Festschrift 25 Jahre GFM

open doors and assistance for its needs and problems, but also to public offices and banks, from whom far-reaching help was received in the form of "ERP" and other credits. Acquiring necessary funds was especially difficult as GFM's own capital was modest to begin with, and bank guarantees in the absence of private capital could not usually be given. lt must, therefore, be emphasized at this point that GFM's standing banks for personal credit, based on their confidence in the management, granted credit, and GFM is greatly in their debt for their help at the start. The fast growth of the firm becomes apparant when one considers the development of machines in the fields of forging and milling. The first precision-forging machines, which had already been developed and produced in the barrack rooms, weighed about 4 tons and were intended for the manufacturing of small stepped shafts. lnitiated by requests from customers from abroad over a period of years, the forging machine, while of the same basic principle, was modified in a number of special models suitable for forging rods, stepped-up axles, pipes, steel bottles, gun barrels, etc. At the same time it was also advisable to develop and produce forging machines of increasingly heavy makes in order to conform to the sizes of the various work-pieces. The largest forging machine ordered to date for an Austrian alloyed steel works has a total weight of 880 U.S. tons. A similar development took place in the field of crankshaft milling. Here too, in response to the demand for small crankshafts for the auto industry, up to the largest crankshafts for ships, a series of different sizes of machines had to be produced which would cover the whole program. The largest crankshaft milling machine now in production will weigh about 240 U.S. tons. As a result of this new development in production, GFM has entered the field of heavy machine-tool manufacturing. Plant equipment had also to be adapted accordingly. Moreover, from the standpoint of firm organization, it seemed practical to change the form of GFM to that of a joint stock company. The firm owners therefore decided that as of the 1st of January, 1970 the firm would be organized as a joint stock company, and in its 25th year GFM wil carry on in the spirit of its founders as "GFM - Gesellschaft für Fertigungstechnik und Maschin·enbau Aktiengesellschaft".