Horn celebrates 50 years in business

It was a time for celebration in Tübingen, Germany, from June 5-7 as tooling manufacturer Paul Horn GmbH opened its doors to customers, corporate partners, and international media for its Technology Days. What makes this year special is that the company is also celebrating its 50th year in business.

A contingent from Canada, which consisted of both end users and distributors from Ontario and Quebec attended the event.

“It was a great learning experience both culturally and educationally for the Canadian visitors. They were able depart with a much better understanding of Horn’s manufacturing capabilities, the quality and precision afforded to every process, as well as the direction of the company moving forward,” said Canadian Regional Sales Manager Jim Garfield.

The company understands its own history well, and Managing Director President Lothar Horn and his son, Markus, are the second and third generation of the Horn family to run the company.

From humble beginnings, the company now produces 25,000 standard tools and creates many special tools for custom applications. The company’s customer base includes shops in the automotive, aerospace, medical, and tool- and mouldmaking sectors.

“Our job is to bring some advantages to machining processes and reduce costs for the customer,” said Managing Director Markus Horn. “We can do so many things today [in terms of tool design], and everything is now digitized, but it still must be cost-effective.”

More than 4,700 people from 35 countries visited the company during Technology Days, which combined plant tours, educational seminars, peer-to-peer networking, and social events.

“We have 56 companies co-exhibiting here at our Technology Days, giving our visitors a chance to see even more,” said Lothar Horn, adding that the event coinciding with the company’s 50th anniversary made for the largest crowd to ever attend.

With a theme of Technology with Transparency, the three-day event showcased the company’s latest tools and featured eight educational presentations. Topics included a look at new coating technology, precision tooling trends and new products, machining of sintered carbide, gear cutting, milling, and grooving and parting-off.

"It was impressive to celebrate this anniversary with our customers, partners, and employees during Technology Days and at three evening events," said Lothar.

Initially located in Gomaringen and Nehren, Germany, the Paul Horn company originally focused on producing grooving and slotting tools. Since that time, new products have been added to the company’s portfolio of tools, until every major machining processes is now covered. An R&D investment of 6 to 7 per cent enables the company to constantly bring new tools to market. It also has invested in additive manufacturing technology to explore new means of tool manufacturing.

A move to Tübingen in 1981 enabled the manufacturer to increase production, and expansions in the intervening years have increased production even more. Today the company has around 1,500 employees.

The next Horn Technology Days will take place in 2021.