Röhm tool

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Röhm Tool GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1909
Seat Sontheim an der Brenz , Germany
management Ingo Müller, Gerhard Glanz
Number of employees 1,098
sales 154.52 million euros
Branch Manufacturing
Website www.roehm.biz
As of December 31, 2018

The Röhm Tool GmbH is a clamping device manufacturer headquartered in Baden-Württemberg Sontheim in the district of Heidenheim in Germany .

history

Beginnings

The company was founded in 1909 by Heinrich Röhm in Zella-Mehlis in Thuringia . It initially started series production of drill chucks and in 1910 applied for its first patent, an improved drill chuck. At this time the export business was also started. Due to the influences of the First World War , production came to a standstill and resumption caused considerable difficulties after the end of the war. In 1926, Röhm was the first company in Germany to start producing gear rim drill chucks . In the following years the production facilities were modernized and expanded. Between 1939 and 1940 a 40 meter long assembly line for the production of drill chucks was put into operation. This was the first time that a company produced precision tools as mass-produced items.

Reconstruction and Relocation

In 1945 the company, which now had 1,400 employees, was occupied by the Americans and Heinrich Röhm and his family were evacuated to Heidenheim an der Brenz , where they were housed in a temporary camp. The factories that were still intact were converted into state- owned companies .

In 1946 the Röhm family moved to Sontheim an der Brenz , where Heinrich Röhm rebuilt the plant with his three sons at the age of 63, initially with the production of simple children's toys made of plywood and wood waste in a leased carpenter's workshop. An empty stable then served as a production facility for rock drills, which were made from old machine gun barrels. In the same year a field was bought on which a barrack was built. In the following spring, the production of gear drill chucks started there.

Internationalization and expansion of production

In the early 1950s, Röhm diversified into new product areas, including weapons technology ( alarm weapons , signal pistols and handguns ). The handguns division operated under the brand RG .

The branch in Dillingen an der Donau was founded in 1953 . In the following years, Röhm expanded its production capacity by around 100 jobs per year. A plant in Brazil and numerous branches in industrialized countries followed.

In 1959 today's Röhm GB Ltd. Founded as a general agency, the name was changed in 1977. Röhm Switzerland, then also as a general agency, was founded in 1960. This was followed by the establishment of further branches: 1969 in Italy (Röhm Italy), 1978 in the USA (Röhm Tool) and 1979 in France (Röhm SARL). In 1980 the Röhm engineering and sales office was founded in St. Georgen in the Black Forest especially for the mandrel sector .

In 1958 Günter Röhm joined the management.

After the 1968 Gun Control Act came into force in the United States, Röhm founded a factory in Miami in the 1970s under the name RG Industries . There were revolvers , automatic pistols and Deringer with small calibers such as .22 LR , .25 ACP , .32 S & W or .38 Special manufactured. The Miami factory ceased operations in 1986.

Further activities abroad followed. The Röhm branch in Spain (Röhm Iberica) was founded in 1985. In 1989 Röhm GB Ltd. to a wholly owned subsidiary of Röhm GmbH. In the following year, the USA subsidiary was renamed Rohm Products of America (RPA), and in the same year Röhm Switzerland was taken over by Röhm GmbH.

Developments after 1990

At the same time as the internationalization and the associated development of sales and service companies, the focus on the area of ​​special applications took place. In 1995 Röhm GmbH was first certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001 .

The Röhm Slovakia and Röhm India subsidiaries and the Röhm Weida Machinery China joint venture were founded in 2007. In 2008, after 99 years, the family company handed over management of Röhm GmbH to an external managing director, Michael Fried.

In 2009, Röhm GmbH sold its weapons division to Umarex GmbH & Co. KG in Arnsberg, effective January 1, 2010 .

Today Röhm has 1,300 employees. The export share of German production is around 50 percent.

On September 18, 2017, Röhm GmbH was completely taken over by Dr. Helmut Rothenberger Holding GmbH from Salzburg taken over.

Products

Group structure

Works

Sontheim an der Brenz

Röhm parent plant in Sontheim an der Brenz

The Röhm factory was rebuilt in 1946 in Sontheim an der Brenz. Since then, Sontheim has been the company's headquarters. The factory has had a 8,570 square meter production hall since 2001, in which the turning shop, milling shop, grinding shop, testing area with measuring machines and assembly of all items outside of the drill chuck product area are housed. In 2009 the main plant in Sontheim was expanded to include another facility: an automatic small parts warehouse was put into operation. The high-bay warehouse is 55 meters long, twelve meters high and has up to 11,000 storage spaces.

Dillingen on the Danube

Röhm location in Dillingen on the Danube

The plant in Dillingen an der Donau was founded in 1953. The production hall, built in 2007, covers 1,650 square meters and contains two portal lathes and milling machines that were put into operation in 2008. The machines enable the processing of workpieces with a diameter of up to four meters and a weight of up to 25 tons . The machine itself has a dead weight of 108 tons and therefore required a foundation of 180 tons of iron and steel. Lathe chucks, machine vices and special clamping devices for lathes and milling machines as well as for machining centers are mainly produced in Dillingen.

St. Georgen in the Black Forest

In 1980 the plant in St. Georgen in the Black Forest opened its doors. It is the location of the Röhm engineering and sales office, especially for the mandrel sector. In addition to the standard mandrels, tailor-made solutions are also developed here. Mechanical and power-operated sleeve mandrels, sliding jaw mandrels and hydraulic expansion mandrels are produced for clamping workpieces in the bore or inside contour.

Foreign production sites

Legal proceedings because of Röhm weapons

In the USA, Röhm gained notoriety when a Röhm RG-14.22 cal was used in the (unsuccessful) assassination attempt on the then incumbent President Ronald Reagan in 1981 . The police officer Thomas Delahanty was shot with a gun by the assassin John Hinckley, Jr. Subsequently, Delahanty sued Röhm, arguing that small, cheap handguns served no other than a criminal purpose and that the company was therefore responsible. The appeal was dismissed by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals . The decision of Delahanty v. Hinckley was used as a case judgment in many comparable cases .

James Brady, seriously wounded in the assassination attempt with the RG-14, is the namesake of the Brady Bill , a law of 1993 that codified significant changes to the purchase of small arms in the United States.

In the Kelley v. RG Industries , which occurred in 1985, involved a 1982 shootout in which a salesman Kelley was shot in the chest with an RG gun.

Web links

Commons : Röhm (Sontheim)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Consolidated Financial Statements as of December 31, 2018 in the electronic Federal Gazette
  2. a b c d e f g Company history
  3. ^ Robert E. Walker: Cartridges and Firearm Identification . CRC Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4665-0206-2 , pp. 268–269 ( books.google.com - Limited Preview).
  4. ^ Dan Shideler: The Official Gun Digest Book of Guns & Prices 2010: Rifles, Pistols & Shotguns . Gun Digest Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4402-1454-7 , pp. 715 f . ( books.google.com - Limited preview).
  5. a b Clamping device for the automated production of crankshafts. In: Milling + Drilling. No. 2, 2011, pp. 64-68.
  6. Umarex takes over weapons division from Röhm Report on Co2air.de of December 22, 2009, accessed on September 4, 2016
  7. Südwest Presse Online-Dienst GmbH: Röhm: It's official: the antitrust authorities have approved the sale of Röhm . In: swp.de . September 21, 2017 ( swp.de [accessed April 25, 2018]).
  8. New warehouse ensures faster goods exchange
  9. Trade and Industry Association Sontheim / Brenz ev
  10. a b c Manufacturer information machine market
  11. Delahanty v. Hinckley, 564 A.2d 758 (DCApp. 1989), judgment hosted by Carnegie Mellon University . Also available here .
  12. ^ Lawyers, Guns, and Money. One Man's Battle with the Gun Industry . Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 1-4039-6627-3 , pp. 94–95 ( books.google.com - Limited Preview).