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Howard's World

Schneider Senator – a History Humble Beginnings, Tragedy and Triumphant Inventions

December 10, 2016

Howard

From the Busch collection

One of Germany’s largest guillotine manufacturers experienced a difficult time when it filed for bankruptcy during the period of 1991 -1992. But today under the helm of Gerhard Busch GmbH, Schneider has again risen to lay claim as one of the world’s best guillotine manufacturers.

The beginnings of Schneider go back to 1948 post war Germany. After the war, many graphic arts manufacturers and agencies found themselves on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. For many years, the Kegel family, through their company Polygraphica, held the agency for the Johne Perfecta paper cutter. Unfortunately after 1945, Perfecta was in East Germany, while Polygraphica was in the West.

Johne Werk – now called Perfecta Schneidemaschinenwerk GmbH is the world’s oldest manufacturer of cutting machines and has always been based in Bautzen East Germany. With World War II disrupting commerce between the two Germanys it was a friendship between the Kegels and Perfecta that provided Polygraphica permission to use engineering drawings from Perfecta, and build a guillotine in the West.

It was at about this time that the Josef Schneider name first became connected with the art of making paper cutters. Schneider was reported to be a very talented mechanic, who previously had been rebuilding Roland offset presses for a local agent. Upon seeing the Perfecta drawings, Schneider wanted no part of working with someone else’s designs and started from scratch. The world’s first hydraulic clamp paper cutter was the result, and put Schneider on the map. Although rather primitive by today’s standards, the hydraulic clamp was revolutionary compared to mechanical spring designs and made cutting paper a whole lot easier.

The Schneider factory was set up in the northern town of Lübeck, which is situated near the new border of West and East Germany. It was from Lübeck that the Schneider Company was to make its home for the next 45 years.

The Senator brand name was introduced as the identification of these new guillotines. This was in honor of the town’s councillors, and has remained to this day.

The early 1950s saw the redesign of the Schneider guillotine to a form that we are familiar with today. Schneider designed the 106, which had a cutting width of 106 cm (41-3/4 inches). Schneider’s use of an electric clutch to operate the knife via buttons had already been done by others. Early Senator machines had only one push button which was again not unusual at the time. But Schneider concentrated on other areas of improvement, which included knife changing. The simplicity of the Schneider knife change remained the same for over 40 years and a testament to good design. There was no need for complicated tools or gauges as is the case with some other manufacturers. The knife head had slotted angular holes, which compensate for the variations of knife widths. There was also no need to adjust the knife arm, as the knife head always traveled at the same angle and stroke.

Schneider also built an overload spring pop-out clutch, which eliminated the need for special shearing bolts in the event of the knife being overloaded.

Howard

1949 Health and Safety Officer’s nightmare

In 1952, Schneider started experimenting with an electro-mechanical back gauge control, and began to market this with the Senator cutters. The system used a small electro-magnetic clutch, which when energized, allowed the operator to move the back gauge a certain distance as designated by a set of mechanical stops. At the time, this sort of automation was especially well suited for label printers, where many consecutive cuts had to be made and the labor required to do this manually was excessive. I remember such a machine in our plant back in the early 1980’s. The little clutch bathed in oil, still worked!

However times were changing and another idea had come to Schneider with the help of electronics. By the second Drupa trade fair (1954), Schneider had developed a system for controlling the back gauge using a magnetic tape, similar to that of a tape recorder. Such an amazing feat and a giant leap. But before he was able to show this to the world, a tragic incident occurred. Schneider was shot dead at the Drupa printing exposition. At the time the murder was attributed to gangsters, but many rumours circulated that Schneider’s competition may have had something to do with his death. After an investigation, no charges or allegations were brought against anyone in the industry, so it must be said that any rumours were false. Of course the main reason for these whispers was the obvious fact that Schneider had developed another game changer and world’s first: the tape controlled programmable paper cutter. No other guillotine maker had anything even remotely close. Drupa has always been a springboard for new developments especially for German companies, and with Schneider having such a clear lead over his competition you can see how the gossip got started.

Nevertheless, in 1955 the Schneider Company carried on without Josef and did introduce to the world the first magnetic tape program. The programmer made all other mechanical stop technologies obsolete and firmly implanted Schneider’s name on the world stage.

As the years progressed new models became available with a stable of sizes from 78 cm (30.7 inch) all the way up to the mammoth 260 cm (102 inches). The Senator 260, when launched in 1970, was the largest European production guillotine ever built. In 1967, Schneider electronics went solid state, which allowed for all program and controls to be installed on circuit boards, and not as before with a massive un-integrated assortment of amplifiers and switches. For the most part, this also helped with trouble-shooting, as now complete boards could be changed quickly and without the need for a service technician.

1972 saw the ingenious sensor buttons replace the mechanical push buttons. These devices have no conventional contacts and cannot wear out as can a mechanical contact. As long as the operator contacts the two buttons simultaneously, he or she completes a circuit which allows the guillotine to cut.

Howard

The current 115 cms

In the 60s, Schneider started to build smaller guillotines in lower cost Spain. These were known as the Schneider Consul, with the main machine being the Consul 85 (33.5-inch). There were quite a few of these guillotines delivered, and still in production. I assume that the reason for building a factory in Spain was economic – the Spanish worker wasn’t making anywhere near the money of his German neighbour. The Consul proved to be much less of a machine than that of the German built Senator and may explain why the experiment was dropped. With the success of MBO in Portugal, however, other manufacturers including Heidelberg with its ECO straight line carton gluers - built in Spain, have also looked outside Germany for more cost effective manufacturing. Schneider also built label die-cutting machines which were similar to that of the Busch or Blumer. I’ve seen a few and all of them were in Europe.

1977 proved to be a major one for Schneider, as they had again become the first in the world to automate the back gauge with a microcomputer. It would be several years before the others caught up. Developments have continued with more capabilities via computer as well as the addition of peripheral equipment such as loaders and unloaders, joggers and stackers. In fact, Schneider have been able to offer complete flow line systems to automate the feeding, cutting and restacking of stock.

With all the changes that have taken place with guillotines since 1948, Schneider really has not changed the design and style of its machines mechanically that much. This shows the design qualities of this manufacturer. There was the introduction of the completely new Schneider 76, with a hydraulic knife and clamp. In 1995 the S-line 115-H, all-hydraulic guillotine appeared. Later the E-Line appeared and in 2012 updated as the E-Line PCC (Power Cutting Control). The clutch is gone in favor of hydraulics too.

Due partly to worker/management problems, as well as outdated machine tools, the Schneider Werk factory went into receivership on June 3, 1992. Out of this came a new relationship for Eberhard Kegel, who was the owner of Schneider Senator. Maschinenbau Sproetze, which was a subsidiary of MAN Roland, took over the building of the Senator for Schneider. Sprotze was in the past, been building inkers and water units for MAN Miller. The factory was said to be very modern, which is a must if one wants to compete in the very competitive world market for guillotines. In Hamburg, just 30 minutes from the Sproetze factory, sat the headquarters for Schneider.

With over 20,000 guillotines produced between the years 1948 and 1994, things certainly looked promising for Schneider. In 2009 Schneider Senator SSB GmbH was purchased by Gerhard Busch GmbH. Busch already a well-respected builder of label punching and pile turning equipment has continued manufacturing what surely is a world-class paper cutter and with a rich and colorful history. It will be interesting to see what Schneider, under Busch, comes up with next.

 

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