Hans Reifenhäuser
Reifenhäuser Group
Inducted 2014
Hans Reifenhäuser (1914 – 1989) was an entrepreneur and long-time president of Reifenhäuser Group. In the 1950s, Hans Reifenhäuser and his brother Fritz developed their father’s forge in Troisdorf into one of the global plastics industry’s most important machine manufacturing companies. The stature and importance of today’s extrusion technology would have been almost inconceivable without Hans Reifenhäuser’s pioneering achievements. The technology became a milestone in the production of plastics worldwide and formed the basis for the success of Reifenhäuser.
Hans Reifenhauser liked to use his great knowledge and expertise to effect change:
● A forge and locksmith’s shop turned into a machine factory.
● A machine factory transformed into a worldwide manufacturer of plastics machinery.
● Entrepreneurial spirit and a vision that helped grow the Reifenhauser group of companies
into an industry leader with revenues of over 600 million dollars at the time of his death.
With his entrepreneurial spirit, he developed the Reifenhäuser extruder, further vaulting his company and introducing new trends into the growth of the extrusion field. Reifenhäuser soon gained worldwide prominence and became synonymous with high-quality extrusion machinery for profile, sheet, film, and other disciplines within the extrusion industry. This includes blown film technology for multi-layered film systems, non-woven films, and wood-polymer composites. Mr. Reifenhäuser was also very active in the industry associations. He served on the VDMA (the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association) boards, IKV-Aachen, VDI Association (Plastics Section), and the IHK Bonn.
He received the Richard Vieweg Medal of Honor from the Association of German Engineers and the Federal Order of Merit First Class from the Government of Germany. He always considered these honors to be a recognition of his employees’ dedication and hard work.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastics machinery, Plastics processing
Related Links:
https://www.vdma.org/en/der-vdma