Knife Cutting Systems
| Messer Cutting Systems GmbH
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| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | 1898 |
| Seat | Groß-Umstadt , Germany |
| management |
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| Number of employees | over 900 (2016) |
| Branch | mechanical engineering |
| Website | www.messer-cutting.com |
Messer Cutting Systems is a provider of technologies and services for the metalworking industry . In addition to Oxy -, plasma - and laser cutting systems , the company offers software for order-related production and plant-related environmental technology . The services are supplemented with nozzles , torches and systems for oxy-fuel welding , cutting , soldering and heating as well as a service business. Messer Cutting Systems employs over 900 people at five production locations in Brazil , China , Germany , India and the USA . The company has branches and a sales network in 50 countries.
history
In 1898 the student Adolf Messer (1878–1954) founded a workshop in Höchst am Main for the construction of acetylene lamps and acetylene generators, i.e. apparatus for the production of acetylene gas from calcium carbide . Because of the competition from the advent of electric lighting, the company soon geared its production to welding and cutting technology . For the autogenous welding , a mixture of one needs acetylene and oxygen , which burns at high temperatures. In 1903 the first cutting torch with an oxygen-acetylene mixture was developed.
To produce these gases, Messer began building air separation plants from 1908 to extract oxygen , nitrogen , argon and other noble gases . This year saw the market launch of the "Original Messer" range of oxygen-acetylene products.
The beginning of the First World War in 1914 put an end to the company's expansion abroad - Messer was now present in Western Europe and North America - for the time being. Instead, the company had to make its contribution to the war economy .
In the difficult economic environment of the post-war period , Messer concentrated on exports. In 1928, Messer supplied air separation plants for nitrogen production to Norway and Italy. At the beginning of the 1930s, the company completed the development work on multi-flame welding torches (1930), started building electric welding machines as the first manufacturer of oxy-fuel devices and began producing coated arc welding electrodes in 1932.
The total workforce increased from 522 to 1102 between 1930 and 1940 and total sales almost doubled. During the Second World War , the company manufactured, among other things, flame cutting systems for welding armored vehicles and supplied systems for the production of liquid oxygen to the Peenemünde Army Research Center .
Since the mid-1930s, the Association for Oxy-Fuel Metal Working and the German Acetylene Association cooperated with the Reichsgemeinschaft der Scientific-Technischen Arbeit and the German Labor Front , before both associations became part of the German Association for Welding Technology and Acetylene in 1942. V. (DVSA) were transferred to the Reichsfachgruppe Chemie e. V. belonged to the NS-Bund Deutscher Technik .
During the time of National Socialism , the Messer company profited considerably from the regime's arms production. The spot and projection welding machines were u. a. Used for the production of the Fieseler Fi 103 (so-called V1) and the unit 4 (so-called V2) in Peenemünde . Since the winter of 1941/42, a considerable number of forced laborers were employed in the Messer factories, who were housed in barracks in the immediate vicinity of the production facilities. In 1944, most of the manufacturing facilities on Hanauer Landstrasse in Frankfurt were destroyed and rebuilt immediately after 1945.
In 1945 the production facilities, including the main factory on Hanauer Landstrasse in Frankfurt am Main , were largely destroyed by the air raids on Frankfurt am Main . With the approval of the American military government, reconstruction began, so that production could resume in 1947. The products such as cutting torches and the gases acetylene and oxygen required for this were urgently needed to clear the debris. From 1949 new foreign companies and branches were established.
After the company's founder died in 1954, his son Hans Messer (1925–1997) took over the management of Adolf Messer GmbH. The company grew rapidly in the 1950s and increased its total sales from 12.7 million (1950) to 49.5 million German marks (1960). During the same period the number of workers rose from 761 to 1328 and the number of salaried employees from 240 to 674 people. Expansion markets inside and outside Europe could be expanded further.
In 1965 Adolf Messer GmbH merged with Knapsack Griesheim AG to form Messer Griesheim GmbH , in which Farbwerke Hoechst held two thirds and the Messer family one third. The headquarters of the merged company remained the Messer parent plant on Hanauer Landstrasse. The industrial gases sector, which contributed around 70 percent to sales, became the focus of business activity. Hoechst AG produced its first medical device in 1975, thereby establishing the forerunner of BIT Analytical Instruments GmbH.
In 1993 Hans Messer left the company management. Since the majority owner Hoechst started concentrating on the pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial chemistry sectors and wanted to sell his Messer shares, conflicts arose with the Messer family. A planned IPO failed, as did the sale of the Hoechst shares to the competitor Linde AG . The welding and cutting technology division was spun off under the name Messer Cutting & Welding AG in 1997 and sold to a holding company of the Messer family in 1999.
In 2001, Aventis sold the Messer shares it had taken over from Hoechst as part of the merger to two investment companies. The company Castolin Eutectic + and Messer Cutting & Welding were owning a majority stake Carlyle Group merged in MEC Holding GmbH, the shares of the Carlyle Group after five years again to Messer Industrie Holding GmbH sold. The businesses of the national companies in Germany , Great Britain and the USA were sold to Air Liquide for around EUR 2.7 billion and the headquarters of the holding company relocated to Sulzbach (Taunus) .
In the following years, Messer Cutting & Welding opened new production sites. These include Brazil in 2007 and India in 2008. In 2008, the software business will be outsourced to the subsidiary MesserSoft Messer Bracht Software GmbH, based in Dortmund. MesserSoft GmbH specialized in production and business-oriented software. In 2011, Messer Cutting & Welding GmbH changed its name to Messer Cutting Systems GmbH.
In 2012 the company founded the Messer Cutting Systems [Adult and Advanced Training | Academy]. In addition to courses for operating personnel, service technicians and programmers, practice-oriented workshops to optimize production processes are offered. As part of the DVS courses, specialist knowledge in the areas of flame straightening, flame peening, flame cutting and soldering is imparted. As a DVS course facility, the Messer Cutting Systems Academy also offers courses as recognized evidence of the "Directive 2006/42 / EC" and z. B. in the DIN EN 1090 required employee qualification and advice on DIN EN 1090.
In 2013 the India plant moved into its own production facility. In China, the second construction phase of the plant was completed in 2015.
Products
- MetalMaster 2.0 - entry-level machine for simple plasma cuts, only oxy-fuel or combined.
- MultiTherm - cutting system with equipment options for cutting processes
- MultiTherm Eco - universal machine for oxy-fuel and plasma cutting
- OmniMat - for oxy-fuel, underwater or dry plasma, vertical, bevel cut or with drilling unit.
- SicoMat - special system for shipbuilding
- PowerBlade - fiber laser for large area processing
- LaserMat II - CO 2 laser cutting system for large area processing
Corporate structure
literature
- Jörg Lesczenski: 100 percent knife. The return of the family business from 1898 to the present day. Piper, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-492-05085-2 .
- Franz Lerner: Frankfurt am Main and its economy . Ammelburg-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1958
- Ernst Koch: A company through the ages - Messer Griesheim . Messer Griesheim GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 1993
Web links
- Messer Cutting Systems GmbH , company website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Documentation of the reconstruction in Frankfurt ( Memento from January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Liquid gas business in USA to be sold: Air Liquide sells Messer-Griesheim parts. In: Handelsblatt . Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
- ↑ Takeover of Messer Griesheim strengthens position of world market leader for industrial gases - Air Liquide puts Linde in a difficult position. In: Handelsblatt. Retrieved January 8, 2018 .