Long-time companions

Names like Pöting, Eitel and Müller-Weingarten are closely connected to the history of MAE. From the mid-1930s to the mid-2010s these names have been our contact companions and have left a decisive mark on the development such as it is today, within the MAE Group. Who knows where MAE would be today without them is an open question.

Pöting – A first step into engineering

Essential for the early dynamic development of MAE was entering into the co-operation with the Hagen based Walter Pöting OHG in 1937. Walter Pöting designed machines to produce hollow glass ware automatically, like bottles for medicine or beverages. MAE manufactured components for them and assembled the entire machines. For many years, MAE realized almost half their turnover that way, building up their own engineering programme based on this economic foundation.

Due to concentration processes as well as relocations of the energy-intensive glass industry, and eventually the replacement of glass by synthetic materials lead to an increasing downturn for Pöting from the late 1980s onwards. In 2005, Pöting was finally closed down, ending a success story of almost 70 years standing.

Ending? Not quite! To this day, MAE still sells wear- and spare parts, which are sometimes even reverse-engineered or produced according to original drawings, for those Pöting machines still running in full production.

Eitel – An important corner stone for today’s success

In the early 1950s, engineer and founder of Eitel Presses, Hand Georg Eitel designed hydraulic presses in Düsseldorf, some of which were assembled by MAE. When Eitel moved with their company to Karlsruhe in 1956, MAE employed one of their senior engineers and set up their own production of hydraulic presses for diverse industrial applications. In the following years, this lead to a lively technical and commercial competition between MAE and Eitel, patent litigations included. Despite their successful products, Eitel had to file for bankruptcy in 1977. This gave MAE the opportunity to step into evolving projects and to get access to important domestic and international agencies.

The Eitel straightening programme was taken over by the Müller-Weingarten AG, who continued selling the machines in their name for a while. From 1991 onward, MAE provided the entire MRO services for the Eitel presses. MAE also keeps the archive of Eitel’s technical drawings in Erkrath.

Having emigrated to the United States, Mr. Eitel established a new company: Eitel Presses, Inc. in “Deer Lake Industrial Park” in Orwigsburg, PA. Their economic success enticed them to re-enter the European market by founding the Swiss-based subsidiary Eitel Presses International in 1997, again competing with MAE for the predominance. In the end MAE prevailed and, when Eitel Presses International had to file for bankruptcy, took over most of their employees and kept Mr. Singer, now as Managing Director, of the newly founded MAE.ch.

MAE’s and Eitel’s paths crossed for the last time in 2013/2014. MAE finally took over its esteemed competitor. In the end it seemed far more profitable for both sides to combine their considerable creative potential to serve their customers’ demands and fulfil the needs of the industries than to prolong this wasteful competition. Today, MAE-Eitel, Inc. offers its customers in the Americas the best of both worlds: The well-known Eitel presses which are widely used in the USA, supplemented by the pioneering technologies in the “straightening” and “rail industry” sectors from MAE.

China – A first step towards MAE Group

The takeover of Eitel Presses finalized for the time being the transformation of MAE Maschinen- und Apparatebau Götzen GmbH to MAE Group. In 2012, MAE had already founded MAE Machine (Beijing) Co., Ltd., based on the sales representation it had held since 2008.

The positive and dynamic development of the Asian markets almost called for a permanent presence in China, to serve customers with a highly motivated sales management and MAE-trained, native-speaking service technicians.