Kjellberg Finsterwalde
Encyclopedia
Kjellberg Finsterwalde is a group of German companies in the metal and electrical industry. The group consists of the three manufacturing companies, Kjellberg Finsterwalde Plasma und Maschinen GmbH, Kjellberg Finsterwalde Schweißtechnik und Verschleißschutzsysteme GmbH and Kjellberg Finsterwalde Elektroden und Zusatzwerkstoffe GmbH, and the Kjellberg Finsterwalde Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH, which fulfils group-wide functions. Sole shareholder of the group is the Kjellberg Foundation, with its registered seat in the Hessian
city of Gießen
. The group manufactures products for thermal metal working (welding, plasma cutting).
Approximately 280 employees at the three locations in Finsterwalde
, Massen
and Witten
achieved annual sales of about €
47 million in 2008, with international sales accounting for more than half of this amount. The group holds a share of equity in a Slovak company and has a network of partners worldwide.
Kjellberg Finsterwalde manufactures plasma cutting technology (up to 600 A), automatic welding machines and welding electrodes for industrial purposes, with part of the products customised. For example, Kjellberg equipment is used in the shipbuilding, automotive and plant construction industries.
Oscar Kjellberg
received German Imperial patent
no. 231733 "Electrode and procedure for electrical soldering" and is therefore recognised as the inventor of the coated welding electrode.
In his capacity as general manager of the company ESAB
, in 1921 Kjellberg established Kjellberg Elektroden GmbH in Berlin
together with six German and Swedish partners, for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing the patented welding electrodes. For lack of suitable power sources and at Oscar Kjellberg’s suggestion, Kjellberg Elektro-Maschinen GmbH was established in Finsterwalde in 1922. In 1923, the company's first welding generator developed and built in Finsterwalde, Ke 200/1450, was presented at the Leipzig spring fair
. Later that year, the production of welding electrodes started in Finsterwalde
. The oldest product is the rod electrode OK G2/1, which was used for repair welding.
In 1926, the company was renamed Kjellberg Elektroden und Maschinen GmbH, reflecting the company’s changed range of products.
In 1930, welding converters laid the foundation for Kjellberg’s worldwide success. The fundamentally new concept of these machines was the unification of all components under one housing, including control section and steerable carrier. Later, these converters were further developed into automatic welding machines. Experimental studies on automatic arc welding started in 1934. With the market launch of the automatic welding machines S I and S II in 1937, mechanised welding for industrial purposes was possible for the first time. Kjellberg offered three technological options for mechanised welding: with exchangeable electrode head for endless welding of rod electrodes, with welding head for bare wire coils and with carbon head for thin sheet welding.
Significant achievements are the steel construction of the Berlin Tempelhof Airport and the Schlachthofbrücke (Slaughterhouse Bridge) in Dresden
.
In 1941, the patented Kaell-Kjellberg-Lundin method considerably improved the efficiency of metal working. In this technique, a double wire electrode is welded in three arcs simultaneously. At that time, Kjellberg was the world’s largest manufacturer of arc welding technology
.
In 1943, after just two months of development, Kjellberg introduced the so-called Maulwurf (mole) – the first industrial solution for automated submerged arc welding
.
Starting in 1935, the electrode pressing method improved the strength of the coating as well as welding quality compared to the previously standard dipping. One major reference object for this new method is the so-called Kjellberg Hochbau, Germany’s first building with entirely welded steel frame construction. With its completion in 1936 Kjellberg expanded its manufacturing plant at the headquarters in Finsterwalde. For the 5-storey industrial building 460 tonne
s of steel was used and approximately 35,000 m of welding seam formed.
In 1959, the Professor Manfred von Ardenne Institute in Dresden carried out the first basic tests for plasma-arc cutting
of high-alloyed steel and aluminium
with argon
-hydrogen
in cooperation with Kjellberg Finsterwalde. In 1962, Kjellberg Finsterwalde began selling the WSH III-M plasma cutting system with 50 KW – the first industry-ready plasma cutting system. In the same year, this procedure was further developed into the FineFocus plasma cutting technology and then patented.
In 1970, the company was reorganised as the Volkseigener Betrieb
Schweißtechnik Finsterwalde and became a unit of the Mansfeld Combine. In the following year, plasma cutting machines were used in parallel operation for the first time. Eight machines of the first series were sold to Japan
.
In 1973, the plasma cutting unit PA 40 cut with oxygen for the first time, a more cost-effective method.
In 1979, a collective of researchers from Kjellberg and the Professor Manfred von Ardenne Institute were awarded the GDR National Prize for Science and Technology for their scientific and technical work developing the plasma melt cutting process.
In 1984, Kjellberg granted the O-A-Mach Corporation in Tokyo
a licence to produce and sell plasma cutting torches, since the required quantities for the Japanese market could not be delivered in time due to lack of capacity in Finsterwalde
.
In 1986, inverters were used for the first time as power sources for welding and plasma cutting, and a plasma cutting machine for underwater cutting was introduced. At that time, the company had 1064 employees.
In 1991, following German reunification
, the company was restructured and the product range fundamentally overhauled. In collaboration with the University of Hanover and the HDW Kiel shipyard, multi-torch bevel aggregates were used for the first time in the "Shipbuilding 2000" project in 1993.
In 1996, Kjellberg introduced plasma gouging technology for industrial metal processing as an alternative to gouging with carbon electrodes.
In 1997, the Kjellberg Foundation was established and became the company’s sole shareholder. In 1999, a new assembly shop and shipping department at the headquarters in Finsterwalde considerably improved production conditions.
In 2000, the new HiFocus plasma cutting technology, with laser-like precision, was placed on the market. In the following year, the launch of the HiFinox technology for the first time worldwide permitted metallic clean and dross-free cuts on thin sheets of chromium nickel steel
. The world’s first flow-controlled automatic plasma gas supply in 2003 was a big step towards a new dimension of quality and reproducibility of plasma cuts.
In 2004, a new record was established by using three FineFocus 800 plasma cutting machines connected in parallel for the dismantling of a disconnected nuclear reactor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
. 130 mm thick Stainless steel
walls were cut under remote control in water depths of several metres.
In 2008, Kjellberg Finsterwalde Elektroden und Maschinen GmbH was divided into three separate companies: Kjellberg Finsterwalde Plasma und Maschinen GmbH, Kjellberg Finsterwalde Schweißtechnik und Verschleißschutzsysteme GmbH and Kjellberg Finsterwalde Elektroden und Zusatzwerkstoffe GmbH, with Kjellberg Finsterwalde Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH fulfilling group-wide functions. The headquarters of Kjellberg Finsterwalde Schweißtechnik und Verschleißschutzsysteme moved to Witten, in North-Rhine-Westphalia. Kjellberg Finsterwalde Elektroden und Zusatzwerkstoffe GmbH inaugurated its new manufacturing facility at the Massen location.
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
city of Gießen
Gießen
Gießen, also spelt Giessen is a town in the German federal state of Hesse, capital of both the district of Gießen and the administrative region of Gießen...
. The group manufactures products for thermal metal working (welding, plasma cutting).
Approximately 280 employees at the three locations in Finsterwalde
Finsterwalde
Finsterwalde is a town in the Elbe-Elster district , in Brandenburg, Germany.-Overview:It is situated on the Schackebach, a tributary of the Kleine Elster, 28 m. W.S.W of Cottbus by rail. Pop. 18,840. The town has a Gothic church , a castle, schools, cloth and cigar factories, iron-foundries,...
, Massen
Unna
Unna is a town of around 67,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the seat of the Unna district.-Geography:Unna is situated on an ancient salt-trading route, the Hellweg road. Trade on this route and during the period of the Hansa Trade Route came from as far as London...
and Witten
Witten
Witten is a university city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the home of the Witten/Herdecke University, the first private university in Germany.-Bordering municipalities:* Bochum* Dortmund* Herdecke* Wetter * Sprockhoevel* Hattingen...
achieved annual sales of about €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
47 million in 2008, with international sales accounting for more than half of this amount. The group holds a share of equity in a Slovak company and has a network of partners worldwide.
Kjellberg Finsterwalde manufactures plasma cutting technology (up to 600 A), automatic welding machines and welding electrodes for industrial purposes, with part of the products customised. For example, Kjellberg equipment is used in the shipbuilding, automotive and plant construction industries.
History
On 27 June 1908, the SwedeSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Oscar Kjellberg
Oscar Kjellberg
Oscar Kjellberg was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. Founder of ESAB, in 1904, and Kjellberg Finsterwalde, in 1922. He invented the coated electrode used in manual metal arc welding , by dipping a bare iron wire in a thick mixture of carbonates and silicates...
received German Imperial patent
Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt
The Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt or German Patent and Trade Mark Office is the German national patent office, with headquarters in Munich, and offices in Berlin and Jena...
no. 231733 "Electrode and procedure for electrical soldering" and is therefore recognised as the inventor of the coated welding electrode.
In his capacity as general manager of the company ESAB
ESAB
ESAB, Elektriska Svetsnings-Aktiebolaget , is a Swedish industrial company.-History:The Company was founded by Oscar Kjellberg, who pioneered the development of manual metal arc welding electrodes, in Gothenburg in 1904...
, in 1921 Kjellberg established Kjellberg Elektroden GmbH in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
together with six German and Swedish partners, for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing the patented welding electrodes. For lack of suitable power sources and at Oscar Kjellberg’s suggestion, Kjellberg Elektro-Maschinen GmbH was established in Finsterwalde in 1922. In 1923, the company's first welding generator developed and built in Finsterwalde, Ke 200/1450, was presented at the Leipzig spring fair
Leipzig Trade Fair
The Leipzig Trade Fair was a major fair for trade across Central Europe for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, its location happened to lie within the borders of East Germany, whereupon it became one of the most important trade fairs of Comecon and was traditionally a meeting place...
. Later that year, the production of welding electrodes started in Finsterwalde
Finsterwalde
Finsterwalde is a town in the Elbe-Elster district , in Brandenburg, Germany.-Overview:It is situated on the Schackebach, a tributary of the Kleine Elster, 28 m. W.S.W of Cottbus by rail. Pop. 18,840. The town has a Gothic church , a castle, schools, cloth and cigar factories, iron-foundries,...
. The oldest product is the rod electrode OK G2/1, which was used for repair welding.
In 1926, the company was renamed Kjellberg Elektroden und Maschinen GmbH, reflecting the company’s changed range of products.
In 1930, welding converters laid the foundation for Kjellberg’s worldwide success. The fundamentally new concept of these machines was the unification of all components under one housing, including control section and steerable carrier. Later, these converters were further developed into automatic welding machines. Experimental studies on automatic arc welding started in 1934. With the market launch of the automatic welding machines S I and S II in 1937, mechanised welding for industrial purposes was possible for the first time. Kjellberg offered three technological options for mechanised welding: with exchangeable electrode head for endless welding of rod electrodes, with welding head for bare wire coils and with carbon head for thin sheet welding.
Significant achievements are the steel construction of the Berlin Tempelhof Airport and the Schlachthofbrücke (Slaughterhouse Bridge) in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
.
In 1941, the patented Kaell-Kjellberg-Lundin method considerably improved the efficiency of metal working. In this technique, a double wire electrode is welded in three arcs simultaneously. At that time, Kjellberg was the world’s largest manufacturer of arc welding technology
Welding
Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...
.
In 1943, after just two months of development, Kjellberg introduced the so-called Maulwurf (mole) – the first industrial solution for automated submerged arc welding
Submerged arc welding
Submerged arc welding is a common arc welding process. Originally developed by the Linde - Union Carbide Company. It requires a continuously fed consumable solid or tubular electrode...
.
Starting in 1935, the electrode pressing method improved the strength of the coating as well as welding quality compared to the previously standard dipping. One major reference object for this new method is the so-called Kjellberg Hochbau, Germany’s first building with entirely welded steel frame construction. With its completion in 1936 Kjellberg expanded its manufacturing plant at the headquarters in Finsterwalde. For the 5-storey industrial building 460 tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s of steel was used and approximately 35,000 m of welding seam formed.
In 1959, the Professor Manfred von Ardenne Institute in Dresden carried out the first basic tests for plasma-arc cutting
Plasma cutting
Plasma cutting is a process that is used to cut steel and other metals of different thicknesses using a plasma torch...
of high-alloyed steel and aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
with argon
Argon
Argon is a chemical element represented by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table . Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide...
-hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
in cooperation with Kjellberg Finsterwalde. In 1962, Kjellberg Finsterwalde began selling the WSH III-M plasma cutting system with 50 KW – the first industry-ready plasma cutting system. In the same year, this procedure was further developed into the FineFocus plasma cutting technology and then patented.
In 1970, the company was reorganised as the Volkseigener Betrieb
Volkseigener Betrieb
The Volkseigener Betrieb was the legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany...
Schweißtechnik Finsterwalde and became a unit of the Mansfeld Combine. In the following year, plasma cutting machines were used in parallel operation for the first time. Eight machines of the first series were sold to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
In 1973, the plasma cutting unit PA 40 cut with oxygen for the first time, a more cost-effective method.
In 1979, a collective of researchers from Kjellberg and the Professor Manfred von Ardenne Institute were awarded the GDR National Prize for Science and Technology for their scientific and technical work developing the plasma melt cutting process.
In 1984, Kjellberg granted the O-A-Mach Corporation in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
a licence to produce and sell plasma cutting torches, since the required quantities for the Japanese market could not be delivered in time due to lack of capacity in Finsterwalde
Finsterwalde
Finsterwalde is a town in the Elbe-Elster district , in Brandenburg, Germany.-Overview:It is situated on the Schackebach, a tributary of the Kleine Elster, 28 m. W.S.W of Cottbus by rail. Pop. 18,840. The town has a Gothic church , a castle, schools, cloth and cigar factories, iron-foundries,...
.
In 1986, inverters were used for the first time as power sources for welding and plasma cutting, and a plasma cutting machine for underwater cutting was introduced. At that time, the company had 1064 employees.
In 1991, following German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, the company was restructured and the product range fundamentally overhauled. In collaboration with the University of Hanover and the HDW Kiel shipyard, multi-torch bevel aggregates were used for the first time in the "Shipbuilding 2000" project in 1993.
In 1996, Kjellberg introduced plasma gouging technology for industrial metal processing as an alternative to gouging with carbon electrodes.
In 1997, the Kjellberg Foundation was established and became the company’s sole shareholder. In 1999, a new assembly shop and shipping department at the headquarters in Finsterwalde considerably improved production conditions.
In 2000, the new HiFocus plasma cutting technology, with laser-like precision, was placed on the market. In the following year, the launch of the HiFinox technology for the first time worldwide permitted metallic clean and dross-free cuts on thin sheets of chromium nickel steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
. The world’s first flow-controlled automatic plasma gas supply in 2003 was a big step towards a new dimension of quality and reproducibility of plasma cuts.
In 2004, a new record was established by using three FineFocus 800 plasma cutting machines connected in parallel for the dismantling of a disconnected nuclear reactor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is a German academic research and education institution with university status resulting from a merger of the university and the research center of the city of Karlsruhe. The university, also known as Fridericiana, was founded in 1825...
. 130 mm thick Stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
walls were cut under remote control in water depths of several metres.
In 2008, Kjellberg Finsterwalde Elektroden und Maschinen GmbH was divided into three separate companies: Kjellberg Finsterwalde Plasma und Maschinen GmbH, Kjellberg Finsterwalde Schweißtechnik und Verschleißschutzsysteme GmbH and Kjellberg Finsterwalde Elektroden und Zusatzwerkstoffe GmbH, with Kjellberg Finsterwalde Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH fulfilling group-wide functions. The headquarters of Kjellberg Finsterwalde Schweißtechnik und Verschleißschutzsysteme moved to Witten, in North-Rhine-Westphalia. Kjellberg Finsterwalde Elektroden und Zusatzwerkstoffe GmbH inaugurated its new manufacturing facility at the Massen location.