Demag

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DEMAG is a German heavy equipment manufacturer. Started making dock cranes in 1906 and since constituted as Deutsche Maschinenfabrik AG or simply Demag.

Contents 1 Founding 2 Hydraulic Era 3 Restructuring 4 Break Up 5 External links

[edit] Founding

The DEMAG company ws founded in 1910 in Duisburg through the union of Märki Engineering Co., Duisburger Mechanical Engineering AG and the Benrather Engine works GmbH. Some of these firms had histories of crane building going back one hundred years. In this field DEMAG became prominent. Thus one design in 1910 was to that date the world largest floating crane for Harland & Wolff in Belfast, which needed these for the building of the passenger liners RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic.

Starting from 1925 Demag also manufactured excavators. Locomotives and railroad cars were built as well. During the second world war armoured fighting vehicles (ref. Bergepanther) were built in the Berlin Staaken plant.

[edit] Hydraulic Era

In 1954 DEMAG developed their first hydraulic excavators. After that DEMAG expanded into the sector of construction machines and vehicle cranes, conveying engineering (workshop crane and control devices), the steel mill technology (complete metallurgical plants, but particularly continuous casting installations), the compressor and compressed air engineering.

After the company became a world leader in the manufacture of injection moulding machines, it was taken over by the Mannesmann company, with HQ in Düsseldorf.

[edit] Restructuring

In the engineering field a joint venture with the Japanese manufacturer Komatsu was finally concluded in 1996. The range of rolling technology went already before the Vodafone involvement. In this period, high financial losses returned. It worked under the name SMS DEMAG at this time. By the assumption of liabilities by Vodafone which became a section of their auto and mobile crane group. In August 2002 DEMAG plant in Zweibrücken became part of the US Terex company.

[edit] Break Up

Parts of the conveying engineering activities remained with Siemens and became busier under the name Dematic with others. Siemens subcontracting continued, of it again a part of the system engineering. The remainder of the conveying engineering firm was sold in 2006 as DEMAG Cranes, together with that traditional quay crane manufacturer. The Kunsttofftechnik firmiert today as getting thing under the name MPM plastic Machinery). To this among other things the DEMAG plastics belong to getting thing group and the technologies of Krauss Maffei. The activities in the building of plastics machines of the today's DEMAG plastic Group, those with head office in Schwaig with Nuremberg, a small machine shop in Wiehe, one foundry in Jünkerath, production locations in Strongsville (Ohio) and Ningbo (China) as well as a joint undertaking in Chennai (India). Injection moulding machines manufactures. The entrepreneurial group applies in this market segment after conversion as world-wide third biggest name. Economic salvation came through the sale of DEMAG Cranes and MPM by Siemens to the financial investor KKR in the autumn of 2001. Part of this included downsizing and the loss of 1000 jobs.

As a result, the firm became an example of the "grasshopper debate" (viz privatize and downsize through leaping offshore?) by the political party SPD - by the politician Müntefering beside others. DEMAG was listed publicly in 2006.

[edit] External links

• http://www.demagcranes-ag.de (crane and port technology)
• http://www.demagcranes.de (crane manufacturing)
• http://www.sms-demag.com (steel mill and rolling technology)
• http://www.demag24.com (Terex DEMAG Mobile crane)
• http://www.dpg.com (injection moulding machines)
• http://www.dematic.com (Automated Material Handling Equipment)