Dillinger Hütte
Encyclopedia
Dillinger Hütte is a steel
producer in Dillingen
, in the German Federal State of Saarland
, and has a history stretching back more than three hundred years. The plant was originally founded in 1685, and was Germany's first Aktiengesellschaft, or joint stock company
(1809). The first continuous-caster for slabs in the world was commissioned in Dillingen in 1962. A further machine, permitting casting of slabs of up to 400 mm in thickness - the thickest produced anywhere in the world at that time - was added, along with other new facilities, in 1998. In 2010, Dillinger Hütte successfully produced the first 450 mm thick slab - another world record. The principal equipment in the rolling mill now takes the form of two four-high stands, of which one is currently the largest in the world, with an effective rolling width of 5.5 m and a rolling pressure of 110 MN.
is DHS Holding, which owns 95.28 % of the shares in the operating company, AG der Dillinger Hütte. Another 4.72 % are held in free float. The company's products are marketed under the Dillinger Hütte GTS trade name
.
The shares in DHS Holding are owned 33.4 % by the international Arcelor Mittal steel group, with 33.75 % held by Saarstahl AG and 15.00 % by Struktur-Holding-Stahl. Reciprocal part-ownership exists with Saarstahl AG, in which Dillinger Hütte holds 25.10 %. Dillinger Hütte also owns 50 % of the ROGESA Roheisengesellschaft iron smelting company, whose blast furnace
s, located on the Dillinger Hütte plant site, produce inter alia the "hot metal" (liquid pig iron
) required for steel production. ROGESA itself also has a stake in the ZKS Zentralkokerei Saar coking-plant operator, the facilities of which also form part of the Dillinger Hütte site.
Dillinger Hütte produces heavy steel plate, cast slag pots and semi-finished products, such as pressings, and (pressure) vessel heads and shell sections. Total production when the French subsidiary, GTS Industries, is included is well over two million tonnes of heavy plate annually, in a thickness range extending from 6 to 440 mm, making the company Europe's largest heavy plate producer. This robust material is used for fabrication of drilling rigs, ships, petrochemicals plants, bridges and heavy machinery; reference projects include the Öresund Bridge
and the Millau Viaduct
, the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, and the luxury liner
, Queen Mary 2
. The striking arc of the Olympic Stadium
in Athens was also welded from plate supplied by Dillinger Hütte. The main application for Dillinger Hütte's heavy plate output, however, is the making of large-caliber line pipe for major pipeline projects. The so-called thermomechanical rolling process, an extremely sophisticated rolling method which permits attainment of maximized mechanical properties combined with optimum working (bending and welding) characteristics, is used for these products. Dillinger Hütte is also a 50% owner of Europipe GmbH, Europe's largest manufacturer of large-caliber line pipe, with facilities in Germany, France and the USA.
Dillingen is the only location in the Saar region at which iron is smelted. The jointly owned ROGESA blast furnace operator also supplies Saarstahl, the other co-owner, with hot metal.
- the famous "Sun King" - granted approval to the Marquis Charles Henri de Lénoncourt for the construction of an ironworks, complete with a smelting furnace, before the gates of the fortress of Saarlouis. Locational factors for the founding of this works were excellent - the nearby Prims river supplied the necessary water-power, the surrounding woods the fuel for the furnaces, and the ore deposits in the immediate vicinity the feed materials for production.
The first products were iron forgings, nails and cast artifacts such as pots, pans and so-called "Takenplatten", decorative iron plates that carried the heat of the kitchen over into the adjacent living space by conduction and radiation. Production was gradually optimized over succeeding years, with plate beginning to predominate in the mill's product mix as from 1802, following the construction of the first plate rolling-mill in continental Europe. These developments brought the factory to the forefront as Prussia's largest black and tin plate
producer. With approval from emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, Dillinger Hütte in 1809 became Germany's first joint stock company, and one of the first in Europe. The company adopted the name Anonyme Gesellschaft der Dillinger Hüttenwerke in 1828. State-of-the-art rolling facilities and blast furnaces were installed, and by the beginning of the 19th century the workforce had grown to over 2,500. The so-called "Dillingen platemaker's gauge", covering twenty-four different plate thicknesses, had by then long become the definitive standard throughout Europe.
Dillinger Hütte was also well ahead of comparable companies in the social sphere: an assistance and a pension fund
were set up, and a works hospital, a residential estate for the plant's workers and a works school founded. The plant was 65% destroyed during the Second World War - nearly 200,000 shells fell on the plant site. The consequences were months of clearance work, and a completely fresh start. After the war, Dillinger Hütte continued to place its faith in the future of steel, investing in worldwide innovations, such as the first slab caster in 1962, the new heavy-plate rolling mill in 1971, the world's most powerful rolling stand in 1985, the slab caster for the world's thickest slabs in 1998, and the world's largest plate-edge miller, in 2005.
An interesting but little-known fact: Dillinger Hütte workers have traditionally been dubbed "Hüttenbären", or "steel mill bears" in the local region. This led, logically enough, to the company's day-center for employees' children being christened "Kleine Hüttenbären", or the "steel mill cubs", at its opening in 2007.
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
producer in Dillingen
Dillingen, Saarland
Dillingen is a town in the district of Saarlouis, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Saar, approx. 5 km northwest of Saarlouis, and 25 km northwest of Saarbrücken. The Dillinger Hütte steelworks is located here....
, in the German Federal State of Saarland
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
, and has a history stretching back more than three hundred years. The plant was originally founded in 1685, and was Germany's first Aktiengesellschaft, or joint stock company
Joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...
(1809). The first continuous-caster for slabs in the world was commissioned in Dillingen in 1962. A further machine, permitting casting of slabs of up to 400 mm in thickness - the thickest produced anywhere in the world at that time - was added, along with other new facilities, in 1998. In 2010, Dillinger Hütte successfully produced the first 450 mm thick slab - another world record. The principal equipment in the rolling mill now takes the form of two four-high stands, of which one is currently the largest in the world, with an effective rolling width of 5.5 m and a rolling pressure of 110 MN.
Facilities
The Dillinger Hütte group also includes a further rolling mill operated by GTS Industries in Dunkirk (France). The group's parent companyHolding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
is DHS Holding, which owns 95.28 % of the shares in the operating company, AG der Dillinger Hütte. Another 4.72 % are held in free float. The company's products are marketed under the Dillinger Hütte GTS trade name
Trade name
A trade name, also known as a trading name or a business name, is the name which a business trades under for commercial purposes, although its registered, legal name, used for contracts and other formal situations, may be another....
.
The shares in DHS Holding are owned 33.4 % by the international Arcelor Mittal steel group, with 33.75 % held by Saarstahl AG and 15.00 % by Struktur-Holding-Stahl. Reciprocal part-ownership exists with Saarstahl AG, in which Dillinger Hütte holds 25.10 %. Dillinger Hütte also owns 50 % of the ROGESA Roheisengesellschaft iron smelting company, whose blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
s, located on the Dillinger Hütte plant site, produce inter alia the "hot metal" (liquid pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
) required for steel production. ROGESA itself also has a stake in the ZKS Zentralkokerei Saar coking-plant operator, the facilities of which also form part of the Dillinger Hütte site.
Dillinger Hütte produces heavy steel plate, cast slag pots and semi-finished products, such as pressings, and (pressure) vessel heads and shell sections. Total production when the French subsidiary, GTS Industries, is included is well over two million tonnes of heavy plate annually, in a thickness range extending from 6 to 440 mm, making the company Europe's largest heavy plate producer. This robust material is used for fabrication of drilling rigs, ships, petrochemicals plants, bridges and heavy machinery; reference projects include the Öresund Bridge
Oresund Bridge
The Øresund or Öresund Bridge is a combined twin-track railway and dual carriageway bridge-tunnel across the Øresund strait.The bridge connects Sweden and Denmark, and it is the longest road and rail bridge in Europe. The Øresund Bridge also connects two major Metropolitan Areas: those of the...
and the Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the river Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the British architect Norman Foster and French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux, it is the tallest bridge in the world, with one mast's summit at . It is the...
, the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, and the luxury liner
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
, Queen Mary 2
RMS Queen Mary 2
RMS Queen Mary 2 is a transatlantic ocean liner. She was the first major ocean liner built since in 1969, the vessel she succeeded as flagship of the Cunard Line....
. The striking arc of the Olympic Stadium
Olympic Stadium (Athens)
The Olympic Stadium "Spiros Louis" , is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. It is named after the first modern Olympic marathon race winner in 1896, Spiros Louis.-History:...
in Athens was also welded from plate supplied by Dillinger Hütte. The main application for Dillinger Hütte's heavy plate output, however, is the making of large-caliber line pipe for major pipeline projects. The so-called thermomechanical rolling process, an extremely sophisticated rolling method which permits attainment of maximized mechanical properties combined with optimum working (bending and welding) characteristics, is used for these products. Dillinger Hütte is also a 50% owner of Europipe GmbH, Europe's largest manufacturer of large-caliber line pipe, with facilities in Germany, France and the USA.
Dillingen is the only location in the Saar region at which iron is smelted. The jointly owned ROGESA blast furnace operator also supplies Saarstahl, the other co-owner, with hot metal.
Uses
Further examples of the use of steel from Dillinger Hütte:- The Shanghai World Financial CenterShanghai World Financial CenterThe most distinctive feature in the design of the building is an aperture at the peak. The original design specified a circular aperture, in diameter, to reduce the stresses of wind pressure, as well as serve as a subtext for the design, since "Chinese mythology represents the earth with a square...
, the third highest building in the world (492 m) - The Commerzbank TowerCommerzbank TowerCommerzbank Tower, located in the city centre of Frankfurt, Germany, is the tallest completed skyscraper in the European Union. After it was completed in 1997 it ranked as the tallest skyscraper in Europe until 2005 when it was surpassed by the Triumph-Palace in Moscow...
in Frankfurt, Europe's highest office block - The New York Times Tower, in Manhattan
- The turbines for China's Three Gorges DamThree Gorges DamThe Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China...
- The Erasmus Bridge, Rotterdam
- In addition, plate from Dillingen has now also entered the world of the fine arts, in the form of sculptures by American artist Richard SerraRichard SerraRichard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...
, one of which is on view at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
History
In 1685, Louis XIV of FranceLouis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
- the famous "Sun King" - granted approval to the Marquis Charles Henri de Lénoncourt for the construction of an ironworks, complete with a smelting furnace, before the gates of the fortress of Saarlouis. Locational factors for the founding of this works were excellent - the nearby Prims river supplied the necessary water-power, the surrounding woods the fuel for the furnaces, and the ore deposits in the immediate vicinity the feed materials for production.
The first products were iron forgings, nails and cast artifacts such as pots, pans and so-called "Takenplatten", decorative iron plates that carried the heat of the kitchen over into the adjacent living space by conduction and radiation. Production was gradually optimized over succeeding years, with plate beginning to predominate in the mill's product mix as from 1802, following the construction of the first plate rolling-mill in continental Europe. These developments brought the factory to the forefront as Prussia's largest black and tin plate
Tinning
Tinning is the process of thinly coating sheets of wrought iron or steel with tin, and the resulting product is known as tinplate. It is most often used to prevent rust....
producer. With approval from emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, Dillinger Hütte in 1809 became Germany's first joint stock company, and one of the first in Europe. The company adopted the name Anonyme Gesellschaft der Dillinger Hüttenwerke in 1828. State-of-the-art rolling facilities and blast furnaces were installed, and by the beginning of the 19th century the workforce had grown to over 2,500. The so-called "Dillingen platemaker's gauge", covering twenty-four different plate thicknesses, had by then long become the definitive standard throughout Europe.
Dillinger Hütte was also well ahead of comparable companies in the social sphere: an assistance and a pension fund
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
were set up, and a works hospital, a residential estate for the plant's workers and a works school founded. The plant was 65% destroyed during the Second World War - nearly 200,000 shells fell on the plant site. The consequences were months of clearance work, and a completely fresh start. After the war, Dillinger Hütte continued to place its faith in the future of steel, investing in worldwide innovations, such as the first slab caster in 1962, the new heavy-plate rolling mill in 1971, the world's most powerful rolling stand in 1985, the slab caster for the world's thickest slabs in 1998, and the world's largest plate-edge miller, in 2005.
An interesting but little-known fact: Dillinger Hütte workers have traditionally been dubbed "Hüttenbären", or "steel mill bears" in the local region. This led, logically enough, to the company's day-center for employees' children being christened "Kleine Hüttenbären", or the "steel mill cubs", at its opening in 2007.