Variety of Applications
New Solutions, New Area of Business – The Eighties
At the beginning of the 1980s, WIRTGEN grew to become the global market leader for road milling machines.
Despite its success, the company’s mission remained the same: to offer customers the right solution for their specific application. And the inquiries kept pouring in, while new challenges added some spice to the business. In the mid-1980s, the construction machinery specialist had a range of machines that was unique in the industry. Even then, milling and cutting technology was WIRTGEN’s core competency.
With all of this expertise and many years of experience, it made sense to expand into a new field of application. And all of sudden, the headline read: “a milling machine that can cut mountains.” WIRTGEN had entered the field of open-cast mining. Using its surface miners, mine operators were able to extract large quantities of minerals – selectively and extremely cost-effectively. This meant there was now an alternative to the conventional mining method of drilling and blasting. And what’s more, surface mining technology became increasingly popular in the following decades. Today it’s impossible to imagine open-cast mining without the surface mining method. And Wirtgen is also recognized as a leading application specialist in this field as well.
By the end of the 80s, the company’s product range had once again grown. But that’s not all – up until this point, WIRTGEN had focused on the rehabilitation of asphalt roads. As a result of acquiring a Belgian company’s slipform paver product line, the company now offered products for the construction of concrete roads and monolithic profiles, further expanding its range of applications.
