The history of R. Stahl Group
Openness for new ideas and for markets is a long tradition with us.
The history of R. STAHL GROUP starts on the 1st of August 1876. Rafael Stahl, the founder of our company, established the “Stahl und Weineck” mechanical workshop outside the gates of Stuttgart. The first products were for the textile industry and ranged from American-style irons to circular spring needle machines for making tricot work.
With a variety of partners, the first difficult years passed until Rafael Stahl managed the company as R. STAHL RUNDSTAHLFABRIK from the mid-1880s on his own. The company grew. The circular spring needle machines improved and were soon being sold abroad as well. He developed circular spring needle machines with the then sensational single electrical drive, which won a gold medal at the Teplitz international exhibition of 1895.
The company was now called MASCHINENFABRIK R. STAHL and supplied all the equipment a complete tricotage works would need, such as circular spring needle machines, washing and fulling machines, centrifuges, rolling and tensioning machines, presses ans sewing machines. But as the spirit of the times and fashions changed, ladies lost interest in tricot ware, and so the demand for capital equipment in the industry dropped. By this time, MASCHINENFABRIK R. STAHL was run by the sons of the founder: they came up with new ideas, designed and built their first lift in 1893.
That started the material handling era in the company. The second generation of the family extended the business to lifts, electro-pulley blocks and cranes. In 1908, people paternosters were added to the range, the first unit being installed in the Graf Eberhard building in Stuttgart.
The First World War has a serious effect on the company, and it took considerable efforts to survive the war and post-war confusion. Considerable help at this time came from orders from leading German chemical companies and the national railways, who bought platform lifts on the supporting chain principle patented by R. Stahl. From 1921 onwards, the company moved into the field of explosion protection for electrical equipment, as material handling systems at leading German chemical companies had to be equipped to this standard.
By the time the company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1926, it was doing brilliantly; but R. STAHL also suffered when the world economic crisis hit. The company had to lay off staff for the first time in its history and cut investment to the absolute minimum. But things improved from the mid-1930s. The company was making cranes of up to 100 t capacity, lifts and electric hoists were doing well.
The Second World War marked the start of a difficult period, although the founder’s grandsons mastered it with a great deal of effort. It was in this period that our electric hoist production moved from Stuttgart to Künzelsau.
After the War, the company started growing as never before. All our products were redesigned or newly developed. We also started making new explosion protected switchgear for lift systems designed to a totally new principle. This was the start of an extraordinary period of success. Innovation in lifts, such as lockless lift doors, collective control and automatic lifts. The first lift without an operator but instead with controlled DC drive emerged and was installed in a bank in Frankfurt. In the following years, R. STAHL became the number one lift manufacturer in Germany, one of the leaders in rope and chain hoists and entered the explosion proof electrical equipment market, quickly becoming one of the leaders in this market as well.
Our sales operations were extended at both national and international level, with one technical masterpiece following another. In 1950, R. STAHL launched the electric chain hoist with round link chains; in 1952, a new generation of rope hoists, and in 1956, the fastest lift in Europe for the exhibition tower in Hannover and novel explosion protected controls.
In 1965, R. STAHL and A. Zaiser companies merged. Zaiser was also a Stuttgart company with a long tradition: it was founded by Louis Adolf Zaiser on 28.7.1879, and the merger added its lifts and above all escalator business.
By the late 1960's, the growth of the lift business was increasingly outgrowing the family business; in 1969, it forced the company to decide either to cut the lifts department back considerably or look for a partner. So, in 1970, the lift division was separated and went to Rheinstahl. The capital recovered was used to continue extending our remaining promising businesses.
In 1976, R. STAHL GROUP OF COMPANIES celebrated its centenary in the best of financial health and with a future-oriented range of products.
Today, R. STAHL AKTIENGESELL-SCHAFT has a modern corporate structure with three divisions. Our electrical systems division manufactures and markets electrical equipment for hazardous areas. These products are used in chemical plants, the petrochemical industry, in oil and gas exploration, in paint factories, biodiesel production etc. Our mechanical engineering division manufactures lifting gears, cranes and crane components and services them.These products are used for material handling in all areas of industry. Our mechanical engineering division also includes the manufacture of blow moulding equipment for making bottles for packaging. Our service division offers consulting on date processing systems and outsourcing in particular.
R. STAHL is a decentralised organisation with an international sales organisation and is one of the market leaders in all its fields.