Encouraged by their father, who was foreman in a screw making company, the brothers Carl, Emil and Wilhelm Hilgeland founded in 1920 a company for the development and manufacture of cold forming machines for the production of screws, rivets and bolts. This company was set up in Ronsdorf where it is still located.
At that time cold heading technology was still in its infancy. The industry had a sceptical attitude towards this new method of screw making but both the father and the sons were convinced by this technology which made it possible to produce thinner and thus lighter scews with a higher tensile strength than ever before.
The rapid growth of the electric, automobile and aviation industries and their tremendous need for precise screws favoured the development of the Hilgeland Company, which convinced their customers at home and abroad with precisely working high quality machines. Upon request by the industry for faster and faster running machines Hilgeland developed high output headers for the fastener production.
Apart from single blow, double blow and multi station headers Hilgeland today also produces thread rolling machines, pointing and rounding machines, as well as nut tapping machines.
In 1996 Gebr. Hilgeland GmbH & Co. became member of the group. One year later Hilgeland took over the Nutap machine programme. In the year 2000 Hilgeland became a limited company and changed its name to Hilgeland-Nutap GmbH.
The group is the biggest manufacturer in the world of machines for the wire industry.
