About us

Since its foundation in 1810, BWS has always been a technical leader in the cold rolling industry. Performance, partnership, renewal, state-of-the-art machinery and the highest quality standards are our self-conception. Take a look at where we come from and where we want to go, what innovation and technisfaction^© mean to us, and what our steel has to do with culture.

As the ServiceMill we offer:

The trend-setting and unique operating form of the ServiceMill^©, which combines the comprehensive material and process competence of a cold rolling mill with the service orientation of a ServiceCenter, so that even special requests can be fulfilled quickly and flexibly.

The BWS cold rolling mill produces precision strip and spring steel in the dimensional range from 0.03 mm to 4.5 mm with tensile strengths of up to 2200 MPa and narrow thickness tolerances that meet the highest flatness requirements. Recrystallisation for microstructure adjustment and optimised machinability is carried out in annealing furnaces.

Specialised slitting of precision and service strips with high tensile strength levels while maintaining the narrowest width tolerances, with subsequent machining of the edges by trimming and rolling.

An integrated logistics concept individually tailored towards BWS with modern tools and interlocking systems, which is the basis for a highly flexible production across all stages of the value chain with short throughput times and a high degree of deadline reliability.

A professional, target-oriented and partnership-based implementation of projects, customer-oriented product development and application advice.

An exceptionally extensive range of specialities, which we keep in stock at all times in order to offer customers a high degree of material availability.

The realization of demanding requirements in the sector of stainless steel and special materials.

Tradition and Future

1810

Company Founded by Philipp Boecker
We are the cold rolling mill with the longest track record. Steel has been processed at our site in Hohenlimburg since the company was founded. In the early years, mainly wire products were manufactured. Until then, there was no strip production in Europe.

Cradle of Cold Rolling
The company founder’s drive led to an important milestone in the development of the cold rolling industry as early as 1811: what was probably one of the first rolls on which steel could be rolled was developed together with Friedrich Krupp, and the first cold strips were produced at Philip Boecker. The oldest cold rolling mill in Europe came into existence.

1967

Founding of the Company Wender Bandstahl
Wilhelm Wender founds one of the first Steel Service Centres in Germany. He starts supplying commissioned strip steel with short delivery times. From the beginning, the company specialised in slitting spring steel and processing edges by trimming and rolling.

1993

Merger of the two Companies to Form BWS Philipp Boecker + Wender Stahl
Wilhelm Wender and Alexander Wender-Deitenbeck decide to combine the competences of their companies. A unique new concept of operation is created: the ServiceMill^© – a ServiceCenter with the material competence of a cold rolling mill and a precision rolling mill with the flexibility of a Service Center. The combination of a rolling mill and a Service Center with one management as well as a trend-setting logistics system makes short-term, customised deliveries possible.

1998

Market Entry Precision Strip
In the product segment spring steel, BWS had already established itself as an European leader. In order to tap further growth potential, BWS put its first bright annealing line for stainless strip steel into operation and now also produces precision strip for deep-drawing applications. In the meantime, BWS has taken over the qualitative market leadership in this segment.

2013

Market Entry in Special Materials
Building on its many years of competence as the ServiceMill^© and precision strip mill, BWS now also supports its customers as a supplier of high-performance materials for nickel and titanium alloys. The flexibility of a ServiceCenter and the consulting and material components of a cold-rolling mill are also the focus in this segment.

Future

Sustainable responsibility + technisfaction^©
With more than 200 years of experience in cold rolling, BWS will continue to support its customers and partners with great commitment in the future. In doing so, values such as fairness, humanity, camaraderie and the willingness to assume responsibility will remain at the core of our corporate philosophy.

Building on the resources available since 1810 (at the same location), BWS will continue to develop sustainable and innovative solutions together with and for its customers.

BWS already supplies strips for products that point the way to the mobility of the future, works with customers in the field of environmentally friendly energy production and makes its contribution as a supplier to improving air quality and water treatment.

Innovation and technisfaction^©

Complexity and speed determine our all everyday work life. Constantly more demanding products in individual design at the highest quality level place ever higher demands on materials, development and processes. We consider application-oriented consulting in the selection and definition of customised material specifications, as well as material-based consulting for product design, to be our core task. We call this technisfaction^©.

Many new applications demand innovations in plant technology and manufacturing processes as well as an unclouded view of evolving market demands. The entire BWS organisation rises to the challenge every day and supports joint development work with its customers. We call this technisfaction^©.

In the development of products and process optimisations, it is important to BWS that the totality of all the customer’s requirements, which may even be contradictory, flow into a customised, individual solution. Our specialists develop these solutions openly, across departments and in partnership with the experts on the customer’s side. A solution can only be convincing in its entirety if the know-how of the specialists from the customer and BWS is included across all areas: we call the result of this work technisfaction^© if it leads to the customer’s requirements being comprehensively realised.

Steel & Culture

As Europe’s oldest cold rolling mill, BWS is proud not only to be part of a unique regional competence cluster of the rolling and metalworking industry in South Westphalia, but also to have co-founded it and to have played a decisive role in shaping it to this day.

South Westphalia has been shaped by the metalworking industry in a special way since the beginning of the industrialisation. Sauerland and Siegerland are among the oldest iron and steel regions in Central Europe. As early as 500 BC, iron was melted here and processed into high-quality tools.

To this day, the unique accumulation of industry expertise and experience in a very small area forms the backbone of local employment and the future viability of this region. The aim of BWS is to sustainably develop the future viability of this industrial base, but also to present the strength of the region and make it tangible. This goes hand in hand with the conviction that the steel produced by BWS deserves an even more positive public perception as an aesthetically pleasing, changeable and resource-saving material.

Below you will find a selection of projects and editions with the artist and designer Lutz Bernsau.

Lutz Bernsau is a multidisciplinary universal creative who combines the fields of liberal arts, design, creative research and visual management.

Event – Siege of Altena Castle

“The 15th of September 2000 puts Altena Castle in the limelight as the setting for a cultural spectacle:
It is a production of visual art, movement and music, embedded in the grey of the castle walls and the homeliness of the castle park, which has been restored according to old plans. Lutz Bernsau, artist and designer, and Boecker Wender Stahl, transform the walk around the historic castle with its bizarre sculptures into an art garden, a field of discovery for eyes and ears.”

Westfälische Rundschau, 9^th August 2000