Profile

The Company Friedrich Geldbach Gmbh was founded in 1894 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. At the time the Company was engaged in the manufacturing of forgings for the construction industry, of wheels as well as fittings which were produced for mining and quarrying industries. A rapid development was experienced in the years to follow, concurrent with the process of industrialization of the Ruhr area. The fields for which the use of flanges also extended to included the building, shipbuilding, mechanical engineering (construction machinery and tanks), as well as the first chemical refineries for petroleum refining. During this period, the production was achieved through various types of hammers, and with manual lathes for the mechanical finishing. In 1953 the production was moved from the city centre to the periphery, the present site of Bergmannstrasse 170. The development of the area and the construction of the buildings faithfully reflected the entrepreneurial experience gained in the years.

After decades of positive results, during which the Company grew to become a worldwide leader in flange manufacturing, employing over 400 people, a severe financial crisis hit Friedrich Geldbach. The Company was acquired by the Farina Group in 2003. Today the flanges are forged on modern mechanical presses and are finished on automatic machining centres. With a mechanical eccentric press Hasenclever 8,000 t and a rocker clutch FPRN 630 the production line of Friedrich Geldbach ranks amongst the largest mechanical forging today on the world stage. The produtcion capacity of the line has been drastically increased in the last five years, with the replacement of an obsolete linear gas oven with a gas furnace rotary, which is able to forge more than 10 ton per hour, around 12.000 ton per year.

At present, the Company provides employment to more than fifty simple and specialized workers, technicians and clerks, all involved in the production, processing, shipping and sale of flanges of different sizes and pressure ratings, in carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless and duplex steel. During the last years of direct management by the Farina Group many advancements took place in the production departments through major investments in equipment and renovations of buildings.