company history

1968 - Founding

The founding of our company, the WENZEL Group, with all of its daughters, dates back to our senior manager Werner Wenzel. He was a master toolmaker and originally wanted to found a mechanical engineering company in his home town of Heigenbrücken in 1968. But the community was anything but enthusiastic. There was much more promise from tourism in our beautiful Spessart; Heigenbrücken wanted to avoid permanent disruption of the idyll by the manufacturing sector. The neighboring community of Wiesthal had no qualms about this and gave Werner Wenzel a plot of land.

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The business idea was “precision measuring tools and testing equipment.” To get started with our first three employees, Werner Wenzel built an assembly hall and an office building with an apartment on the first floor. The order situation was very good right from the start; as early as 1973, more than 30 people were employed. The first buildings are still standing today, but this is only a part of the current complex with 54,000 m² of land and 15,500 m² building area (5,000 m² of which is air-conditioned) that literally disappears behind a large office wing and huge halls. In the former apartment with the children's room for daughter Heike, employees from the IT department, for example, are now tinkering.

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Dr. Heike Wenzel is now the sole managing partner and characterizes her father as an “absolute visionary,” “strong implementer,” an unwavering optimist “and a “person who woke up every day with a new idea.” Mother Helga, on the other hand, was responsible for finances and did the bookkeeping — initially also for other companies. She “did not slow down the father, but curbed the waves of implementation.”

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Werner Wenzel was an ambitious person. He had quit a permanent position in a mechanical engineering company and founded a company with rather low savings. Despite strong and traditional competition, he had ensured that the WENZEL Group kept pace with rapid technical development and developed, produced and sold high-quality measuring machines.

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Today, WENZEL's answer to the increasingly complex requirements of the markets is strong growth, progressive internationalization and expansion of the product portfolio of the largest family-run measurement technology company. The introduction of new technologies, the development of automation solutions and the realignment of software development were honored twice in this decade with the “TOP 100 Innovators of German SMEs” award.

1970 - Prosperous early years

Our first years of operation were very successful, so that the first structural expansions were carried out as early as 1971. Even then, the systems used were among the most modern of their kind (even though they look somewhat old-fashioned from today's perspective).

WENZEL was one of the few manufacturers worldwide who were able to deliver components with an accuracy of less than 1 µm. As trendsetters, we recognized early on that granite as a base material for metrology machinery guarantees maximum precision and a long service life due to its unique physical properties. Guss was gradually being replaced at this time.

By 1973, the workforce grew steadily from 3 to 22 employees and the turnover was already 1.5 million DM. At that time, the product range consisted of measuring cubes, test plates as well as angle/clamping and testing tables. The company site grew to 10,000 m2 and the building area was already 1,350 m2.

1980 - Presentation of the first KMGS

By the end of the 1970s, WENZEL had established itself as one of the leading manufacturers of precision measuring tools and delivered them all over the world. We had already reached the mark of 60 employees and founded our own development and construction department.

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Until 1973, the development of coordinate measurement technology was limited to 2D or 3D devices with a stand design. These were used primarily in car body measurement technology for measuring and marking. Manufacturers in Germany were Stiefelmayer, Mora, WENZEL and Zettmess. The companies Portage/Bendix, Poli, Trimek, ITP, and Brown&Sharpe were represented internationally in this business. The stand measuring devices (also known as horizontal arm measuring devices) were later equipped with sensor head systems primarily by Renishaw. 1)

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In 1980, the time had come. At the Wiesthal site, we produced the first WENZEL 3D measuring and marking machines, starting a success story that continues to this day. The positive response to the new development at home and abroad enabled WENZEL to continue expanding.

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“I can still remember very well how proud my parents were of the first machines that left our plant,” says managing director Dr. Heike Wenzel. “Innovation, close customer contact and top quality have been our goal and motivation for development and production since the first coordinate measuring machine — this understanding continues to motivate our employees and me every day!”