2018
Alexander Buch joins the family-owned company in its 6th generation as head of process optimisation and corporate development.
2012
Completion of a new production hall equipped with a new 100-t-crane and a new portal milling machine. Also redesigning of the despatch area.
2009
Expansion of the production facilities for rolls up to 85 tons finished weight.
2005
A new environmentally sound and high-precision technique is used in the heat treatment furnaces and furnace no. 7 is taken into operation.
2000
The biggest turning lathe for pieces of 2,000 mm diameter is taken into operation.
1997
Johannes Buch takes over as the sole managing director in 5th generation in 1997.
1990
Construction of a new production hall for the casting of calender rolls. A new grinder and a deep-hole drilling bench guarantee that the roll foundry is fully prepared to meet the requirements of the plastics, rubber and paper industries.
1984
The first roll production by means of a vertical spin caster marks the start of a new era.
1957 – 1960
A large bay for machining purposes and a new laboratory building are erected.
1955
The foundry is newly designed and enlarged. The melting shop is converted into electric furnaces and coal dust furnaces.
1953
Fritz Hermann Buch and his brothers Reinhold and Martin manage the company together. In the same year the new administration building is inaugurated.
1944
Fritz Hermann Buch is appointed second managing director; he will decisively influence the expansion and reconstruction of the company.
1942
The machine casting business is given up, KARL BUCH specializes exclusively in roll production.
1935
On the premises acquired from the abandoned neighboring iron and steel plant “Rolandshütte” a new roll grinding shop is built. The turning shop is expanded in order to machine rolls up to 60,000 kg.
1924
The company gets its own railway connection and the power supply is provided by the power plant „Elektrizitätswerk Siegerland“.
1920
Fritz Buch, the son of Friedrich Buch, gathers from the USA the idea to add alloying metals to the rolls. With this new technique Fritz Buch opens the door to the global market.
1913
With the construction of the first chemical laboratory a new era starts in the roll foundry; experience is completed by scientific research. Now it is possible to produce rolls with a finished weight of up to 40,000 kg.
1908
For the first time the foundry produces more rolls than machine castings. 2,700 tons of rolls weighing between 150 and 30,000 kg are produced and only 766 tons of machine castings.
1905
The foundry expands its casting and machining capacities.
1898
Production starts in the new roll foundry.
1897
Friedrich and Heinrich Buch, the successors of Karl Buch, lay the cornerstone for the construction of a new roll foundry.
1867
A new and expanded foundry starts its production in Weidenau.
1860
Karl Buch acquires a first small iron foundry with cupola furnace.
1857
The first bigger roll is supplied, a grooved roll of 1,500 pounds.
1855
Karl Buch founds the enterprise; in the beginning the melt was bought from the “Tiefenbacher Hütte“ and directly cast on site into molds produced by himself.