If you have ever needed a Falk gearbox repair, you already know you’re dealing with one of the best industrial gearboxes made. Among the various gearbox manufacturers, Falk stands out as a company carrying a stellar track record when it comes to the reliability and resilience of their gearboxes in the harsh industrial working conditions.
Falk is well known for having a design policy that ensures a long operating life and a very flexible range of potential applications for their products. So, it comes with no surprise that today, their gearboxes are used in a very wide array of tasks throughout some of the largest modern industries. Interestingly enough, Falk wasn’t always a manufacturing giant – rather than that, their story starts with beer.
The year is 1856, and a German immigrant, Franz Falk, stands with his co-founders in front of their newly opened Bavaria Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Within the next couple of years, the brewery would reach a production capacity of around 200,000 barrels, leaving the competing Schlitz and Miller breweries in the dust. This would allow Falk to quickly ascend the ranks and become one of America’s brewing giants, as well as a key market player. And while the entire Falk family came to dominate the brewing industry, eventually going further into a joint-venture with Frederick Pabst, one of Franz’s sons just wasn’t a big fan and pursued a slightly different direction.
Enter – Herman Falk
Herman Falk, the fifth of seven sons in the Franz family, was a mechanically inclined inventor and an avid entrepreneur. By age 20, he sported his first patent, and by 1982, he owned a successful business in making wagon couplings. And while the Falk couplings are still considered an industry standard to this day, back in the 1890’s they just couldn’t sustain the business.
This led Herman to expand the business by manufacturing castings for street rail tracks across the nation. This was the first major turning-point, and in the early 1900s, it was estimated that nearly 30% of all urban railway castings were produced by Falk.
The Emergence Of Falk Gearboxes
With newfound growth in the sectors related to electrified transportation, Herman Falk expanded his factory to fill a new gap in manufacturing power transmission.
At the time, the modernization of industrial factories and the rapid transition from steam to electricity created a growing need for gears across the nation. These gears would help convert the speed of an electrical engine into torque, which would then power the majority of the factories’ operations. Some common applications for the gearboxes made at the time included being used in conveyor belts and machine tools.
But, even this didn’t satisfy Herman Falk. The gears and pinions his factory was producing lacked one very important thing – precision. His dissatisfaction quickly turned into delight when, in 1911, Herman heard about a revolutionary Swiss machine that was able to produce incredibly precise herringbone gears, which he immediately bought US rights for.
Becoming An Industry Standard
Without a doubt, making the transition into the precision gearing industry propelled Falk to new heights and helped the company establish itself as the industry-leading manufacturer that many of us hold in high regard today.
In 2019, it’s easy to spot Falk gearboxes across most major industries. From oil extraction, power generation, and paper mills to mining and maritime – Falk has risen to become a staple with their high precision gears.
Today, when it comes to selecting the best gearbox for your company and operations – the market is flooded with various options. In fact, it can quickly become an overwhelming task due to the sheer number of choices available and the complexity of the selection process.
If you’re considering Falk gearboxes as a potential solution – it’s important to plan ahead. Just like other mechanical parts, gearboxes are subject to wear – they will eventually break down, and when they do, most people suddenly find themselves faced with a seemingly colossal undertaking in getting them repaired or replaced.
Thankfully, with our gearbox repair experts on your side, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Whether your equipment needs maintenance or emergency repairs, you can rest easy, knowing that it’s in the hands of professional and reliable specialists