WST: A success story since 1995
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November 1995
Foundation of Polytec Wasserstrahlschneidegesellschaft mbH by the managing partner Hans-Jürgen Coché in 48691 Vreden. The company's purpose was the sale of components produced by abrasive waterjet cutting.
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September 1996
Construction of the first waterjet cutting system with the then impressive dimensions of a 6100 × 3050 mm working area. This system was equipped with triple cutting heads with height compensation and collision protection that were unique at the time. The cutting heads were supplied by what was then a "gigantic" 90 kW high-pressure pump. We were pioneers at the time in high-volume contract manufacturing with this machine.
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December 1999
Renaming of the company to WST Wasserstrahlschneidetechnik GmbH and relocation to our new company building in 48683 Ahaus-Wessum.
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January 2001
Expansion of our capacities through the further acquisition of new waterjet cutting systems. These systems were also equipped with multiple cutting heads. Expansion of our service portfolio through conventional machining such as milling, drilling, thread cutting and turning work.
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June 2004
Expansion of our capacities through the further acquisition of large waterjet cutting systems. In total, we already had 240 kW of high-pressure pump power available at that time. That is enough to supply approx. 100 cutting heads with a waterjet diameter of 0.1 mm at approx. 4000 bar water pressure.
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November 2005
10th anniversary and completion of the first production hall extension.
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March 2006
Scrapping of our first waterjet cutting system. Expansion of reserve areas of the first production hall and extension of the office building.
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December 2007
Construction of a further production hall. Expansion of our service portfolio through the acquisition of CNC laser cutting systems, CNC press brakes, radial column drilling machines as well as fully automatic band saw machines.
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January 2009
Expansion of the machine park through vertical 3-axis CNC machining centres as well as CNC turning machines with automatic material feed.
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October 2010
Expansion of the machine park through 4-axis CNC machining centres.
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February 2012
The first directly driven high-pressure pump without hydraulics was installed on a trial basis.
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December 2012
Switch to directly driven high-pressure pumps.
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January 2013
A multi-cutting-head waterjet cutting system with a 4000 × 8000 × 250 mm working area was put into operation. This system can be equipped with up to 12 cutting heads.
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August 2014
The first laser cutting system with optical fibre technology (fibre laser technology) was installed. With 5 kW of power, one of the largest laser sources at the time (Ytterbium IPG) in the field of sheet metal processing was available to us.
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May 2015
Our factory halls no longer offered us any further development opportunities. The space on our premises could no longer accommodate any further building extensions. The plans for a very far-reaching change, which had already been on the back burner for some time, now had to be realised.
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June 2015
After successful negotiations with the city of Ahaus, we were able to announce the purchase of an area of approx. 1.15 ha. The planning for a complete new build was now in full swing.
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March 2016
Starting signal for the new building. On Kruppstraße in Ahaus, 3 new production halls and a large office building with generous social areas were built. The production area was tripled, the office area doubled and the social area received 5 times the floor space compared to the previous site in Ahaus-Wessum.
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May 2017
Move into the new production halls. Together with a specialist company, machine after machine was dismantled, cleaned, reconditioned and reassembled. In this way, production downtime remained manageable.
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June 2017
Introduction of plasma and oxy-fuel cutting technology. A large 5-axis plasma cutting machine, which also enables the processing of round and rectangular tubes, was installed. In addition, an oxy-fuel cutting machine was installed.
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March 2018
Finally! WST no longer only has an internal fibre-optic network infrastructure. In cooperation with the municipal utilities of Ahaus (SWA), WST is one of the few companies and institutions in our city to have a fibre-optic network connection. That means information exchange in real time!