History
80 years of industrial furnace design & production in Menden (Sauerland)
IVA SCHMETZ GmbH, with its approx. 180 employees, stands for high-quality products and services in industrial furnace construction. The vacuum and atmosphere furnaces built in Menden are used worldwide in the automotive industry and toolmaking, aviation and medical technology as well as in many other industries. Heat treatment is an essential production step in many supply chains and establishes the desired properties of metallic products, such as strength, stability and durability.
The latest milestone - the expansion of the company premises
Milestones
1945
The oldest company in the group is Mahler, which was founded in 1864 as a manufacturer of kitchen stoves. In the 1950s, Mahler delivered its industrial furnaces to the German market; Schmetz and BMI were founded independently of each other.
1995
The three companies were acquired by Bodycote International. The aim was to expand the heat treatment service portfolio, but furnace production did not become a core business for Bodycote.
1999
In 1999, Schmetz, Mahler and BMI were merged to form the Metall Technologie Holding Group (MTH). In order to strengthen the European market and expand its portfolio to include atmospheric furnaces, MTH acquired IVA and its Polish subsidiary Riva in 2005.
2006
In 2006, a joint venture was established with Huisen in Shanghai to expand Schmetz's production facility and strengthen the Group's presence in the Chinese market. In 2009, MTH took control of the joint venture and established local production facilities in China.
2019
In 2019, the IVA SCHMETZ Group was founded with its four units, four brands and a common goal. Recognizing the strengths and potentials of the group, Qijing Holding bought the group to achieve new goals together.
2021
We are not only very familiar with our own products, but also with third-party brands. In March 2021, for example, we opened our own service center in Cleves with specialist staff specializing in third-party systems. In addition, the expertise from the Dortmund and Menden locations was bundled and centralized at the Menden site.
2024
Due to solid growth in recent years and the relocation of jobs from Dortmund to Menden, the company has become too big for its own location. In the newly occupied building, originally built by AEG-Telefunken at the beginning of the 70s at the Stuckenacker intersection, the industrial furnace specialist can now develop further on an additional 9000 m² - both in terms of personnel and space.