please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message this article may require cleanup to meet wikipedia s quality standards . no cleanup reason has been specified . please help improve this article if you can . october 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message kjellberg finsterwalde type group of companies industry mechanical engineering founded 1922 headquarters finsterwalde witten massen germany products plasma cutting technology welding technology welding electrodes number of employees approx . 280 2008 website www.kjellberg.de kjellberg finsterwalde is a group of german companies in the metal and electrical industry . the group consists of the three manufacturing companies kjellberg finsterwalde plasma und maschinen gmbh kjellberg finsterwalde schwei technik und verschlei schutzsysteme gmbh and kjellberg finsterwalde elektroden und zusatzwerkstoffe gmbh and the kjellberg finsterwalde dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbh which fulfils group wide functions . sole shareholder of the group is the kjellberg foundation with its registered seat in the hessian city of gie en . the group manufactures products for thermal metal working welding plasma cutting . approximately 280 employees at the three locations in finsterwalde massen and witten achieved annual sales of about 47 million in 2008 with international sales accounting for more than half of this amount . the group holds a share of equity in a slovak company and has a network of partners worldwide . kjellberg finsterwalde manufactures plasma cutting technology up to 600 a automatic welding machines and welding electrodes for industrial purposes with part of the products customised . for example kjellberg equipment is used in the shipbuilding automotive and plant construction industries . contents 1 early history 2 renaming 3 reorganisation 4 the kjellberg foundation 5 references 6 external links early history edit on 27 june 1908 the swede oscar kjellberg received german imperial patent no. 231733 electrode and procedure for electrical soldering and is therefore recognised as the inventor of the coated welding electrode . 1 in his capacity as general manager of the company esab in 1921 kjellberg established kjellberg elektroden gmbh in berlin together with six german and swedish partners for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing the patented welding electrodes . for lack of suitable power sources and at oscar kjellberg s suggestion kjellberg elektro maschinen gmbh was established in finsterwalde in 1922 . in 1923 the company s first welding generator developed and built in finsterwalde ke 200 1450 was presented at the leipzig spring fair . later that year the production of welding electrodes started in finsterwalde . the oldest product was the rod electrode ok g2 1 which was used for repair welding . renaming edit in 1926 the company was renamed kjellberg elektroden und maschinen gmbh reflecting the company s changed range of products . in 1930 welding converters laid the foundation for kjellberg s worldwide success . the fundamentally new concept of these machines was the unification of all components under one housing including control section and steerable carrier . later these converters were further developed into automatic welding machines . experimental studies on automatic arc welding started in 1934 . with the market launch of the automatic welding machines s i and s ii in 1937 mechanised welding for industrial purposes was possible for the first time . kjellberg offered three technological options for mechanised welding with exchangeable electrode head for endless welding of rod electrodes with welding head for bare wire coils and with carbon head for thin sheet welding . 2 significant achievements were the steel construction of the berlin tempelhof airport and the schlachthofbr cke slaughterhouse bridge in dresden . starting in 1935 the electrode pressing method improved the strength of the coating as well as welding quality compared to the previously standard dipping . one major reference object for this new method is the so called kjellberg hochbau germany s first building with an entirely welded steel frame construction . with its completion in 1936 kjellberg expanded its manufacturing plant at the headquarters in finsterwalde . for the 5 storey industrial building 460 tonnes of steel was used and approximately 35 000 m of welding seam was formed . 3 in 1941 the patented kaell kjellberg lundin method considerably improved the efficiency of metal working . in this technique a double wire electrode was welded in three arcs simultaneously . at that time kjellberg was the world s largest manufacturer of arc welding technology . in 1943 after just two months of development kjellberg introduced the so called maulwurf mole the first industrial solution for automated submerged arc welding . in 1959 the professor manfred von ardenne institute in dresden carried out the first basic tests for plasma arc cutting of high alloyed steel and aluminium with argon hydrogen in cooperation with kjellberg finsterwalde . in 1962 kjellberg finsterwalde began selling the wsh iii m plasma cutting system with 50 kw the first industry ready plasma cutting system . in the same year this procedure was further developed into the finefocus plasma cutting technology and then patented . reorganisation edit in 1970 the company was reorganised as the volkseigener betrieb schwei technik finsterwalde and became a unit of the mansfeld combine . in the following year plasma cutting machines were used in parallel operation for the first time . eight machines of the first series were sold to japan . in 1973 the plasma cutting unit pa 40 cut using oxygen for the first time a more cost effective method . in 1979 a collective of researchers from kjellberg and the professor manfred von ardenne institute were awarded the gdr national prize for science and technology for their scientific and technical work developing the plasma melt cutting process . in 1984 kjellberg granted the o a mach corporation in tokyo a licence to produce and sell plasma cutting torches since the required quantities for the japanese market could not be delivered in time due to lack of capacity in finsterwalde . in 1986 inverters were used for the first time as power sources for welding and plasma cutting and a plasma cutting machine for underwater cutting was introduced . at that time the company had 1064 employees . 4 in 1991 following german reunification the company was restructured and the product range fundamentally overhauled . in collaboration with the university of hanover and the hdw kiel shipyard multi torch bevel aggregates were used for the first time in the shipbuilding 2000 project in 1993 . in 1996 kjellberg introduced plasma gouging technology for industrial metal processing as an alternative to gouging with carbon electrodes . the kjellberg foundation edit in 1997 the kjellberg foundation was established and became the company s sole shareholder . in 1999 a new assembly shop and shipping department at the headquarters in finsterwalde considerably improved production conditions . in 2000 the new hifocus plasma cutting technology with laser like precision was placed on the market . in the following year the launch of the hifinox technology for the first time worldwide permitted metallic clean and dross free cuts on thin sheets of chromium nickel steel . the world s first flow controlled automatic plasma gas supply in 2003 was an advance creating better quality and reproducibility of plasma cuts . in 2004 a new record was established by using three finefocus 800 plasma cutting machines connected in parallel for the dismantling of a disconnected nuclear reactor at the karlsruhe institute of technology . 130 mm thick stainless steel walls were cut under remote control in water depths of several metres . in 2008 kjellberg finsterwalde elektroden und maschinen gmbh was divided into three separate companies kjellberg finsterwalde plasma und maschinen gmbh kjellberg finsterwalde schwei technik und verschlei schutzsysteme gmbh and kjellberg finsterwalde elektroden und zusatzwerkstoffe gmbh with kjellberg finsterwalde dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbh fulfilling group wide functions . the headquarters of kjellberg finsterwalde schwei technik und verschlei schutzsysteme moved to witten in north rhine westphalia . kjellberg finsterwalde elektroden und zusatzwerkstoffe gmbh inaugurated its new manufacturing facility at the massen location . 5 references edit german imperial patent no. 231733 held by oscar kjellberg pdf german esab 1904 2004 a century of innovation in welding and cutting special issue of svetsaren the esab welding and cutting journal vol . 59 no. 1 2004 pdf history 1930 1949 kjellberg finsterwalde oskar glaser ein stolz ward uns genommen teil 21 mansfeld links die linke.pds kreis mansfelder land 30 november 2006 p. 9 box pdf german history kjellberg finsterwalde external links edit official website of kjellberg finsterwalde official website of the kjellberg foundation retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kjellberg finsterwalde & oldid 656440006 categories machine manufacturersplasma processingmachine tool builderscompanies of germanycompanies established in 1921hidden categories articles with german language external linksarticles needing additional references from october 2010all articles needing additional referencesarticles needing cleanup from october 2010all articles needing cleanupcleanup tagged articles without a reason field from october 2010wikipedia pages needing cleanup from october 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