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The found of our company, Dr. lng. Hans Wahl,
born in 1902, first studied mechanical engineering at
the University of Stuttgart. In the year of 1924, after
his study, he started working in the chemical industry
where his task was to develop antiknock compounds for
trucks. Thus he entered into the field of engine development-
a task which later should take a substantial influence
on his further professional career.
In the year of 1934 he undertook the special task of
the further development of an idea by Diesel which was
the development of the so-called coal-dust engine. Diesel
already had applied this consideration for a patent.
The machine, however, was never developed to be operable.
Now Dr. lng. Hans Wahl was faced with this task with
full commitment. Due to the high abrasive effect of
coal and residues from combustion in all moving parts
of the piston engine, there was considerable wear and
so, at the beginning of the development period, the
lifetime of important functional was just a few hours.
By optimization of the individual wear parts in this
unit via constructional and material-depending measures,
the wear problems could be reduced to half a percent
of the original value. Nevertheless, it was not possible
to produce cheaper electricity in the comparatively
small engines than in huge power stations which actually
was the target of the development work. The fundamentals
of wear system for all wear processes date back to that
time what today still is the basis for a systematic
fight against wear.
Then Dr. lng. Hans Wahl founded and managed one of
the largest wear laboratories in the world which closed
down with the end of the war. Immediately after the
end of the war, the founder of our company tried to
be active as a free industrialist in the field of wear
protection which now was familiar to him and where he
had in mind to start with a consultative activity as
a central task. For the big industry associations, especially
for the German Brown Coal Assocition, extensive research
work was made in the field of wear in neighbouring branches.
Important principles which today are still valid were
developed at that time. Among others the important connection
of the influence between the hardness combination of
the attacking mineral and the hardness of the machine
part exposed to wear was found what concretely is the
so-called lower/upper shelf.
Furthermore, the different boring processes were analysed
during comparative works and during crushing tests in
jaw crushers and impact crushers the decisive influence
of the surface increases was found to be the most important
criterion in crushing processes apart from the abrasiveness
of corresponding crushing minerals. |
