BETWEEN TRADITION AND FUTURE
Saar-Hartmetall und Werkzeuge GmbH
More than 100 years of tool manufacturing
More than 60 years of cemented carbide manufacturing
More than 40 years of PM*-manufacturing
(*PM: powder-metallurgical steel grade)
The invention of the Röchling-Rodenhauser induction furnace was the starting point for the creation of the tool manufacturing of the Saar-Hartmetall und Werkzeuge GmbH (following: SHW). This technology enabled the production of carbon steels in various hardness grades, manganese steel grades, high-speed steel grades and special steel grades for the manufacturing of tools.
The activities of tool production were expanded by the stainless steel producer Buderus-Röchling in Wetzlar in 1920. Both companies together were able to offer from 1920 until 1945 different types of tools made of engineering steel grades, made of high-speed steel grades and made of Stellit or cemented carbides. Important products were mining tools, extrusion tools, cold rollers, scissors, saw blades, wallower made of high speed steel, standard tools for cutting or transforming operations. These standard tools were made of high speed steel or Stellit or cemented carbide blanks, which were brazed on a steel body. The brand name of all these types of tools were Miramant. The brand name of the tools made of high-speed steel grades was Gigant. And the brand name for all tools made of Stellite was Stellamant.
There were a lot of restrictions during the second world war and a factory shutdown from December 1944 to autumn 1945. Afterwards the production was resumed with highly needed-after post-war items such as can-locking tools, cutting knives for mower beams and smaller scissor blades. Additionally casting and forging rolls were refinished. And extrusion tools and saw blades with riveted HSS teeth (saw blades with soldered HM teeth only from 1960) were produced. The supply of the raw carbide parts changed completely after the second world war. The former raw hard metal supplier Röchling-Buderus had lost the production facilities at the beginning of 1945 and did not want to build this production facilities anymore. No cemented carbide was available in The Saar area (Saarland or Saargebiet) due to the failure of other German carbide plants and the great interest of the Allied Forces in the new material. The company Médur (Franco-Saarland Hartmetall Gesellschaft) was founded in 1947 in Illingen and was able to supply raw plates for turning and planing tools in 1948. The Röchling Group bought the company Médur in the end of 1956 and integrated the production of cemented carbide into the production activities of the plant in Völklingen. Both production divisions – the production of tools and the production of blanks made of cemented carbide - were managed as operating departments of Röchling Burbach until 1975. It was only with the establishment of the carbide and tools division in 1976 that inter-company areas such as work preparation, sale department SARAMANT and the carbide laboratory were combined as one unit with the production. In the same year, the production of mining tools was integrated into the carbide and tools division.
It became possible to operate independently and with its own name on the market only when Saar-Hartmetall und Tools GmbH was founded as a subsidiary of Saarstahl-Weiterverarbeitung GmbH in 1986. The product portfolio could be adapted to the requirements of the customers and further developed in a market-oriented manner. New possibilities in tool development were created by the own production of homogeneous and segregation-free powder metallurgical steels. This step became possible because powder metallurgy of Saarstahl AG, which had been involved in the production and applications of PM steels since 1975, was integrated into the organisational structure in 1991.
Saar-Hartmetall und Werkzeuge GmbH acquires complete independence and complete independence from a group with the acquisition of the company in the context of an MBO (management buy-out) in 2000. The last step towards the independence of SHW was made between 2005 and 2008 with the relocation of production and administration to Puettlingen-Etzenhofen. SHW manufactures its products from powder to finished product at this one place in Saarland and sells the special products worldwide.