Bunde
Eisengiesserei Karlshutte Bunde
The ambitions of the Imperial-Werke in Bünde to cover the demand for self-produced cast iron parts for stoves and ovens, led to the construction of the foundry in Ahle. The first grey iron was produced at the iron foundry in Karlshütte on October 29th, 1949. At that time, the company had 63 staff in Ahle who produced approximately 60 tonnes of cast iron parts per month. The following 20 years brought construction, expansion, modernisation and rationalisation so that 500 tonnes of cast iron were manufactured every month by a team of 86 employees. This immense growth in performance resulted from the installation of an automatic casting and moulding plant from BMD. This made the plant in Ahle one of the most modern foundries in Europe at the time.
Foundry specialized in the production of complex, core intensive grey and spheroidal graphite castings.
History of the Karlshütte ends after 73 years
The old iron foundry in Ahle was bought by a Bielefeld company a year and a half ago. Metal has not been cast there for half a year. The machines dismantled.
*https://www.nw.de/lokal/kreis_herford/buende/23303978_Geschichte-der-Karlshuette-endet-nach-73-Jahren.html
Image photography
By Viktor Macha in 2005.
Plant facts and figures
The plant have an annual capacity of 100000 tons.
The following processes are conducted in the plant:
- Foundry
- Forge
This plant produces the following type of products:
- Castings
Full description
The foundry at the outskirts of Bünde was built in 1949 as one of the subsidiaries of the Imperial Werke Group, owned by the Thiele family.
In 1989, Imperial Werke sold its plant to Miele. The foundry continues as an independent company under the name “Imperial-Werke Gießerei GmbH”.
The meltshop with pair of cupola furnace was extended by an induction furnace in 1997. The foundry is currently focusing on small series cast from iron and aluminum.