As a “prelude” to attending HK24, Germany’s largest heat treatment exhibition of 2024 in Cologne, Germany Gord Montgomery of “The Monty Heat Treat News” took the opportunity to visit a number of heat treaters in Switzerland, two of which we have already commented on  “Manufacturer Successfully Combines Captive & Commercial Heat Treating”and Niggli AG.

We now talk about the largest commercial heat treater in Switzerland, “Haerterei Gerster AG” in Egerkingen, Switzerland which we had the privilege of visiting last week. The company was founded in 1950 and to this day it remains a family owned business which always brings joy to our hearts.

Currently it has approximately 110 employees in a 25,000 square meter facility which offers most commercially available heat-treating processes-12 in total to be exact. In terms of equipment this includes an automated Ipsen Sealed quench line, Vacuum Hardening furnaces, Vacuum Nitriding systems, Induction hardening, Laser Heat treating, Flame Hardening, Annealing furnaces and several other styles of furnaces.

In total the company can boast of processing over 100,000 pounds per year, 100 heat treat systems, 150 orders per day, one of  the largest induction hardening systems in Europe capable of handling parts up to 4 meters in length,  a state of the art laser hardening system and some of the most advanced heat treat systems in the world.

What will make all commercial heat treaters envious is the fact that “Gerster’s” customer base covers a myriad of industries. medical, aerospace, energy, automotive and “general” heat treating with no one customer monopolizing a large percentage of their capacity.

All in all, it is a very impressive achievement for any commercial heat treater and the “Gerster” family should be very proud of what they have achieved over the past 74 years.​