Kjellberg Finsterwalde
Kjellberg Finsterwalde is a group of companies in the metal and electrical industry. The group consists of three manufacturing companies Kjellberg Finsterwalde plasma and Machinery GmbH, Kjellberg Finsterwalde welding and wear protection systems GmbH, Kjellberg Finsterwalde electrodes and filler metals GmbH. Cross-section functions are taken over by the Kjellberg Finsterwalde service mbH. Shareholder of the Group is the Kjellberg Foundation is based in the Hessian town of Giessen. In group products for thermal material processing (welding, plasma cutting) made .
With approximately 280 employees and an annual turnover of about 47 million euros was generated at the sites Finsterwalde, mass Lower Lusatia and Witten in 2008, of which more than half took place outside Germany. The Group maintains a corporate participation in the Slovak Republic. In addition, Kjellberg Finsterwalde is represented by partner companies worldwide.
Industrial plasma cutting technology are produced ( up to 600 A ), welding machines and welding electrodes, in part to customer specifications. Assets of the company are used for example in shipbuilding, the automotive industry or in construction.
History
The Swede Oscar Kjellberg receives on June 27, 1908, the Imperial Imperial Patent 231733 " electrode and method for electrical soldering " and thus is considered the inventor of the covered welding electrode.
Together with six other German and Swedish partners, he founded ESAB as Director General in 1921 in Berlin, Kjellberg electrode GmbH. The company's goal is the production and marketing of the patented welding electrodes. For lack of suitable welding power sources is founded on a proposal by Oscar Kjellberg in 1922 Kjellberg Electric GmbH in Finsterwalde. The first in Finsterwalde developed and built welding generator Ke 200/1450 will be presented at the 1923 spring fair in Leipzig. In the same year starts the welding electrode production in Finsterwalde. The oldest product is the stick electrode OK G2 / 1, an electrode for repair welding.
In 1926 the company is renamed according to the current product profile in Kjellberg electrode und Maschinen GmbH.
Kjellberg 1930 Schweißumformern sets the foundation for its worldwide success. The fundamentally new concept of machine combines all the machinery set under a housing with controller and steerable chassis. This will be further developed to welding machines. In 1934, this one begins with Kjellberg with initial investigations. With the introduction of automatic welding machines SI and S II in 1937 mechanized welding is industrially possible for the first time. Kjellberg provides for three technological application versions: with electrode replacement head for continuously melting off of rod electrodes, welding head for bare wire coils and coal head for Dünnblechschweißungen.
Next reference objects are the steel structures at Berlin- Tempelhof airport and the slaughterhouse in Dresden.
The patented Kaell - Kjellberg Lundin - 1941 method provides for a significant performance boost in metal processing. A double wire electrode while simultaneously welded into three arcs. At that time, the company is the world's largest manufacturer of arc welding technology.
From 1935, the electrodes pressing improves the thickness of the enclosure as well as the welding quality in comparison to the usual diving. An important reference object for the new process is the so-called " Kjellberg building construction", Germany's first fully welded steel frame. With its completion in 1936, the company expanded its manufacturing facility at its headquarters in Finsterwalde. For the 5 - storey industrial building 460 tonnes of steel will be executed and 35,000 m weld.
In 1943, after only two months of development, Kjellberg presents the so-called "mole" the first industrial solution for automated submerged arc welding.
1959 Basic experiments for plasma cutting of high alloyed steels and aluminum with argon - hydrogen at the Research Institute Manfred von Ardenne be carried out in cooperation with Kjellberg first time. With the 50 kW WSH III -M Kjellberg Finsterwalde delivers 1962 from the first industry-ready plasma cutting system. In the same year, the method is further developed in cooperation with the Research Institute Manfred von Ardenne for Plasma Fine cutting and patented.
In 1970, the company will Welding Finsterwalde converted to the state-owned enterprise and incorporated into the Mansfeld Combine. The following year, plasma cutting systems are used in parallel operation for the first time. Eight plants of the first series, the company supplies to Japan.
1973 intersects with the Kjellberg plasma cutting machine 40 PA for the first time a plasma cutting machine with less expensive oxygen. In 1979 a research collective of Kjellberg and the Institute Manfred von Ardenne for scientific and technical cooperation in the development of plasma - melt-cut method which is awarded " National Award for Science and Technology" of the GDR. Since the delivery requirements of the Japanese market are in Finsterwalde not met for reasons of capacity in time, receives the 1984 Japanese OA -Mach Corporation in Tokyo a license for the manufacture and sale of plasma cutting torches.
In 1986 inverters are first used as power supplies for welding and plasma cutting as well as presented a deployable underwater plasma cutting machine. At this time, 1064 people were employed in the company.
After German reunification in 1991, the distribution system will be restructured and revised the product as far as possible. In collaboration with the University of Hannover and the HDW Kiel in 1993 are in the project " Shipbuilding 2000", first used in multiple-burner bevelling heads. With the plasma gouging Kjellberg 1996 leads an alternative to gouging with carbon electrodes for the industry a.
1997 Kjellberg Foundation is founded and acts as the sole shareholder of the company. Improve investment in a new assembly and dispatch hall at the headquarters in Finsterwalde 1999, the conditions of production considerably. The HiFocus technology with laser-like cutting quality is brought to the market in 2000. The introduction of HiFinox technology in the following year provides the first bright metallic and dross-free cut surfaces of chromium - nickel steels with thin metal sheets. With the first volume flow- controlled automatic plasma gas supply in the world Kjellberg Finsterwalde opens a new dimension of quality and reproducibility in plasma cuts in 2003.
With three parallel plasma cutting machines of the type FineFocus 800, a new record is set in the year 2004: For the decommissioning of the closed nuclear reactor at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe 130 mm thick steel walls are broken down remotely in several meters of water. In 2007, the Kjellberg Foundation for a comprehensive investment program for the future security of Kjellberg Finsterwalde.
2008, Kjellberg Finsterwalde electrodes und Maschinen GmbH is split into three separate companies. There arise the Kjellberg Finsterwalde plasma und Maschinen GmbH, Kjellberg Finsterwalde Welding and wear protection systems GmbH and Kjellberg Finsterwalde electrodes and filler metals GmbH. Cross-section functions are taken over by the Kjellberg Finsterwalde service mbH. The headquarters of the Kjellberg Finsterwalde welding and wear protection systems GmbH is laid in the North Rhine-Westphalian Witten. The Kjellberg Finsterwalde electrodes and filler metals GmbH moves into a new factory at the site mass Lower Lusatia.