History of Loesche Group

	1996	In 1996 the company obtained an order for the largest roller grinding mill in the world, an LM 63.4, with a nominal capacity of 750 t/h for a cement clinker production of 10.000 t/d. The Loesche subsidiary LOESCHE America in Florida was founded. An order for the turn-key delivery of a blast furnance slag plant for Malaysia was signed.. In the People's Republic of China LOESCHE GmbH was successful in the market segment for "coal grinding plants for PCI systems"in blast furnance works. Nearly 300 employees world-wide work for the company so that it can continue to develope further as the world changes. New and larger mills, complete plants and investment holdings already indicate an even more successful future.
	1995	In 1995 the Loesche subsidiary LOESCHE India (Pvt.) Ltd. was formed in New Delhi in India. LOESCHE GmbH maintained holdings in Austrian Cement Technology GmbH in Linz in Austria, in order to supplement know how, deliveries and services for complete cement plant.
	1992	The year 1992 featured the development and patenting of the new Loesche roller grinder mill for grinding cement clinker and blast furnance slag to surface area of 2.800 cm²/g to 4.500 cm²/g. In November 1992 the company completed its move to the new LOESCHE House in the Hansaallee in Duesseldorf. The first plants with the newly developed Loesche roller grinding mill LM...2+2 C/S for Taiwan and France were delivered, erected and commissioned. Other plants were ordered for India, Thailand and Turkey.
	1991	On 31 May 1991 E. Guenter Loesche died suddenly and unexpectedly. He had run the company for 35 years. His death was a shock for his family, the employees and business partners. E. Guenter Loesche with his indefatigable efforts had led the company from its re-founding in Düsseldorf in 1948 until it had become a worldwide enterprise with an outstanding reputation. Under his leadership investments were made, technical design concept were perfected and its market position in the user domain was ensured. Under his management the company flexibly adapted to changes in the world economin structure. Social progress is tradition in the company. Thus as early as 1950 there was profit-sharing for employees and the 40-hour workweek was introduced years before the law required it. The company was one of the first to introduce flexitime for employees. Dr. Thomas Loesche became the principal shareholder of LOESCHE GmbH. The company took over the shares of the South African partner and is today 100 per cent shareholder in LOESCHE South Africa (Pty.) Ltd.. The also increased its shareholding in LOESCHE Espanola S.A. to 80 per cent.
	1990	In 1990 the Italian steel company ILVAS.p.A in Genoa placed an order for delivery of the largest central coal grinding plant in the world with a total capacity of 240 t/h for the blast furnance works in Taranto in Italy. For this order the largest Loesche coal mill of the LM 28.3D type with a nominal capacity of 110 t/h was developed. Three central coal grinding plants in the ICGCC power plant in Buggenum, the Netherlands, the largest of its kind to date in commercial use, were developed, designed and commissioned. The company at the time employed 193 people.
	1985	In 1985 two turn-key coal grinding plants were sold to Dillinger Huettenwerke with LM 21.2D mills. The coal dust produced is injected into two blast furnaces in order to significantly reduce the coking rate per tonne of pig iron produced. Further plants were to follow in this market segment.
	1983	In 1983 E. Guenter Loesche turned the management of the company over to his son, Dr. Thomas Loesche. For Uppsala Kraftwarme AB in Sweden the company developed and designed two turn-key self-inertised coal grinding plants. These two plants were the first plants in the world to grind coal, peat pellets or peat briquettes. Since 1985 both plants have been in operations successfully. The peat dust is used in a steam as well as in a hot water boiler. A new market segment was opened up.
	1981	1981 A complete shaft kiln cement plant on Timor, Indonesia, was built turn-key and successfully commissioned. Then followed a design order from licensee, UBE in Japan, for what was then the largest roller grinding mill in the world, an LM 50.4 with a nominal capacity of 545 t/h of raw meal.
	1980	In 1980 the company employed 121 people. This year saw the development of the fourth generation of Loesche pressure mills for coal, for which the module concept was simultaneously developed. A patent for this design concept was applied for and granted. The basis of this design was an order for ESCOM and L&C Steinmueller for delivery of 3-roller Loesche mills of the LM 26.3D type with a nominal capacity of 95 t/h for two 600 MW power plant units at the power station in Duvha in South Africa.
	1976	1976-79 This period encompassed the design of a third generation of Loesche pressure mills for coal. Experiences in South Africa resulted in the mill sizing philosophy being amended and major design changes compared to the second generation were carried out. Practically a new mill was developed. This new mill concept became a reality with the new 630 MW power plant of the IFV Power Company in Asnaes in Denmark. For this project Loesche in 1978 obtained an order for eight mills of the LM 19.2D type with a nominal capacity of 34,2 t/h each.
	1975	In 1975 there followed the founding of LOESCHE South Africa (Pty.) Ltd. in Braamfontein, South Africa. The task of this company was after-sales service for the 42 Loesche coal mill in the thermal power plants of the state-owned electricity utility ESCOM.
	1973	In 1973 the Loesche subsidiary LOESCHE Espanola S.A. in Madrid was founded to service the Spanish and Central American markets.
	1970	Due to larger and larger cement rotary kilns and the increasingly popular idea of "one kiln - one cement raw material mill." In 1970 the market began to demand a capacity over 150 t/h. At that time the company employed 69 people. The idea of designing and manufacturing a 4-roller mill for cement raw material was born. The module concept was developed and patented. It consists to this day of : grinding roller rocker arm stand hydraulic cylinder N₂ accumulator hydraulic high-pressure hoses. As the mill capacity and grinding table diameter increases, and using the appropriate roller module, a 2, 3, or 4-roller mill can be developed and manufactured. The design of the first 4-roller mill using the module concept followed and a Loesche mill of the LM 32.4 type with a nominal capacity of 214 t/h was supplied. Shortly thereafter came the design and delivery of a Loesche mill of the LM 43.4 type, using the module concept and a nominal capacity of 425 t/h, for a Greek cement plant.
	1965	1965-68 These years featured the development of pressure mills for coal for the direct firing of steam boilers in the power plant industry. The first mill of this type, a LM 12.2D, was tested in a power plant in Duesseldorf-Reisholz. First orders were obtained for the power plant in Asnaes in Denmark with four LM 18/1320D with a capacity of 35 t/h raw coal each. Further orders followed via L&C Steinmueller for the power plant in Amagerin Copenhagen with 2 x 2 LM 16/1220 D for a capacity of 23,5 t/h of raw coal each. There followed a single licence concession to ICAL in Johannesburg, South Africa, for manufacture of 36 mills of the LM 18/320D type with a capacity of 34,5 t/h of raw coal each. In addition a licence agreement was signed with the FULLER Company in the US. The agreement covered the entire Loesche mill programme and was valid for the US and Canada.
	1961	1961-63 The hydropneumatic spring system for the Loesche mill was developed and launched. The "black cement raw meal" method was developed together with Dr. Spohn, subsequently chairman of the Heidelberger Zement AG. It involves the comminution of cement raw material and coal simultaneously and was successfully installed in many parts of the world. Altogether ten compact cement plants were built turnkey, another ten were retrofitted with this new process.
	1958	1958-60 The "perforated jacket furnance" for hot gas generation, abbreviated as "LOMA-Feuerung" in German, was developed and patented. The first six heaters of the LF 10 type were delivered and commissioned in Germany and Italy. The pelletisers were a sales hit in the following years. They served not only for producing pellets for the cement industry for use in shaft and rotary kilns, but also in the iron and steel industry the pelletisers found application in the production of green pellets for refining into sinter pellets. The cascade mills for iron ore grinding were further developed and a major order for Bong Range in Liberia was successfully completed.
	1956	In 1956 the 50th anniversary of the company was celebrated accordingly.
	1954	In 1954 the company's most significant licence agreement was signed with UBE Industries Ltd. of Japan. The relationship of trust between E. Guenter Loesche and the then vice-president and later long-time chairman, Kanichi Nakayasu, established the company's orientation towards the Far East and its position on the market there. Cooperation with the firm of Harlowe Hardinge in York, Pennsylvania, Usa was also established in 1954. A licence agreement for cascade mills was signed. Shaft kiln cement plants were supplied to Australia, New Zealand and england via Delo in London. Mill deliveries followed for the cement plants in Lengfurt, Blaubeuren, as well as Nuertingen. For the cement plant in Schelklingten two shaft kiln were delivered. A workshop in the Heerdter Busch Strasse in Neuss on the Rhine was bought and expanded. The purpose was to create a base for erection supervisor, to manufacture spare parts as well as run a test cenre. This was combined with a small production unit.
	1953	The reference list for 1953 mentions the figure of 800 Loesche mills in operation: 514 for coal 131 for limestone 39 for phosphate 27 for bauxite 24 for electrode coke 65 for various other materials . The largest Loesche mill built at that time was a LM 1852 with a "nominal capacity" of 42 t/h for medium hard limestone with a fineness of 12% on "4.900 meshes".
	1950	In 1950 export of mills to other European countries was resumed with the delivery of coal mills for the Sydkraftpower plant in Malmo in Sweden. Soon export orders for customers all over the world followed. The basis for these orders was the new design of the model series "1948". In 1950 the licence agreement with the International Combustion Ltd. in Derby, Great Britain, was renewed.
	1948	In April 1948 the plant in Teltow was expropriated without compensation and E. Curt Loesche and his closest associates moved to West Berlin. Collaboration with the expropriated plant in Teltow was not possible in West Berlin. Thus E. Curt Loesche, working out of Oberlahnstein, endeavoured to build up the company's product range in the west of Germany. This proved to be very difficult, despite the currency reform. In the summer of 1948 E. Guenter Loesche went to West Germany during university recess in order to help hid father build the company. In the autumn of the same year Düsseldorf was choosen as the home of the newly founded company. On 25th. November 1948 E. Curt Loesche died unexpectedly and his son E. Guenter Loesche, 24 years old at the time, decided, together with the closest employees, to continue running the company in Düsseldorf.
	1945	1945 After the end of the war in 1945 the entire manufacturing plant was dismantled by the Soviet army. No usable machine tools were left behind. In the workshops of the factory small domestic heaters were welded together from left-over sheet metal. With much hard work and improvisation ancient machine tools were brought back up to standard. E. Curt Loesche's son, E. Guenter Loesche, returned having been prisoner of war. His elder brother had died in the war in Russia. At this time primarily spare parts were being manufactured. A shaft kiln cement plant was built. The limestone source was Ruedersdorf. Fly ash from Klingenberg with a high carbon in ash content was used and a cementitious bonding agent called Hydroment was produced. A so-called triangular crusher for communication of building ruin rubble was developed. The companies "Z.T.G." in the American sector of Berlin and " LOESCHE Muehlen GmbH" in Oberlahnstein were founded.
	1937	1937 Friedrich Schiller joined the company. After general familiarisation with the entire scope of this specialised area he made it his own personal task to design Loesche mills. In 1938 Friedrich Schiller married E. Curt Loesche's daughter. The available reference list of 1937 reports the success of 400 Loesche grinding plants sold.
	1935	1935 the development of the large Loesche mills of the LM 15g and LM 16g type occurred. The reference list which has come down to us, with the status as of 1935, shows the breakdown for machines sold in Germany, western, northern and eastern Europe as well as countries outside the Europe. Loesche mills were already being delivered to Australia, Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Japan and Java at the time.
	1934	The year 1934 brought decisive steps in development. The first Loesche coal mills were mills with three rollers. As early as 1930 4-roller mills were built and commissioned for the expansion of the large power plant in Klingenberg. This concept only permitted the installation of relatively small rollers. Operating results were not encouraging enough to support further development of this mill concept. In 1934 E. Curt Loesche decided that the optimal roller size was achieved when two rollers were used. This decision retained its validity for the next 36 years. The new generation of mills featured separate mill gear boxes, horizontal grinding tracks and two grinding rollers. In the same year E. Curt Loesche travelled to Brazil in order to sign a contract for delivery of an LM 15 for cement raw material and an LM 11 for comminution of cement clinker.
	1929	In 1929 a licence agreement with International Combustion Ltd. of Derby in Great Britain was signed for marketing Loesche mills as LOPULCO mills. The "LO" in the name LOPULCO did not stand for Loesche, but for "locomotives", since ICL marketed various products using this prefix. A licence agreement with its present-day successor, Rolls Royce Power Group Ltd. Derby, still exists.
	1928	In 1928 a further patent was granted for the Loesche mill with integrated dymanic classifier.
	1927	The Loesche mill was designed in 1927 and patented under the registration number 453915 in the German Patent Office. The inventor was E. Curt Loesche of Berlin-Lankwitz. The patent: "Mill , consisting of a rotating grinding table on which grinding rollers rotate under an applied pressure."
	1926	E. Curt Loesche signed a licence agreement with Raymond in America. The first of Raymond centrifugal ring roller mills for the Klingenberg power plant in Berlin were delivered. The operating results demonstrated this technology's limits as far as capacity was concerned. This realisation gave birth to the idea of generating the grinding forces with spring load rather than with centrifugal forces. This idea made E. Curt Loesche the "Father" of spring-roller mill technology which is still used for roller grinding mills and other grinding systems to this day.
	1924	1924 A broader application of Maxecon mills progressed further, as did the development of shaft kiln technology. The idea of grinding coal very fine and injecting it into a boiler was pursued by E.Curt Loesche and the technology implemented in practice. In 1924 the company succeeded in getting an order in Berlin-Moabit for the first pulverized fuel fired power plant. Steampipe driers and a series of Maxecon mills were supplied. The availability of the machines was so good, that Dr. Rehmer, managing director of BEWAG (Berlin's electricity utility), promised E. Curt Loesche the contract for supplying coal mills for the huge power plant then being built in Klingenberg, provided that he succeeded in building mills larger than those whose capacity was above the approximately 5 t/h that the Maxecon mill could handle.
	1920	The manufacturing plant was moved from Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen to Teltow near Berlin. Here the employees built mills, shaft kilns, the company 's, own conveyor equipment, driers, furnances and everything else that was part of a plant .
	1919	1919 The company shareholder, Caspar Hansen, returned to Norway. E. Curt Loesche assumed management of the company by acquiring Caspar Hansen's share of the company.
	1913	In 1913 E.Curt Loesche went to England for one year in order to develop the market there. He returned to Germany with the last steamer that left England on 1 August 1914 and married Miss Kaete Harms on 18 September 1914.
	1912	The year 1912 saw the introduction of the Maxecon mill. This was a ring-roller mill with three rollers.
	1906	In 1906 engineer Curt von Grueber returned to Berlin from several year's stay in America. In his luggage he brought back blueprints and a licence agreement for the so called Kent Mill . The licence permitted construction and delivery of what were then called "complete milling plants" and transport systems . In the same year he founded "Curt von Grueber's Technical Engineering Bureau" as a public limited company in Berlin-Hohenschonhausen .