Schmiedag and Wildauer Schmiedewerke: 'We Forge Partnerships'

Olaf Wiertz, Sales Director at Schmiedag GmbH (SDG) and Wildauer Schmiedewerke GmbH & Co. KG (WSW) said: “We are more than just a supplier to our customers – we are their partner. Our engagement and our qualification in the developments of customer oriented solutions serve ourselves at the end of the day.”
Based decades of experience and the accrued knowledge of its employees, SDG and WSW seek to set world standards in the forging technology. Both companies together (also including a facility in Homburg for machining) form the closed-die-forging group within the more the Georgsmarienhuette (GMH) group, which is more than 150 years old.
In its modern plants, SDG and WSW produce pre- and finished machined forged blanks, up to and including finished components. Today its most important market segments are components for large diesel and gas engines (e.g. crankshafts, conrods, pistons and camshafts), the automotive industry, railways (high speed sector), commercial vehicles and mining applications.

A Long History
The roots of Schmiedag goes back to the year 1824 when entrepreneur Peter Dahlhaus founded the company, transferred some 50 years later into the Gruentaler Eisenwerke.
Since 1999 SDG belongs to the GMH group, while Wildau was already within the group since 1997. Today, the company is specialized on die forging of unalloyed up to high-alloyed steel and special materials, which in part come from the GMH groups own production.
With 40 companies belonging to GMH the production portfolio is broad, encompassing raw-material recycling; steelmaking and processing; forging technology; railway technology; iron, steel and aluminum casting; as well as crane technology and plant engineering. The closed-die-forging group, with SDG and WSW, was founded in 2004.
“SDG and WSW are the evidence that German quality is worldwide recognized and appreciated,” boasts Olaf Wiertz. “For sure our technical expertise and advice play an important role. We provide our knowledge, which we gathered during all these years to support our partners at their projects. The importance of the international business keeps increasing; currently approximately 40% of our revenue comes from outside Germany. With a total of 450 employees in the three facilities Hagen, Homburg and Wildau, SDG and WSW we are producing for approximately 100 customers worldwide, including main players such as Caterpillar, MAN Diesel & Turbo, GE Power & Water, GE Oil & Gas, Wärtsilä, RR MTU and Niigata. The most important foreign markets are the U.S., China and Russia.”

Increased Innovation
The smithie experts of SDG and WSW feature modern, computer-controlled forging technologies and machines for manufacturing, heat treatment as well as mechanical processing of forgings. The company claims to be the ideal partner for small- and large-scale series production because of its high automation level with a flexible process-design. Schmiedag in Hagen manufactures forgings within a range of 5 to 500 kg. Heavy forgings with a maximum piece weight of 3,500 kg are the profession of the Wildauer Schmiedewerke. A special field of manufacturing at the Wildau plant is the production of crankshafts using the TR-device (upsetted pressing) with a maximum length of 6m on the 2,000-ton press.
And when it comes to even bigger engine component forgings the Groeditzer Kurbelwelle Wildau GmbH comes into play. The manufacture and repair of ready-to-install, monolithic, heavy four-stroke crankshafts from 5 to 12 m long and weighing up to 25,000 kg is the special field of activity..
Together, SDG and WSW are well known as leading manufacturers of die forgings for large combustion engines and commercial vehicles.
“With future investments and innovations based on the strategically planning SDG and WSW will further improve their position in the market,” said Wiertz. “Our R&D department is linked very closely with the corresponding partners from our clients. In that way, we can offer a complete solution from one source. From the outset of discussions, our clients benefit from the knowledge of our experts in all areas. For instance we are not only a forge-shop but also able to realize all steps of the mechanical pre- and finish processing. This includes also well-established methods of heat treatment or welding procedures,” Wiertz explains.

Strict Control
The head of engineering and R&D at SDG, Klaus Pfeiffer, said: “Safety and reliability of our products are critical criteria for our customers. Therefore we put quality on top of our company philosophy. Based on our quality management we perform stringent controls on all our materials and products in all relevant processing-stages. This is supported by our own laboratory where the material tests are performed.” This procedure has been rewarded with certificates by classification societies including DNV GL, LR, ABS, RINA, PRS, RMRS, BV, NKK and KRS.”

Investments in the Future
“As mentioned before, the foundation of our success are our employees. They have a tremendous level of self-initiative and creativity,” said Wiertz. “Their contribution to the success and development of both, SDG and WSW, is invaluable. With on-going training measures and target-oriented support of young potentials we, the management, take care for keeping our leading position also in the future. We always give young people the opportunity to see what we are doing and let them stick their nose in our business. This is done by practical trainings.”
“During the next years we will focus our sales activities on the BRICS-Countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa),” said Wiertz. “We see potential for growth in big bore engine components, including crankshafts, conrods, camshafts and steel pistons.”

(As published in the March 2015 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News - http://magazines.marinelink.com/Magazines/MaritimeReporter)