Corporate Journey
Established in 1948, Hans Schmidt & Co GmbH manufactures and supplies testing and quality-control instruments, especially tension meters, for textile and wire industries.
Schmidt control instruments are meant for applications that demand supreme precision and quality in production and processing. The company’s product portfolio includes all kinds of tension meter, durometers (hardness tester) and yarn length meters.
Sixty years ago, Mr. Hans Schmidt, the founder of the company, started selling yarns and distributing textile machinery. He became aware of the importance of the control of tension for production processes and soon developed and constructed a three-roller tension meter, which featured a measuring roller and two guiding rollers. This ingenious principle of operation has been proven to be the best method for tension measuring. The three-roller measuring system has become the hallmark of all Schmidt tension meters and remains unsurpassed in its efficiency even today.
Shortly after the death of Hans Schmidt in 1977, the company was transformed in 1978 into a limited liability company, and the sister company Köhr KG was founded. At the same time, the company started developing electronic measuring instruments and, in 1981, introduced the first tension meter with a digital display to the market. Two years later, a cooperation agreement was signed with the Japanese company Shimpo concerning the development and construction of a microprocessor controlled tension meter. The licensed production of this joint development started in 1988.
In the wake of the company’s economic success, the present business premises were open in September 1990. The distribution of trading items was consistently expanded. The range of merchandise currently includes hand-held electronic tachometers, mechanical thickness gauges, stroboscopes, hardness testers for the textile and rubber industries, mechanical and electronic force gauges, textile moisture meters and measuring instruments for determining the square meter weight of paper and fabric.
In 1996, Hans Schmidt & Co GmbH was the first tension meter manufacturer worldwide to receive certification according to the International Standard DIN EN ISO 9001. The company is currently represented in more than 40 countries around the world.
Tension Control Systems
The tension control systems manufactured by Hans Schmidt & Co are well-known on the global market. Speaking to the Wire & Cable India team on the sidelines of wire 2014 in Düsseldorf about the importance of tension control systems, Mr. Mathias Köhr, Managing Director, Hans Schmidt & Co GmbH, said, “Many of our customers start to control tension on wires and cables… . The first step for many companies is to use a hand-held tension meter to check from time to time the tension on the machines. So we have analog tension meters that prove advantageous if you want to see a trend or find out if your tension is stable or jumping. The other thing is that if you want to have a better reading or exact reading, you use a digital hand-held tension meter. The next step is that some people install an online tension centre on the machine. The reason for this is, first of all, to see the tension over a long period or to control the process. Control is done by using the analog output signal from the centre, and the signal is used for SPS and then the process is controlled; for example, there’s a break to increase the measured tension.
“If you don’t have the right control system, you will get bad products. You may have to throw them away. A good example is that if you are winding copper wire for a transformer and if the tension is not correct, the final specifications of the transformer will not be good.”
New Developments
Online Tension Sensor Series FS-422 is a new development that has taken place at Hans Schmidt. The well-known series FS is now available with a new feature to meet the latest demands for digital signal processing. The advantage of digital signal processing is the easy installation of the connecting cables (max. 1000 m), the independence to electronic noise and the direct connection to computers in order to control or storage data in the production process. Up to 32 tension sensors can be connected to a single PC to display, store and analyse tension readings continuously.
Another new development is Online Tension Sensor TSW. For measuring the tension of cables and wires with tension up to 100 daN a new sensor with big guide rollers is now available. Caused by the design and geometric of the sensor the bending of the material to be measured is minimised. The sensor is suitable for wire and cables with a maximum diameter of 10 mm
Yet another new development at Hans Schmidt is Handheld Tension Meter Series DNW. It is a new version of mechanical handheld tension meter series DN with tension range up to 400 daN with special guide rollers for closed force systems as pre-tensioned ropes, guy wires, etc., with bigger diameter up to 6 mm.
Besides its tension meters, the company will offer other control instruments, such as Force Gauges and Test Stands, Universal Testing Machine, Wire Terminal Tester, Tachometers and Stroboscopes, Thickness Gauges and Shore Hardness Testers.
Speaking about the new developments that have taken place at Hans Schmidt & Co, Mr. Köhr said, “We have online tension centres now with statistical output. So, the customer can monitor the tension on wire or cable on a computer over a long time and, may be on the following day, see if everything was okay. In Germany, we have customers who supply special material for automobile industry. And they have to record the reading of the tension. In case, may be four or five years later, there’s a problem with the car, they can confirm that their products were produced under the right conditions.”
At wire 2014
Speaking about visitors’ feedback on the company’s products displayed at the exhibition, Mr. Köhr said, “We have received a healthy feedback on our products from our visitors. Many people have contacted us; we have received many enquiries from them – especially from those who want to try some of our instruments after the event. We will be participating in the wire show in China; and we’ll probably go again to the wire show in Mumbai, India, towards the end of this coming October.”
