Draft:Seeger-Orbis

SEEGER-ORBIS is based in Königstein im Taunus and specialises in the development and manufacture of retaining rings, snap rings, wave springs, support and shim washers as well as other customised fastening elements.SEEGER-ORBIS was founded on 24 October 1917 by Willi Seeger (01/09/1884 - 02/16/1956) in Frankfurt am Main, at Bockenheimer Warte, as "Technisches Büro Seeger". SEEGER-ORBIS develops customised solutions in the field of fastening technology in cooperation with its customers. The company supplies both national and international markets with its products. The customer sector ranges from the automotive industry to aerospace, medical technology, special machine construction and the wind power industry.

== Company history == In 1917, Willi Seeger founded the " Technische Büro Seeger" in Frankfurt with the aim of producing transportable cylinder drill machines for locomotives. In the following years, the company expanded and in 1926 the first production facility was established in Frankfurt at Adalberstrasse 44 to 48 under the name Werkzeugmaschinengesellschaft Seeger & Co. In the same year, Hugo Heiermann developed the first retaining ring for securing piston pins at his employer Vulkanwerk and applied for a patent for it in the USA on 3 February 1928 and in Germany on 5 February 1927. On 30 June 1927, Werkzeugmaschinengesellschaft Seeger & Co. was renamed to Präzisionswerkstätten Seeger & Co. GmbH, which became known as Kolben Seeger. Shortly afterwards, on 17 December 1927, the Vulkanwerk and the employee Heiko Heiermann concluded a contract that the Seeger company would receive the exclusive rights for the use of the patents. In 1928, the German patent office granted Hugo Heiermann the patent under the number 463 684. In 1941, the retaining rings known as "Seeger-Ring"  or "Seegerring"  were standardised in the german standarization DIN. Since then, there have been standardised rings for shafts (DIN 471 compairble with ASME B18.27) and bores (DIN 472), which can be traced back to Hugo Heiermann's patent specification.

Due to the air strikes of the Second World War and the damage to the company sites in Frankfurt, the company relocated production to Königstein im Taunus (Johanniswald) in 1944, as well as the offices to nearby Falkenstein.

On Good Friday 1945, American soldiers liberated Königstein-Schneidhein. A few days later, Capt. Wiliam Sikorsk granted the company a licence to manufacture spare parts and maintain motor vehicles. In 1951, the Technical University of Darmstadt awarded Willi Seeger the title of Honorary Senator.

The current main production plant in Königstein-Schneidhein was founded in 1949. In 1970, the company SEEGER-ORBIS was taken over by the SKF Group (Svenska Kullagerfabriken), which was sold on to the US TransTechnology Corporation in 1995. A further sale to the Barnes Group took place in 2002. Under the management of the Barnes Group, a production site for retaining elements was established in Tianjin, China, in 2013. In 2020, the Kajo Neukirchen Group took over SEEGER-ORBIS. Since then, SEEGER-ORBIS has been managed by Robert Jakob Maas.

Products
The SEEGER-ORBIS product portfolio includes 2200 standard products. Around 8500 of these are customer-specific products. The main sales market is in the area of retaining rings, snap rings and round wire snap rings. In addition to retaining elements, SEEGER-ORBIS offers other fastening elements in the area of spring elements, spacers and shim washers as well as customised solutions and testing of retaining elements. The products range from a few millimetres to a diameter of several metres.

Patente
SEEGER-ORBIS has registered 22 international patents since the company was founded. SEEGER-ORBIS has responded to the increase in electromobility and the associated change in requirements for retaining rings with balanced and speed-controlled retaining rings. The improved mountability is also addressed by the adapted pliers opening.

Certifications

 * IATF 16949
 * DIN EN ISO 14001
 * DIN EN ISO 9001
 * DIN EN ISO 50001
 * DIN ISO 45001