Samuel Vollenweider AG
The Samuel Vollenweider AG in 1880 in Horgen ( Canton of Zurich founded). It manufactured machines for textile finishing and merged in 1991 with the former German VEB Textima in Aue (Saxony) under the name Gematex , today's Xetma Vollenweider .
prehistory
The development of the silk industry in Horgen brought the local craftsmen many orders of various kinds: the master carpenter Jacques Biber began to manufacture handlooms (beaver chairs). There was work for leaf makers and dish setters. The locksmiths made wheels and parts out of cast or iron for the wooden warping machines and handlooms.
The locksmith Heinrich Schrader (later Schweiter AG ), who immigrated from South Baden in the 1850s, first carried out repair work for the silk weaving mills in his workshop on Löwengasse and from 1854 began improving the previous auxiliary equipment for the preparatory work in the weaving mill in the Baumgärtli. For the mechanical weaving mill that began in the 1870s, he developed the mechanical «Schrader» loom. The great boom of the Horgner industry took place in the 1880s and especially in the 1890s.
history
In May 1880, Samuel Vollenweider from Affoltern am Albis, who had trained as a leaf maker in Jakob Grob's sheet tooth factory in Heubach, rented a room in the then Schwarzenbach hose weaving mill above the Schleifetobel in Horgen and built a workshop. He began to make weaving reed teeth with two workers . In 1889 he was able to move into his own office building at "Paradies" on Seestrasse. In 1909 his son Samuel E. Vollenweider , who had acquired new knowledge in the United States for several years, took over the business. In addition to the manufacture of reed teeth, he dealt with construction plans for new machines and began in 1912 with the manufacture of a reed brushing machine for Germany and abroad, the cornerstone for later machine production.
The First World War brought a sharp drop in sales. The 1920s led to a peak in blade tooth production with worldwide export. From 1920 to 1923 the production program was expanded with the automatic harness brushing machine, the “Rotorex” leaf cleaning machine and the leaf binding machine.
From 1927 onwards the company specialized in the development and manufacture of clippers, with which Vollenweider soon assumed a leading role with the fabric cleaning and clipping machine "Super Duplo" and the cloth clipping machine "Optima". In 1938 the blade tooth production had to be stopped due to foreign competition and tariff increases.
In 1943, the four textile machinery factories Grob , Schweiter, Stäubli and Vollenweider merged to form the sales and advertising association “Die 4 von Horgen” in order to overcome the difficulties of the time and to be able to maintain their independence.
After the Second World War , new developments followed, such as the cloth brushing machine, chain stitch sewing machine, wool blanket brushing machine, and changing thread cutting machine. In 1950 the company was converted into a public limited company. At that time it employed 40 workers and employees, developed and constructed machines that had not previously been built in Switzerland and sold 85 percent of its products on the world market.
The “Peerless” cloth shearing machine was developed in 1955 and the “Pyrotrop” singeing machine for woven and knitted fabrics in the 1970s.
The smallest company of the "4 von Horgen" joined the Schweiter Group in April 1987. Above all, shearing and searing machines were produced for dry finishing. With the further developed “Peerless” cloth shearing machine, Vollenweider was able to expand the areas of application, particularly in the area of heavy velor goods.
Samuel Vollenweider AG (Switzerland) took over the former VEB Textima in Aue. The company, which was united in 1991, gave itself the name Gematex and later changed to the current company name Xetma Vollenweider GmbH . At the company's headquarters in Aue (Saxony), a new production and administration building was built in 2001.
Today (2016) the textile finishing machines are manufactured in Germany and sold worldwide. The German-Swiss company has its headquarters in Aue (Saxony). At Xetma Vollenweider AG on Neugasse in Horgen, part of the company management and sales for Africa, the Middle East and Asia (South Asia) are located.
