Since the establishment of the company in the year 1917 it is priority of the management and to manufacture products with highest quality.
This will be ensured by well educated employees, modern heat treatment and production facilities.
In former years, HEKO produced chains for different applications for the agriculture, anchor chains and snow chains. Today HEKO has concentrated their efforts more and more on the production of high wear resistant chains and components for conveyors. HEKO develops and manufactures their products for important branches like the cement industry, sugar industry, power generators, quarry and mining industry, the recycling and waste incineration industry and chemical industry.
Today the production program consists of round steel chains, bucket and scraper attachments, chain wheels, buckets and shafts as well as return and tensioning units for bucket elevators and chain conveyors. We are always interested to develop and optimize problem solutions in cooperation with our customers to find out a most economic bulk material conveying system for our customers.
| 1917 | Hermann Koch established the company Kettenwerk Hermann Koch in Wickede (Ruhr). Round steel chains were forged by hand initially by 8 employees. |
| | |
| 1922 | Start of constructing of new workshops at Eisenbahnstrasse in Wickede where the company still resides today. |
| | |
| 1929 | Move of the company to the new extended premises at Eisenbahnstrasse and installation of test facilities. Start of production of anchor chains with independent acceptance and certification. |
| | |
| 1936 | First trials with case hardening for chains. |
| | |
| 1943 | Construction of a hardening shop with several furnaces for case hardening. |
| | |
| 1955 | July 7th, death of the founder and owner Hermann Koch and handover of the company to Franz-Josef Koch. |
| | |
| 1967 | Extension of the workshop to 6000m². Golden Jubilee with 130 employees. |
| | |
| 1970 | Start of HEKO chain wheel production. |
| | |
| 1978 | Change of company from Hermann Koch KG to Kettenwerk Wickede-Ruhr GmbH. |
| | |
| 1983 | Construction of new technical offices, including laboratory and test rooms to accommodate all testing equipment. |
| | |
| 1990 | Capacity expansion with new welding machines for chains up to 42 mm diameter. Acquisition of CNC controlled machining facilities for the production of chain wheels and extension of the hardening shop. |
| | |
| 1992 | The owner Franz-Josef Koch dies July 16th 1992. Alexander Koch enters the company as managing director. 75th anniversary of the company. |
| | |
| 2004 | Purchase of second production facility for chains to double the capacity. |
| | |
| 2005 | Opening of an export office in Peking / China and an export office in Baden-Würtemberg / Germany. |
| 2007 | 90th anniversary of the company and inauguration of the new ModulTherm system. |
| 2008 | Another inductive hardening machine put into operation. |
