Airport Vacuum Baggage Lifters

From razor blades to complex vacuum solutions for gripping and handling systems – Schmalz has been busy over the last 100 years of the company’s history. A good reason to celebrate.

Robotic arms lift car body parts in press lines, furniture parts are held in CNC machining centers, a single operator lifts steel sheet weighing several tons – with vacuum technology, it’s all a piece of cake. J. Schmalz GmbH is one of the market leaders in this profession, and as such develops, produces and distributes gripping, clamping and handling technology. “We have a wide range of different application areas,” says Dr. Kurt Schmalz, who, together with his brother Wolfgang, heads the company as Managing Director. “Our portfolio comprises applications in all areas of trade and industry.” On June 18, the innovative company is celebrating its 100th birthday at its headquarters in Glatten, Germany (in the Black Forest).

Over the past 100 years, Schmalz has blossomed into a world-renowned company with 16 foreign branch offices and partners in over 40 countries. At the turn of the century, the company had 173 employees; today, J. Schmalz GmbH employs around 600 people around the world. In order to face future challenges head-on and develop sufficient capacity at its German location, Schmalz recently invested EUR 16.3 million in its largest project to date, a new facility which encompasses 13,770 square meters. This project was carefully planned and carried out in accordance with the cutting edge in environmental protection standards. “In all areas, we combine our economic success with environmental and social responsibility. This also applies to the construction of our new production facility,” says Wolfgang Schmalz.

Environmental protection has always been a part of this historic company’s day-to-day business. And Schmalz has not only optimized energy consumption: the company has also increased their investment in the production of renewable energies. “Today we are a positive energy company,” says Wolfgang Schmalz. “We use renewable sources to generate more energy than we consume.” The company has its own photovoltaic system, a woodchip heating system, two wind power systems as well as one solar and one hydroelectric power plant.

Sustainability plays an important role at Schmalz – and not only where the environment is concerned. As a family-run company, Schmalz focuses on long-term success, not just short-term quarterly figures. And there’s more: Schmalz places very special value on its employees. HR Management at Schmalz consists of many different elements which have been implemented in cooperation with a council of selected employees. For example, the company asks employees to evaluate their managers, offers bonuses for health-conscious behavior and provides training for staff as part of the in-house Schmalz Academy. “We place a lot of value on the training of young people,” says Dr. Kurt Schmalz, who founded a regional education initiative for learning disabled youth. The trainee quota is 14% – far higher than the German average for industry.

All of these environmental and social measures must be consistent with clear economic objectives. In order to facilitate successful economic development, the company is always finding new ways to grow in other areas as well. Developing innovative products opening up new markets is all in a day’s work at Schmalz, as can be seen in the newly developed grippers for solar wafers. Schmalz values innovation, both in the management of the company and the organization of its processes. Over the past year, Schmalz implemented an efficient added-value system and introduced lean production processes and cutting-edge logistics concepts.

It all began 100 years ago

When Johannes Schmalz founded the company in 1910, he was focused on completely different markets. The “Johannes Schmalz Rasierklingenfabrik“ (Razor Blade Factory) and its razor brand “Glattis” kept cheeks all over Germany clean-shaven. With sales of up to 600,000 razor blades per month, the company was extremely successful for a period of decades. As the electric razor began its triumphant takeover, the Black Forest-based company entered new fields of business. Artur Schmalz, who led the company through its second generation, developed both trailers used for agricultural work and the patented support wheel, in addition to a number of different transportation vehicles such as mail cars, tea carts and luggage carts as well as cockpit ramps to help pilots embark and disembark planes and mobile gas stations for fuelling baggage tractors.

In 1984, Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Kurt Schmalz took over as Managing Director. Six years later, he was joined by his brother, Dipl.-Ing. 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. He soon realized that it would be necessary to introduce a new range of products. Though a series of solid, tight-knit customer relationships, he decided upon vacuum technology. Dr. Kurt Schmalz then developed a vacuum generator operated using compressed air and a vacuum work table. The first vacuum lifting devices, vacuum tube lifters and individual vacuum components and vacuum clamping systems followed soon after.