100 Years of Schmalz
The continuous change in the markets in particular was an element that followed the business at all times. The limit to product life cycles and the practical meaning of a change in technology gave Schmalz new challenges time and again.
The Founding of the Johannes Schmalz Rasierklingenfabrik
Johannes Schmalz, born in Aistaig on October 24, 1878, rose to become a master mechanic at the mainspring factory in Schramberg. Motivated by an award from the factory director, he constructed a machine for manufacturing high-quality razor blades. But the award failed to appear and Johannes Schmalz took appropriate actions. He bought an oil mill and a woolworks equipped with a water wheel drive in Glatten from the widow of the artificial wool maker Wilhelm Bäßler. Here he founded Johannes Schmalz Rasierklingenfabrik in November 1910, where razor blades were soon to be manufactured and sold.
A cutting and polishing machine designed and manufactured in-house along with new acquisitions, such as an automatic blade packaging machine for up to 70 razor blades a minute, illustrate the growth of the company. A short time later, Johannes Schmalz succeeded for the first time in exporting a large quantity of razor blades to China and Africa.
In 1938, the razor blade company Glattis was finally born in Glatten. Schmalz registered the term as a brand name. With sales of up to 600,000 razor blades per month, the company was extremely successful for a period of decades.
The Era of Transport and Airport Ramp Equipment
The engineer Artur Schmalz, son of the founder, took over the helm of the business as the electric razor became a triumphant success. Artur Schmalz concluded that there were more and more tractors being used that required appropriate trailers in the agricultural trade. The Schmalz-Kipper, with its patented support wheel by Artur Schmalz, was then developed to be the ideal agricultural vehicle. Schmalz developed and produced many other transport vehicles, such as mail trolleys, serving trolleys and luggage carts for train stations.
A further chapter for the glider enthusiast Artur Schmalz presented itself in the form of transport devices for airports. His range of products stretched from airport baggage carts to cockpit ramps that served as boarding aids for pilots to mobile gas stations for fuelling baggage tractors. “We sold these products for around 14 years, until the airports switched to conveyor belts and mobile passenger stairs. Stuttgart received in total nearly 100 vehicles from us. We also supplied Frankfurt, Cologne, Bremen and Paris”, Artur Schmalz has been quoted as saying.
In the early 1960s, the paint drying trolley brought about a new and important focus of the production. These trolleys dried pieces of furniture efficiently and allowed for storage between individual production steps. At the start of the 1970s, Schmalz was selling around 1,000 paint drying trolleys a year and was delivering not only to Africa and North America, but also to Eastern European countries.
New Focus on Vacuum Technology
In 1984, Dr. Kurt Schmalz took over as Managing Director. Six years later, he was joined by his brother, Wolfgang Schmalz, and the management team was complete.
Dr. Kurt Schmalz has been at the company since he was in school and worked there throughout his studies. Here he developed his passion for innovative thinking. He soon realized that it would be necessary to introduce a new range of products. A carpentry company at a trade fair requested a holding device for machining doors. This request finally caused Dr. Kurt Schmalz to use vacuum technology. He developed a vacuum generator that operated with compressed air and a vacuum workbench. When the user pressed a foot pedal, it would start up the vacuum generator. As soon as a workpiece was applied, the suction would hold it tightly and it could then be rotated or turned.
The first vacuum lifting devices and vacuum tube lifters followed soon after. The lifting device was secured by a chain hoist and could handle heavy loads without damaging them. The hose lifter made gripping and lifting loads with vacuum force alone possible for the first time. Even then, the Jumbo hose lifter was easy to operate; it could lift up work pieces easily and transport them quickly. In 1991 at the international trade fair in Munich, Schmalz received the German federal prize for outstanding innovative services in the trade for the Jumbo vacuum tube lifter.
Alongside the workbench, hose lifter and lifting devices, vacuum components saw the light of day as a new product group in 1984. To be able meet the price and quality demands of the customers, the company decided to produce vacuum components itself. The range of products consisted of vacuum suction pads and vacuum generators. Components for monitoring the systems, mounting elements, valves, as well as filters and connectors were added quickly to the range.
