history

From the “Offenbach Post” in the 1980s:

“Centreless cylindrical grinding machines are a development/invention from Offenbach. On 6th January 1912, the Imperial Patent Office granted a Mr. Herminghausen – employee at Mayer and Schmidt = MSO in Offenbach – a patent for the filed invention. It was a machine “for grinding long cylindrical objects such as pipes, rods, broomsticks and much more”. The great advantage of this processing method was that time-consuming operations such as clamping and centring of the workpieces were omitted, resulting in a significant reduction in processing time. Along with many other developments, this has remained until today an important part of an efficient and economical machining process. Especially for large quantities.

Mr. Herminghausen went with this patent (MSO was apparently not very interested) to Wülfel ironworks in Hanover. There, until 1975, under the company name Herminghausen Werke Wülfel, the technology enjoyed many years of success and many technological advancements of the Herminghausen idea were seen. In 1975, after financial difficulties in Hanover, Roland Offset Faber & Schleicher in Offenbach acquired the Herminghausen company and brought it back to where it had been conceived.”

Today, SFS Machine Tools & Services GmbH is the first point of contact for all repairs and replacements regarding centreless grinding machines from the Herminghausen brand.

1957 advertising brochure for a Herminghausen SR1.

The brochure provides a lovely glimpse of the state of the art when it was published. Just click through to get inspired.

Promotional slide rule

Before the pocket calculator was invented in 1967, people used slide rules like the one depicted here. They made it possible to assess the average speed of centreless grinding with ease. That’s why a Herminghausen-brand slide rule was always popular as a promotional giveaway at trade fairs or gift included with quotations or brochures.

1936: Advertisement in Anzeiger für Maschinenwesen

This Herminghausen advertisement was published in a technical journal named “Anzeiger für Maschinenwesen” in 1936. The journal still exists today and should be known to most readers by the name of “Industrieanzeiger”. Incidentally, the first issue was published as early as 1879 with the somewhat awkward title “Anzeiger für Berg-, Hütten- und Maschinenwesen”.
The machine depicted – a Herminghausen RR 2 1/2, as already shown on the photos at the top of the homepage – is relatively small compared to models from later years. However, as demonstrated by the workpieces, it was great for its purpose. The diameter (2 1/2 inches) translates into a grinding disc with a width of approx. 65 mm.
The easy-to-handle centreless cylindrical grinding machine had a reputation for yielding good results fairly quickly and therefore, for being particularly cost-effective. At that time, a high degree of precision was already very important as well.