schwartz celebrates its 40th anniversary

Short overview over 40 years of schwartz

1984: Rolf Schwartz, Head of Design at Otto Junker GmbH’s branch factory in Gevelsberg, goes into business for himself when that site closed. Establishing schwartz GmbH, he embarks on the manufacture and design of heat treatment systems for steel, aluminum and nonferrous metals.

1995: For the first time, press-hardened steel parts heat-treated with schwartz GmbH’s equipment are integrated into a vehicle.

1998: The company’s headquarters is moved to Simmerath. A two-storey office building with adjoining production shop is erected on the Rollesbroich industrial estate.

2002: Alexander Wilden joins the company as commercial director.

2003: Volkswagen AG awards its first contracts to schwartz GmbH.

2009: The management resolves to enlarge the office and production buildings as the company reaches its capacity limits time and again due to growing order volumes.

2011: In order to speed up delivery to a growing customer base in the Asia-Pacific region, a subsidiary entity trading as schwartz Heat Treatment Systems Asia is founded in Kunshan near Shanghai, PR China. The production of heat treatment systems to German standards is launched here. Moreover the site has a service team providing on-site customer support.

2011: Alexander Wilden becomes the sole Managing Director of schwartz GmbH.

2012: schwartz, Inc. Is founded as a service operation in Oswego near Chicago (Illinois)/USA. From here, service personnel can reach customers in American markets in minimum time. For the first time, schwartz GmbH’s staff complement exceeds 100 people.

2013: Over 80 % of all press-hardened steel components used in cars worldwide are heated in schwartz heat treatment equipment.

2015: For its innovation in the field of heat treatment equipment for press hardening, schwartz GmbH receives the AC² Innovation Award of the Aachen region. The newly developed system is capable of producing different closely defined temperature zones in one blank.
The office building, already enlarged, can no longer accommodate the growing number of employees. Several departments are therefore relocated to a new office complex erected close to the main building.
schwartz GmbH ranks among the 500 fastest-growing companies in Germany according to a survey conducted by FOCUS news magazine in co-operation with the Statista statistics portal.

2016: schwartz GmbH is officially acknowledged by the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) as the global market leader in the field of heat treatment systems for press hardening applications.
schwartz acquires Hütte GmbH in Düren/Germany.
Further extension of production capacities at the headquarters site in Simmerath.
Alexander Wilden becomes sole shareholder of the schwartz group.

2017: Relocation of Hütte GmbH from Düren to Aachen.
Opening of a new service location of schwartz HTS at Chongqing/PR China.
Opening of another service location of schwartz HTS at Guangzhou/PR China.
schwartz, Inc. moves from Oswego to Naperville (Illinois). In addition to a larger office space, the new location also has its own warehouse for spare parts.

2018: schwartz Heat Treatment Systems Asia opens another service center in Beijing/PR China.

2019: schwartz’s position as global market leader in heat treatment systems for press-hardening applications is again confirmed by the independent World Market Leader Index.
schwartz GmbH expanded its product range with a new business segment in the field of heating systems for the NF metal industry.

2020: As part of the digitalization strategy schwartz 4.0, the service portal myschwartz is developed. myschwartz is our service portal, which gives our customers digital access to our services.

2022: Opening of a further production site in Kunshan/PR China.

2023: schwartz Heat Treatment Systems Asia opens a new plant, the schwartz Gigafactory, in Zhangpu Town Kunshan, PR China.

schwartz looks forward to many more years of growth and innovation!

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