History
Günther Storch founded on October 28., 1953 at the age of 57 years in Hamburg the company GÜNTHER STORCH oHG. The company worked until about 1990 successful as an exclusive export agent of well-know and at the same time leading German manufacturers of special woodworking machinery and plants together with the specialized exporters in Hamburg and Bremen.
Over many years Mr. Storch has developed a recognized and at the same time highly specialist knowledge about wood processing in conjunction with the necessary woodworking machinery and equipment.
This basis essentially formed the extraordinary success for the export of woodworking machinery and equipment via the relevant exporters all over the world.
The essential advantages of the exporters were the extremely specific knowledge of the oversea countries and the active representation in many countries outside Europe especially in South America, Africa and Asia.
The intensive technical cooperation between GÜNTHER STORCH oHG and the exporters opened up the markets for woodworking machinery and equipment on these overseas continents for the manufacturers from Germany.
GÜNTHER STORCH oHG represented leading companies such as Gebr. CANALI from Speyer, FESTO Maschinenfabrik from Esslingen, Rudolf ALBER from Ebersbach, Carl RÜCKLE GmbH from Stuttgart, Adolf FRIZ GmbH from Stuttgart, DIMTER from Illertissen, Ludwig LÖSER from Speyer, Paul ERNST from Eschelbronn, Karl ENGLERT from Fulda, Elektro-Apparate-Bau from Lippstadt, HOMAG in Schopfloch, PAUL from Dürmentingen, STEHLE GmbH & Co. from Memmingen, Georg SCHWARZBECK from Pinneberg, H. REICHENBACHER KG from Coburg i.a.
Many of these companies are now directly active in the various overseas markets. Some of these well-known companies have left the market for various reasons.
Leading exporters from Hamburg and Bremen who are advised by GÜNTHER STORCH oHG were i.a. Gebr. KULENKAMPFF, H. von WICHMANN KG., Ernst KOMROWSKI & Co., Hans. O. LÜTKENS, R. PETERSEN & Co., HEIN NEBELUNG, ILLIES & Co., BRECKWOLDT & Co., de VIVANCO & Co., FUHRMEISTER & Co., LOHMANN & Co., HANSEN & Söhne, MÜNCHMEYER & Co., COUTINHO CARO & Co., C. WOERMANN & Co., A. O. MEYER, GETZ BROS., Adolf LANGELOH & Co., Lorenz KESTING, C. MELCHERS & Co. besides others.
Some of these well-known exporters have changed their structures due to the demands of the past decades. However, the change in exports and world trade has also led to the departure of some exporters.
The many years of reliability of GÜNTHER STORCH oHG in connection with the technical competence with regard to wood processing has created a high level of trust between the German manufacturers of woodworking machinery and the specialized exporters over more than 30 years. As a result, significant sales could be realized via the exporters, which in some cases massively expanded the sales of the manufacturers.
A wide variety of machines and systems for the wood industry were delivered to South America, Africa and Asia. These included i.a. complete sawmills, door manufacturing plants, furniture factories, planning and milling plants, manufacturing plants for the production of laminated window scantlings, briquetting plants, FIN-Veneer plants, plants for the production of woodwool cement panels, production plants for the production of plywood and veneer, resp. various special machinery and equipment for the mechanical woodworking.
Since 1955 GÜNTHER STORCH oHG took an active part in all fairs for the Deutsche Messe AG (DMAG) in Hannover. Woodworking machinery were exhibited in a separate hall at HANNOVER MESSE until 1974. From 1975, the LIGNA was redesigned by Deutsche Messe AG on a large part in several halls including the outdoor area.
STORCH was also always present at all subsequent LIGNA trade fairs in personal exchanges on technical and commercial questions with the machine manufacturers and exhibitors and the exporters from Hamburg and Bremen.
In 1979, Günther Storch’s eldest son, Rüdiger Storch, joined the company at the age of 39. Günther Storch continued his work until the mid-1980s with great commitment, enthusiasm and his incredible KNOW-HOW.
As a logical consequence and in order to intensify the tradition of GÜNTHER STORCH oHG, STORCH INDUSTRIE-ANLAGEN GmbH was founded in Hamburg on July 29, 1977 by spouses Ursula + Ruediger Storch. The goal: professional engineering and consulting services for the timber industry.
The technical KNOW-HOW available in the meantime regarding wood processing and the wood processing machinery and equipment required for this led to the planning and realization of such plants for the wood industry in South America, Africa and Asia.
Various trips abroad expanded STORCH INDUSTRIE-ANLAGEN GmbH field of activity and thus led to active technical support for various exporters in the development of various markets and to investments in various overseas countries.
Hans-Peter Heger joined STORCH INDUSTRIE-ANALGEN GmbH on November 27th, 1985 as a 50% partner and at the same time a shareholder and, among other things, set completely new business approaches, especially in the field of energy technology.
Hans-Peter Heger brought his KNOW-HOW from his many years of work at the company LOHMANN & Co., Bremen, to the STORCH INDUSTRIE-ANLAGEN GmbH. Hans-Peter Heger died unexpectedly on April 23, 2017, much to the great regret of the shareholder. Due to the sudden death, a number of projects could no longer be realized.
In the 1990s, various large-scale projects were worked on in Greece, Russia and Germany i.a., some of which were successfully completed, together with various general contractors.
In the mid-1980s, STORCH INDUSTRIE-ANLAGEN GmbH also specialized in special machines for the production of special veneer using the so-called lengthwise slicing technology. Initially, these machines from Japan were integrated in connection with various projects for the wood industry.
Because of this, STORCH INDUSTRIE-ANLAGEN GmbH started the cooperation with the company AMITEC (ex TAKEWAWA) from Japan in the mid-1970s.
Through the cooperation with the Finnish company KALLENMÄKI, the pioneering development of a profile wrapping veneer based on lengthwise sliced veneers with a thickness of ~0.25 mm began. This veneer was laminated with pre-glued fleece in a direct process, loss-free but wet, and glued in an immediately subsequent continuous pressing process and also dried at the same time! The product received the name FIN-VENEER. FIN-VENEER allows radius R1 for profile wrapping.
The traditional manufacturing process of profile wrapping veneer, on the other hand, is still based on the fleece backing of sliced veneers in thicknesses of ~0.5 mm, which then have to be sanded down to a thickness of ~0.25 mm using calibration grinding in order to achieve the necessary flexibility. As a result, 50% of pensive raw material wood becomes saw (sanding) dust! Despite this flexibilization through calibration of the veneer, this profile wrapping veneer only allows wrapping with a maximum radius of R2. Another reason for this is that usually only cross-sliced veneers are used for the production of profile wrapping veneer.
Despite this, the FIN-VENEER process was not able to establish itself on the market, which is due on the one hand to a lack of procedures and on the other hand it was not feasible due to internal problems of the Finnish partners. The industrial production of FIN-VENEER has meanwhile been stopped in Finland.
At the beginning of 2000, STORCH INDUSTRIE-ANLAGEN GmbH took over the exclusive European representation of MARUNAKA Tekkosho Inc., Shizuoka / Japan for their special machines, e.g., for the production of lamella (slats) and veneers.
The reasons for the transition from AMITEC to MARUNAKA were partly due to different technical and commercial opinions and the massive trend towards slicing lamella (slats) (thicknesses up to 5.00 mm) for the parquet industry, among others.
MARUNAKA, in particular through its US Patent No. 5,010,934 (the so-called RAND), offers an essential pre-requisite for slicing lamella (slats). MARUNAKA is a flexible, owner-managed company that received its first US Patent No. 3,727,654 for the first lengthwise slicer machine on April 17, 1973.
Also in Europe, a number of customers have now successfully started manufacturing lamella (slats) with lengthwise slicing machines from MARUNAKA. Due to the current development in relation to the shortage of resources and thus the massive price increase, it is to be expected that further investments in slicing of lamella (slats) will be made in Europe. Over 90% of the top layers in 3-layer parquet is currently oak (Quercus) from European provenances.
The sawing method of lamella (slats), which is still the most widespread at present, will become more and more difficult to economically represent in the future. The high cutting loss is a waste of the limited natural resources available.
A project that is certainly promising for the future in which lengthwise sliced lamella (slats) can be used to produce LVL panels has not yet been implemented. The new manufacturing process ensures massive adhesive savings of ~20% and the LVL panels produced in this way are comparatively thinner and also more stable compared to conventional, thicker LVL panels based on rotary cut veneer.
On the basis of many years of experience and of course in close cooperation with customers from the European Union, MARUNAKA also developed special peeling machines for peeling technical rigid foams. Corresponding machines are already being used successfully in Europe.
Furthermore, MARUNAKA and STORCH are working intensively together on projects for cutting different synthetic plastics. These are customer-specific projects, some of which require completely new technological concepts.
At this point it must also be mentioned that MARUNAKA also has excellent precision knife sharpening machines in its production program. These machines are also already being used successfully in Europe and are used in connection with the various slicer machines.
MARUNAKA and STORCH are constantly in dynamic development together in order to meet the upcoming challenges and to advise customers competently.
Succession planning of STORCH is already in the preliminary phase. Hopefully we’ll see each other again at the LIGNA2023 in Hanover for an intensive exchange of experiences.
Life goes on.
Hamburg during May 2022
Storch Industrie-Anlagen GmbH
Eilenau 123
D 22089 Hamburg / Germany
