The Black Forest: here Precision is a Tradition

The unmistakable style of its halftimbered houses, mills, wines, and smoked ham. These are but a few of the best known traditions of the Black Forest, Germany’s “green lung” between the Rhine and Danube rivers that borders on France and Switzerland. Yet, there is another less known tradition here in this south-western part of Germany: accuracy. Already in the 18th century, the famous “Black Forest Clocks” were sold throughout Europe and all the way to Turkey. Clocks and parts, springs and gramophones – technical products that have been replaced by electronics today, but which did give to the now renewed industrial enterprises a sense for measuring and precision.

Gerd Weisser went a step further – the sense for measuring and precision are the mission of his company, Messtronik Weisser, where one can have all kinds of parts measured. The smallest part can be in the range of millimeters, the largest – a large engine or an aerospace part – can be 6 meters long.

His customers are suppliers and manufacturers from such sectors as the automobile industry, the aerospace industry, model making and tool manufacture, the engineering industry, injection moulding, microelectronics, energy systems and medical technology.

About 80% are targeted directly and indirectly for the automobile industry. Many customers come from nearby, but today many also come from all over Germany and the neighboring countries Austria and Switzerland. The company was established in 1983 on the basis of the founder’s experience as head of quality assurance and as a result of his simple but far-sighted intuition: he asked himself why it was possible to outsource milling and turning work, but why there was no service company for measuring tasks.

Gert Weisser’s step was real pioneer work. Despite the difficulties encountered at the beginning and problems in the market, the company celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. His first measuring machine was a Leitz PMM 866, which he purchased 21 years ago thanks . . . . .