conveyor system were produced, and the world's first vibratory soil compaction machine was developed. The so-called Schwinger , a machine for material testing and vibration analysis on entire structures, was developed. It was used z. B. for bridges and tower-like structures, ships and airplanes and finally for the ground itself in subsoil research .
In 1935 the basic patent for a device for compacting soils and other masses was granted. It was the basis of the Vibromax AT 5000 plate vibrator, one of which is on display in the Deutsches Museum in Munich . is located. The AT 5000 plate was the first mass-produced vibration plate and weighed between one and a half and five tons. The first of these machines were extremely large devices that were suspended from cranes (crane vibrators), and are particularly good for compacting embankments, such as. B. in the construction of bridge ramps. Their vibrating force reached around 200,000 N (20 t) at a frequency of 25 Hz (1,500 vibrations per minute) and was able to compact large- grain rock up to a grain size of 800 mm. The device was used on the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg and the 1936 Olympic grounds in Berlin. Balancing machines were another product that for a long time, up to the beginning of the 1970s, belonged to the products of Losenhausenwerk AG.
After the First World War, the plant invested in elevator construction based on the experience of American high-rise construction. With a lifting speed of 1.7 m / s and a delivery height of about 40 m, the beginning of the 1920s u. A. built one of the first high-speed elevators in Germany, namely the one for the Wilhelm Marx skyscraper in Düsseldorf, which still exists today . In 1942 the production of elevator systems was transferred from the head office in Grafenberg to the subsidiary elevator construction Losenhausenwerk GmbH in Düsseldorf-Heerdt , as armaments tasks strongly pushed this branch of production back and were ultimately only carried out for repair and maintenance work.
During this time escalators and special electric drives were added to the product range.
After the Second World War, the production facilities of the company Losenhausenwerk GmbH were dismantled by the British occupation. The main plant in Düsseldorf-Grafenberg was badly destroyed in the last year of the war, so that there was practically no dismantling here. Reconstruction of the plant began in 1945. As a result of the war, the plant had lost touch with the technical level of lift heights and electrical controls in elevator construction, especially in the USA and Switzerland. In 1955, the Swiss company Schindler Aufzüge took over the elevator construction division.
Reconstruction after the Second World War
In 1955, the company produced material testing machines, balancing machines, Vibromax vibrators, belt, flow and flow metering scales for feeding material into further processing machines, local conveyor systems for goods in rolling mills and mail distribution points, plate vibrators , external vibrators , internal vibrators and power track tampers. At the end of the 1960s, the testing machine division was sold to the Mannheim company Mohr & Federhaff, which ceased production in 1981.
As a further development of the plate vibrator model AT 5000 from 1935, the Vibromaxsp; AT 2000 model was produced from 1964. In 1966 the Losenhauswenwerk AG became "Losenhausen Maschinenbau AG." renamed. In 1968, six vibratory plates , two tandem vibratory rollers and two duplex rollers and also a high-speed rammer were added to the production range . In 1969 a new factory hall for assembly line production was built.
Reorientation towards the construction machinery business
In 1970 Losenhausen AG was classified nine and focused solely on the construction machinery and vibrator business. In 1970 Tenneco Inc., based in Houston , Texas , acquired Losenhausen AG. The JI Case Company , a 100% subsidiary of Tenneco Inc., was appointed to manage the company . The commercial success of this share transfer was ultimately reflected in the significantly increased internationality of business activities. Four reversible plate compactors and two new rollers strengthened the company's market presence. The new reverse and stationary compression functions (reversibility) of these machines allow working in confined areas where turning a non-reversible machine is practically impossible. The use of computer-aided manufacturing systems from 1972 onwards optimized production, as did other rationalization measures in the production of individual parts using numerical machine tools. On January 1, 1973, Tenneco Inc. bought all of the shares in the Düsseldorf company Wilhelm Weller GmbH (sales over 60 million DM), a manufacturer of heavy equipment rollers with an operating weight of up to 25 tons, which was to complete the product line of Losenhausen AG. Losenhausen AG was then renamed Case-Vibromax .
In 1975 the first direct hydrostatically controlled duplex roller was developed. A year later, in 1976, the assembly halls were expanded by 4,000 m² of work space for large roller production. In the following year, 1977, a new generation of compactors was presented and in 1978 the new tandem rollers were launched. In 1979 the turnover was 110 million DM with a workforce of 732. In addition, the product range was expanded downwards with floor saws and smaller vibration plates and upwards with the strongest single drum roller on the market at the time, the Case Vibromax 1801 .
End of the company
In 1989, after a visit by a Tenneco / Case delegation, the factory was unexpectedly closed, the Vibromax management board was dismissed, a transitional management board was installed, and the company was put on the market by Case. The Bilfinger Group acquired the company premises on Schlüterstrasse in 1992 .
The rights to the Vibromax brand were acquired by "Pressluft Frantz Baumaschinen- und Ersatzteilhandels GmbH" in Frankfurt am Main, which relocated the remaining components of the company to Gatersleben in Saxony-Anhalt, to the former operation of VEB Baumaschinen Gatersleben, formerly A. Heucke Steam plows . Due to economic problems, the company Pressluft Frantz GmbH ceased operations at the beginning of March 1995 and went bankrupt. At the end of August 1995 the two former employees from the old Losenhausen / Vibromax management, Hermann auf der Springe and Klaus Antony, decided to buy the Vibromax company. On October 20, 1995, the newly founded company was entered in the Magdeburg commercial register as Vibromax Bodenverdichtungsmaschinen GmbH . In August 2005, Vibromax GmbH, Gatersleben became the property of the British construction machinery manufacturer JCB .
Web links
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Losenhausenwerk in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c streets. And the life of Losenhausen. Since 1880. A 100 year life path. Publisher: Losenhausen Maschinenbau AG, Düsseldorf, 1980. Responsible for the content: Heiner Vossen (Losenhausen AG); Concept and implementation: Reinhard Lindermann (Losenhausen AG); Printing: Howa-Druck H. Wandke & Co. KG, all Düsseldorf.
- ↑ a b c VIBROMAX history . The discovery of dynamic soil compaction. A description, in particular the history of the soil compaction division within the Losenhausenwerk AG company by Hermann auf der Springe.
- ↑ a b c d e f Dr. Josef Wilden, 60 years of Losenhausenwerk 1880–1940 , 94 pages, 78 pictures, printed by A. Bagel, Düsseldorf 1940
- ^ Clemens von Looz-Corswarem: Losenhausen, Joseph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 196 f. ( Digitized version ).
- ↑ a b c d e f Ing. Ralph Grauel: 1980–1955 75 years of technical development LOS , 57 pages, 38 pictures, publisher: Losenhausenwerk AG, Düsseldorf, idea and design: Ing.Ralph Grauel, industrial advertising specialist , Stuttgart and Bremen, graphics : Manfred Malzacher, Stuttgart, offset printing and binding: Gerhard Stalling AG, printing and publishing house, Oldenburg, reproduction: E. Schreiber, Graphische Kunstanstalten, Stuttgart, 1955
- ↑ The Düsseldorf Krahn construction company Love Harkort mbH in the online portal Foundation Westphalian economy archive .
- ↑ Start- up management: From a successful start-up to permanent growth, A book, edited by Michael J. Dowling .
- ^ Theiner, Josef, Development of Compaction Technology. Review of forty years of compaction technology. About frogs, pounders and oscillating rollers. BMT anniversary edition, 40 years of BMT Baumaschine + Technik, 1993, pages 35–39. Specialist body of the equipment committee in the main association of the German construction industry.
- ↑ SGA – ASSPA – SSAC Bulletin No. 56 Dynamics of Compaction Devices : Chaos and Non-linearity , SGA Swiss Society for Automatic, ASSPA Association Suisse pour l'Automatique, SSAC Swiss Society for Automatic Control.
- ↑ Losenhausenwerk: Compilation of the dismantling work carried out by the British occupying forces (with details of the replacement and residual value) by the processing office for proof of dismantling in Frankfurt, in the State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland department .
- ↑ Compressed air Frantz Baumaschinen- und Ersatzteilhandels GmbH , Flinschstrasse 53, 60388 Frankfurt / Main.