History

The history of the Goldschmidt-Thermit-Group starts on March 13th 1895 with German patent no. 96317 “Process to manufacture metals and alloys” being granted to Hans Goldschmidt in Essen. He had successfully developed the reduction of metal oxides with aluminium powder to a technical standard. He soon realised that the enormous amount of heat resulting from this reaction could also be used to weld metals together. At the beginning of the 20th century the first trials were performed to weld rails together, and by 1928 the THERMIT® welding process was accepted by the German Reichsbahn for welding steel rails.

After the 2nd world war almost all railway companies in the world decided to continuously weld their railway infrastructure which led to a rapid growth of the THERMIT® companies. By developing the new welding process “SmW” in 1955 the time required to weld rails together could be drastically reduced and thus the economics greatly improved. A further step forward was the development of the “SkV” process in 1972 which was set as the standard welding process by the German Bundesbahn and many railway companies over the world.

In addition to procedures and consumables the Group has developed a range of specialised equipment and welding attachments. The hydraulic rail shear device (1972), the automatic thimble (1982) and the single use crucible (1996) being typical examples.

After the 2nd world war the Group started to develop electric welding systems to rebuild the profile of laid and worn rails and to reestablish the performance of the running surface. Grooved rails formed the focus for this application. The submerged arc welding process known as ELLIRA® process was mainly used. To improve the properties of the rails and meet the growing requirements of the railway companies the ETEKA 5® and RIFLEX® welding processes were developed. Finally rail head grinding procedures were introduced and respective equipment developed. The success of these surface welding techniques was so outstanding that they were also applied to new rails to improve their wear resistance.

In 1970 an insulated joint type “MT” was introduced to the market. Further insulated joints as well as other products and services complete the portfolio of the Group.

Prior to the 1st world war the THERMIT® process had already been introduced all over the world through local representatives and companies. The international market was consequently developed again after the 2nd world war by establishing new or joint venture companies in Italy (1950), India (1951), Brazil (1952), Austria (1952), England (1958), USA (1967), Australia (1986), Czech Republic (1993) and Hungary (1995).

In 1999 the THERMIT® Group separated from the mother company Goldschmidt AG and was taken over by the “Erbenverwaltung Karl Goldschmidt”. In focusing the Group on repair and maintenance of railway infrastructure the ELAUGEN group and a 50% share of Thormählen Schweißtechnik AG was acquired in 2001.

The organisational restructuring was completed in 2003 by establishing the Goldschmidt Thermit GmbH as the holding company of the Group. So the companies of the Goldschmidt-Thermit-Group are well prepared to face the challenge of modernising the railway infrastructures of the world and will contribute to the improvement of the performance of the railway industry.