Special order: Richter AG welds giant press
parts for Petersburg
Hessisch Lichtenau · The large job doesn't fit
through the gate. The mechanical engineering company Richter AG has
made it wider and at the same time lengthened the exit so that the
giant low loader can later manage the curve. Because a colossus
made of dull grey steel, 12.5 metres long, five metres wide and
weighing 188 tonnes - parts of a pipe moulding press for St.
Petersburg in Russia will start off on its journey. Four parts of
the plant which will later be used to produce pipelines are being
machined by the mechanical engineering company in Hessisch
Lichtenau: Burning, welding together, annealing and finally
machining is on the agenda. Two of the colossuses are in the
production hall, two others are being jointed together. Whereas
2004 was the "year of the drilling heads" for Richter - components
several metres high which later dig through the earth for the
construction of tunnels or drainage ditches - the programme for
2005 is mixed, as the company director Axel Richter says. Because
the company founded 60 years ago in Kassel does not have any
products of its own - "That is our advantage", says authorised
signatory and representative Joachim Kraus.
Instead of making itself dependent on one branch of industry it
handles weighty jobs for plant construction firms in all
industries: Richter welds, mills, drills, anneals and assembles
steel parts, which often weigh 80 tonnes and are 20 metres long -
precisely to plan and with deviations not bigger than a hundredth
of a millimetre. A good 90 percent of the parts go abroad thanks to
customers who operate internationally. Customers prefer all the
machining work to be done by a single company - a tour of the
heavyweights from one machining company to the next would be too
expensive. The colourful mix in the order books shows where
industry is booming. The company and its 200 employees are
currently profiting from the raw materials and energy boom. The
hall is currently home to the arm of an excavator which digs for
gold in an opencast mine in Australia and the drive chain
links of 1000 tonne excavators which mine oil shale. Axel Richter
is proud of these orders: "We have progressed to become a strategic
partner for our customers."
The firm in North Hesse is also involved in the wind boom. It
has built test rigs for the gearboxes of wind turbine generator
systems which manage an output of five Megawatts. Test rigs which
can hold 25 Megawatt gearboxes are currently being designed.
Business is booming, the company operates with three shifts, the
new drilling and milling centre with its imposing 21 metre
travelway was not put into service until several months after it
had been delivered. The reason: "We didn't have the time, the
machine which had to be replaced was fully booked."
Background
Richter Maschinenfabrik AG
Adam Richter Maschinenfabrik was founded in 1945 in Kassel. It
began rapidly with press building and in the 1950s had 500
employees. At the beginning of the 1960s the company founder sold
his firm for health reasons. But in 1966 the family set up two
locations in in Gladenbach in Siegerland, which made pallets and
construction machines. In 1969 production moved to the newly
founded Adam Richter & Sohn Maschinenbau GmbH in Hessisch
Lichtenau. The cage pallets were separated from the wheeled
trolleys. Both were later given up. With the construction of the
new factory in Hessisch Lichtenau in 1986, Richter established
itself in large machine and plant construction.
Source: HNA Wirtschaft
