200 years LESER 1818 – 2018
On March 16, 2018, LESER celebrates its 200th birthday. On this date in the year 1818, Georg Wittmann, born in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, started his own business as brass founder. His adopted sons Georg, Theodor, Ferdinand and Wilhelm Leser continued the business after his death in 1870 as Gebr. Leser G. Wittmann Nachfolger (successors).
With by now more than 800 employees and with its production facilities in Hohenwestedt Germany, Paithan India and Tianjin China the Hamburg company is the biggest safety valve manufacturer in Europe and one of the leading companies worldwide. Nowadays, all major companies of the chemical and petrochemical industry, technical gases, oil and gas production, mechanical engineering as well as the food and beverages industry and pharmaceutical industry use safety valves of the brand LESER.
At present, LESER produces more than 100,000 safety valves per year in Hohenwestedt. The production plants in Paithan and Tianjin supply local markets in India and China with 25,000 valves. LESER’s production is distinguished by a high vertical range of manufacture. Especially the high level of automation is vitally important here, in order to guarantee an efficient production using positive economies of scale.
LESER is exclusively specialized on safety valves, but no finished product is like the other. In contrast to common industrial valves, safety valves depend on the application conditions of the different plants such as mass flow to be discharged, opening pressure, temperature, medium, but also on installation conditions like materials and piping.
With its products and services LESER offers solutions for all requirements, whether major projects, MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) inquiries or deliveries within 24h with the emergency supply chain “Fast Track”. Hence, LESER is the partner for all topics around safety valves and protection against overpressure.
For decades already, LESER has invested the major share of its profits in the further development of the company. The most extensive investments of the last years were the establishment of the production and sales location in Tianjin (6 million €), the extension of the German production facility in Hohenwestedt (7.3 million €) and the newly built LESER Kontor as headquarters in Hamburg (22 million €).
Together with the development of international distribution channels these measures provide the basis for further business growth in new markets and with new products. In this way, LESER not only looks back on a company history of 200 years, but is also optimally prepared for the future.
At the same time, LESER also confronts the emerging topics digitalization and Industry 4.0, beginning with the selection and purchase of a safety valve, over the actual operation to the point of maintenance and asset management.
LESER’s customers already use the LESER Web-Services such as Order Status, access to certificates, valve-related parts lists, EDI connection or the software supported sizing of safety valves.
So what does digitalization mean for the protection against overpressure of process engineering and technology plants? Safety valves are the last chain link.
Plant operators rely upon their sheer mechanical function also when, for instance, there is a power breakdown in a chemical plant. LESER wants to discuss these new topics around protection against overpressure with customers and international industry representatives during the customer events at the ACHEMA 2018 in Frankfurt and during the LESER Experience Days in September in Hamburg.
