WMF_Dish_Englisch

THE MAN TO CALL IN AN EMERGENCY

Dennis Fröscher works in process control and

is part of the rapid response team in the event

of technical failures. He says, “If it’s an acute

failure we’ll come in and sort it out in the

evenings, but our aim of course is to make sure

that failures don’t happen at all.”

RE AL CR AF TSMANSHIP

Depending on the model, the handle on

a pressure cooker consists of up to 42 different

parts, which are put together by hand –

a delicate job which requires maximum precision.

olfgang Wiedmann works as foreman

at one of the most modern production

facilities in the world, where up to 6500

pots are produced every day. The 61-year-

old has worked at the WMF plant in Geislingen since 1981,

and is one of a total of 180 employees in the cookware

production department. Every one of them has a key role

to play because even though a lot of the work on the

production line is done by robots, there are plenty of tasks

in the process which can only be done by hand – to ensure

the highest possible safety standards and product quality.

The staff here are especially proud of the WMF pressure

cookers. Not only have they been awarded numerous

prizes but also bear the coveted TÜV seal of safety. Their

most extraordinary features are the sealing technology,

which has been developed and constantly improved over

decades, and the control system which is housed inside the

handle. “You don’t get that from any other manufacturer,”

explains Wiedmann.

The sophisticated handle system, which also has a num-

ber of safety functions as well as a wide range of functions

for simple, quick and precise cooking, is made up of over

40 individual parts. Every handle is still assembled by hand

here – a delicate job which requires maximum precision.

It goes without saying that employees also put the same

amount of care into manufacturing the actual pot. This job

involves more than a dozen finely coordinated steps. This

is in addition to checking the countless quality and safety

features which must be strictly adhered to.

FROM THE COIL TO THE FINISHED POT

When you’re holding the elegant piece of cookware in your

hands it’s hard to imagine that each pressure cooker starts

out as a stainless steel band a few millimetres thick, rolled

up into long coils. The round blanks are then punched out

of these coils – circular discs which are later used to form

the pot bodies. “Even here you need to be absolutely pre-

cise down to the millimetre,” explains WMF plant operator

Kai-Uwe König, “because even the smallest of deviations

can damage the material and make it unusable.”

The punched-out round blanks are then deep-drawn

using up to 300 tonnes of force. This is how every WMF pot

blank is formed. “The process of deep-drawing with stain-

less steel is very demanding,” explains Wiedmann. “You

need to have the right steel for it to work properly.” As far

as back as 1927, WMF developed and patented its own

K NOW- HOW

by WMF