40 years of Brühl Safety GmbH – definitely a success story! In 2023, Brühl Safety GmbH will be looking back on 40 years of company history. Sound expertise, exceptional innovative strength and continuous growth have been the key to the company’s success in recent years. On April 15, 1983, Hans Georg Brühl started his own business as a master locksmith and quickly made a name for himself in the Siegerland region with the help of word-of-mouth advertising. He soon expanded his business, received more and more orders from outside the region and focused his activities on the growing market for protective grilles and protective facilities. In 1985, twin brother Heinrich Brühl joined the company and Hans Georg and Heinrich Brühl GbR was founded. Together, the brothers achieved a breakthrough in the market for high-quality protective fence systems. On May 1, 1991, Hans Georg Brühl GmbH was founded, initially with 16 permanent employees. With high-quality products and the development of flexible protective fence systems, sales and the number of employees increased rapidly and the space available at the original site in Netphen-Dreis-Tiefenbach was soon exhausted. In 1996, the company gradually relocated to the factory premises in Netphen-Deuz to meet the growing requirements. A factory hall was built here first, followed by an office building in 1998. The years 1997 and 1998 were characterized by extraordinary economic success – Hans Georg and Heinrich Brühl took advantage of this for further investments and set the course for the future with the purchase of a powder coating plant, among other things. The office building had to be extended in 2002 as the number of employees continued to grow. In 2006, an extension was added to the production hall, doubling the production space, which had also reached its capacity limit. Another important milestone in the company’s development was the certification of Brühl’s quality management in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9001 in 2007, in order to meet the increased requirements on a national and international level. 2008, the year of the company’s 25th anniversary, was the year with the highest turnover in the company’s history to date: for the first time, turnover exceeded the 15 million euro mark. Brühl’s credo is to always put the customer and their needs first and to continuously invest in partnership-based relationships. One tool for this was the Brühl complete product catalog, which was introduced in 2010 and has since been reissued several times. It was designed as a handbook for mechanical and plant engineering to better inform and involve customers in all issues relating to protective facilities in mechanical and plant engineering. The award of the “Sicher mit System” (Systematic Safety) seal of approval in February 2011, which is awarded by the BGHM (Berufsgenossenschaft Holz & Metall) to companies that can be certified as having systematic and effective occupational safety, is an example of Brühl’s continuous internal development. The number of employees rose steadily and had increased more than tenfold by the end of 2016. On January 15, 2017, the company was renamed Brühl Safety GmbH due to its international orientation. Since the death of Hans Georg Brühl in March 2018, the company has been managed by Heinrich Brühl and Kai Wienecke, who was appointed as the third Managing Director on January 1, 2017. Due to the great market success of Brühl machine protection gates, Brühl Safety Doors GmbH was founded on 01.01.2018. This company stands for the entire Brühl range of power-operated machine protection gates. As the number of employees and sales continues to rise, the production and administration areas are once again pushed to their capacity limits. As a result, Brühl acquires the production and administration buildings of the former DEUMA in 2018, which are only a few hundred meters away from the previous location, and Plant II is built at Waldstraße 17. In 2019, Brühl Project is founded, which, in addition to standardized products, is particularly characterized by special solutions in the field of automation and safety technology. The main focus is on the innovative L-PRO laser safety cabin designed by Brühl, which offers high process safety for all laser types, powers and focal lengths. In 2023, we will proudly celebrate our 40th anniversary. New direction as a digital company. The Safety Fence Designer is retiring and the new Inventor system is taking over. With the founding of Brühl Project, Brühl is expanding its product range to include innovative solutions in the field of automation and safety technology. The new product L-PRO, an active laser safety cabin, is launched on the market. In March 2018, Brühl Safety GmbH buys a new site at Waldstr. 17, where Plant 2 is built, in order to meet the constantly increasing space requirements in the production and administration areas. Due to the growing customer base and international orientation, Hans Georg Brühl GmbH is renamed Brühl Safety GmbH. Kai Wienecke becomes the third managing director. At the end of the year, Brühl acquires ME-GmbH, which specializes in the construction of safety gate systems. With over 130 employees, Brühl can look back on 2012 with the highest order intake in the company’s history. Automatica 2012 sees the launch of the Brühl Safety Fence Designer, an innovative fence planning tool from Brühl that enables customers to integrate individual parts of Brühl products directly into their system layout. At the end of the year, the company also doubles the size of its premises by purchasing adjacent new land – there is no end in sight to the company’s growth. Brühl receives the “Sicher mit System” (“Systematic Safety”) seal of approval from the German Employers’ Liability Insurance Association for Wood and Metal (BGHM), demonstrating systematic and effective occupational safety. A new administration building with adjoining training and conference center is completed at the Netph