History
Quality since 1911
Company headquarters in Siegen, 1911/12
Rough grinder, 1920
Company founder Franz Thoma, 1934
Roll grinder, 1938
Lathe, 1955
Production hall in the 1960s
Largest roll grinder in the world for Gontermann & Peipers, 1983
- 1911
May 11: Maschinenfabrik Herkules is founded by Franz Thoma and Alfred Schütte
- 1939
World War II: Herkules is part of the war economy
- 1944
December 16: Like the whole city of Siegen, Herkules is almost completely destroyed in an air raid
- 1945
February 28: Hans Thoma succeeds his father and becomes CEO
- 1948
Maschinenfabrik Herkules is rebuilt by Hans and August Thoma
- 1960
The first lathe of the type HWD 850 is built
- 1963
Opening of a state-of-the-art production hall
- 1965
The 1,000th machine after the company's restart is delivered to the customer Hoesch Werke Schwerte, Hohenlimburg, Germany
- 1967
Delivery of the first roll grinder WSA 600 with automatic sequence control
- 1975
The largest roll lathe HDK 1500 is constructed for the roll foundry Gontermann-Peipers
- 1977
The first CNC roll lathe WD 400 CNC is delivered to the French customer Vallourec
- 1978
December 16: Christoph Thoma is elected as CEO in the shareholders' meeting
- 1983
Herkules Far East Representative Office (HFE) is founded, today named Herkules Asia Pacific (HAP)
- 1983
WS 1100, the largest CNC-controlled roll grinder until 2010, is delivered to Gontermann-Peipers
- 1985
Herkules USA (HUSA) is founded in Memphis, TN, USA
- 1987
HCC (Herkules Controls Corp) is founded in Memphis, TN, USA
- 1988
The first CNC-controlled HCC roll grinder is delivered to USS Posco Industries, CA, USA
The first HCC Herkules roll shop computer system is launched- 1991
After German reunification, Herkules acquires Maschinenfabrik Meuselwitz as a second prodution site in Germany
- 1994
Foundation of Herkules Moscow East (HME)
- 1999
HCC merges with KPM to form HCC/KPM in Ford City, PA, USA
- 2000
Herkules Latin America (HLA) is founded in Vitória, Brazil
- 2001
Herkules Shanghai Rep. Office (HRC) is founded in China
The Monolith™ machine bed technology for roll grinders is implemented- 2003
All US-American offices move to Ford City, PA
- 2004
January 26: HerkulesGroup acquires the companies WaldrichSiegen (Burbach) and Coburg, Germany
- 2005
Founding of GMT German Machine Tools for service and spare parts in Shanghai, China
- 2007
Herkules Representative Office India (HRI) and Deutsche Maschinen India (DMI) are founded in Kolkata, India as service and spare parts providers
- 2010
The largest CNC-controlled roll grinder, UWS 1100/260 CNC, is built for China First Heavy Industries
- 2011
100th anniversary
The production company Jiaxing GMT German Machine Tools Co., Ltd is founded in Jiaxing, China
HerkulesGroup acquires Union Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH Chemnitz, a manufacturer of boring mills- 2012
RSGetriebe, manufacturer of special gearing solutions, is integrated into the HerkulesGroup
- 2014
SBA mechatronics, an Austrian modernization specialist, becomes part of the HerkulesGroup