How it all started

More than 50 years ago my father Otto Grasl (10.24.1930 - 16.10.2011) has decided to become independent and to establish his own company. On the occasion of the lately 50 years anniversary, we would like to describe some points of this tourney from the beginning until today. In the course with many small and large steps has our company Grasl Pneumatic-Mechanik developed into our current businesses.

After Otto Grasl has graduated as electrician in the Moosbierbaum refinery and after he experienced jobs or duties as in Austrian Armed Forces, Aircraft mechanic, a brief assignment at Siemens or as a salesman at Festo Pneumatics, these and other circumstances brought him to production of his own pneumatic cylinders.

Founding years

Company founded in the fall of 1963, Otto emptied the garage in Heiligeneich for a space of cylinder and valve´s production, to be of purpose as opening mechanism for ventilation in greenhouses at the beginning, later as well for the actuating of skylights and windows. It soon became as the part of offer and delivery program along with compressors. Mid 60s has been recognized for its extensive craft´s automation delivered into the industry and such as Joiners for frame presses, nail machines for the footwear and picture frames and all possible variety of pneumatic components. It began with one employer in 1964 and has grown to 10 members in 1967. Otto´s children has experienced a lot of opportunities to visit places in location of fairs, as Wood fair in Klagenfurt, the exhibition in Reifnitz am Wörthersee, considered as vacation by children. There were many interesting things to play with, such as cylinder heads, valves and others used as building blocks. These playing items were magnet for children, but since they started their activities with tools (hammer, saws and others), it was no longer tolerated, but somehow, this company and its products were introduced to children from the very beginning.
 

The first expansions in 1965 and 1968

In 1965, Otto´s house was extended by a workshop and an office, that turned out to be too small in 1968 already and this has been resolved recently through the establishment of a hall with around 300 m² of space. Within this time period, also production of hydraulic cylinders started, for use in particular for lifts, as well as for general industrial applications. The longest ever built cylinder had a piston diameter of 250 mm and a stroke of 14 meters. The production was carried out under adventurous conditions, such as a wall opening in alignment with a lathe was created, in order to be able to manufacture a piston rod on a lathe with 5 meters of distance. On this machine, a first part of the pistion rod has been its base and its rod was extended by 5 meters by welding and its end mounted on, so the whole piece was further worded on. After those steps, a piston rod was long enough for its completion. A cylinder had to be lifted over the house with a huge crane, since it could not be fitted through the building entrance. 2 pieces of such cylinders were manufactured and a Vienna company installed it to the National Theatre in Bucharest. These cylinders are used for lifting the theatre stage, while 2000 people are standing on it.
 

The Seventies

In the 70s, 20-30 people were employed in the company and the former focus was to produce compressors, hydraulic cylinders and special machines. The production of a window opener was set in 1972, offered in solution as pneumatic or hydraulic and mostly exported for industrial buildings to Poland. In 1972, an another cooperation begun with Vienna Karl Kaiser GesmbH, the distributor of tools and machinery in woodworking industry. Since 1974 the company started to sell compressors of BOGE brand. During these years, Andreas Grasl was studying at HTL St. Pölten and tinkered with topics of this company .
 

The Eighties

On 1st of Juanuary, 1980, A. Grasl joined the family business as an young engineer. In this period of time, a various orders has been carried out as steel structures for industrial furnaces and for the oil industry. A redesignated window openers were added to the production program and succesfully placed in the Austrian market for sale. Later on, a complete production was concentrated at pneumatic cylinders and valves for skylights, that have evolved into RWA – SHEV systems. Therefore we can state: “back to basics” During 1981 – 1983, the new hall has been built, as the cause of expansion. During a launch of new pneumatic cylinder production, the company committed delivery for the province of Lower Austria back in 1985. Our products has been awarded with the second place at the Innovation Award of the State and was given an appropriate funding for it. Andreas Grasl realised the advantages of CNC lathes, so he convinces his father of its acquisition. So finally in 1986, the very fist EMCO machine was set and launched, financed from promotion resources. Almost simultaneously, a successul relationship with our bank and its supervisor Wolfgang König has been established, that continues until present time. These two factors and yearly basis acquisition of CNC machines happened to assure company´s permanent growth .
 

The certification

In 1986, along came a request from Netherland company, to deliver VdS approved pneumatic cylinders. So Andreas visited VdS institute in Cologne, where he met Mr. Kohler, the founder of K + G Pneumatik GmbH. At that time, nobody expected their later long-term partnership, as well as intense friendship. During the year of 1987-1988, a business partnership was settled with several companies in Germany with export quota of 1%, followed by lucrative contracts in this country. In this period of time, the VdS recognition of our cylinders has been successfully concluded and later on, the European patent was received for these cylinder types. Encouraged by our successes in Germany, we arranged a great symposium in our house in 1989. During this occasion, the complete range of company products and current status of European standardization was presented to customers and to representatives from the Austrian and Hungarian fire protection authorities. Mr. Kohler was the lecturer of the presented content and in the meantime, also considered as competent partner during several tests of our products. As an inovation in our delivery program, an opening mechanism was introduced, that was able to open and close a skylight dome to 165° with pneumatic mechanism, later used as a draft for the EN establishment. This fitting is protected by the patent within Europe .
 

The Ninetees

This European patent was another important point for our continuing success. In 1990, together with Mr. Kohler, The company K + G Pneumatik GmbH was founded, in charge for export to Germany, France and in Benelux countries and soon after, Poland and Italy. The turnover was doubled within three years and after ten years, it finally quintupled. During 1991, Andreas Grasl became a member of the management, responsible for production, development and human resources, while founders handles distribution. The outbuilding in Heiligeneich paved the way to meet the increased workload in 1993. On the occasion of the Hannover 1994 exhibition called “The Red Rooster”, an electric drive for 24 Volts was presented for the first time by us. The development has started, since no suitable electric actuator was available for our opening fitting on the the market, also for a complete range of pneumatic smoke ventilation units to be offfered under one K + G roof. Due to tremendous growth, the decision was made, to start the production of electronic components in Germany. Otto Grasl has stepped off the company, even still involved and passed the company over to his son, Andreas Grasl. Its production program contained of pneumatic and electric actuators, control components for natural smoke and heat ventilation systems and its components in every conceivable guise, for many various markets in Europe. In order the growth could be continued, a further enlargement of a production premises was necessary .

Reidling restart

After careul consideration, the decision was made, to acquire new and current company location on a greenfiled site in Reidling, at Europastraße 1. In 2001, a modern production facility was built and expanded later in 2005 and additionally in 2008 for the East hall for CNC parts production, followed by transfer of sheet metal production in 2011 into South hall. Within South hall premises, the cooling chamber is installed, where has been many tests performed for our customers, also under official supervision representatives from testing institutes for its final and valid test results, that leads to certified equipment, owned by our customers.

The recent developments

The recent past is marked by the financial crisis back in 2008-2009, that has also led to significant declines in our industry. From 2010 until today, our company happened to perform back in shape until its historical turnover maximum in 2018, considered as the most successful year ever. Thanks to our customers and their trust and long term business relationship, otherwise it wouldn´t be possible. At the moment, our company currently employ well over 100 employees and our orientation for export is about a rate of 75%. For twelve years, Andreas´s son Hartwig Grasl is active in the company and has occurred in the management for some years already. The future of the company seems optimistic in the future.

Viewpoints

My son Hartwig has been working for the company for more than 10 years already and joined the management team recently. I am optimistic about the future and expect a solid development of the company in the coming years. At this point, I would like to thank all the employees and customers who have made this success story possible. It makes me proud to have many of them already so long in our portfolio.