Products and solutions Jun 29, 2007 12:00 PM
smbChromstahl in Langenhagen: Stainless steel finishing specialist celebrates 25th anniversary
smbChromstahl GmbH is a stainless steel service center active throughout the whole of Europe holding a large inventory of finished and pattern-rolled stainless steel sheets. With roughly 40 employees it provides a top-quality service to a wide range of customers, including manufacturers of catering equipment, appliances, elevators, escalators, food and medical equipment, facades, tanks and process equipment. The production operation in Langenhagen near Hanover is now 25 years old and is holding an open day tomorrow, Saturday, to celebrate the anniversary with employees, their families and partner firms.
The company is firmly established as a stainless steel finishing specialist. Formed in 1982, smbChromstahl as it is known today set itself the goal of establishing a distribution and finishing center for stainless steel sheet in northern Germany. Its product range grew continuously in the years that followed. Further equipment was installed and storage and production space was expanded step by step. In 1999 ThyssenKrupp Nirosta GmbH (Krefeld) integrated smbChromstahl into its group of businesses and since then smbChromstahl has sourced all its stainless steel coils from ThyssenKrupp Nirosta.
The company’s services extend from standard distribution to customized finishing, with nondirectional mirror finishes a particular specialty. “We are setting new standards in service-based customer retention,” says Dr. Alfred Otto, executive sales director at ThyssenKrupp Nirosta: “Our aims are to achieve additional sales through even more services and to establish an even stronger service focus in the minds of all.”
The key facility at smbChromstahl is a coil grinding and brushing line with integrated cut-to-length shear. Three grinding and three brushing machines allow the production of both standard and custom finishes. Another two sheet grinding and brushing units are available to meet special requirements, e.g. for two-side finished sheets or finished custom blanks. With the installation of a high-gloss polishing line in mid-2001 the company took on a new challenge, the production of smbPolistar mirror-finish stainless steel sheet. smbChromstahl also stocks a wide range of design-patterned sheet and can supply custom-made blanks quickly and reliably, even in small runs.
ThyssenKrupp Nirosta is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of stainless flat products offering a wide range of grades, sizes and finishes. The company has three service centers in Germany – NSC in Wilnsdorf, EBOR Edelstahl GmbH in Sachsenheim and smbChromstahl GmbH – and operates a sales company in the USA, ThyssenKrupp Nirosta North America in Illinois. In fiscal year 2005/2006 ThyssenKrupp Nirosta generated sales of around 2.7 billion euros.