History 
1937
Karl Mayer sets up a mechanical workshop for producing turned parts in his parents’ house in Obertshausen.
He is just 28 years old. His only assets are 17,000 German Reichsmarks, his training as a mechanic, and an entrepreneurial flair for prudence, hard work and frugality.
1940
The first production hall goes into operation. This covers an area of 300 square metres and produces precision components for the aircraft and car industries.
1945
KARL MAYER now employs 70 workers, specialising in reconditioning and overhauling car engines.
1947
Karl Mayer feels that he needs to follow a new course, and changes over his company to producing warp knitting machines.
Well on its way to becoming the biggest cylinder and crankshaft grinding company in Germany, and at a time when business was booming, Karl Mayer decides to move into a completely new area. As things stand, this decision is completely incomprehensible, but as Karl Mayer says in the forward to his book, ‘Die KARL MAYER Textilmaschinenfabrik – Porträt einer Firma’1 (KARL MAYER Textilmaschinenfabrik – Portrait of a Company): ‘I said to myself that, either the economy will recover, in which case new cars will be available again and the old ones will rot on the scrap heaps, or else we will remain the defeated nation of the world, and there won’t even be any old cars any more.’ Neither alternative provides a sound enough basis to guarantee the survival of the company in the long term. It seems to Karl Mayer that he can achieve this by building textile machines, i.e. by manufacturing warp knitting machines.
1948
The first KARL MAYER warp knitting machine is delivered.
The general conditions for producing the first KARL MAYER warp knitting machine cannot be more difficult. Technologists warn against the project and the authorities try to block it. Karl Mayer does not have the right technical experience himself, nor does he have suitably qualified staff, adequate production resources, enough capital, or the right contacts on the market, but: ‘I had the iron will to reach my goals and the certainty that I would have the strength to achieve what I set out to achieve,’ explained this energetic entrepreneur some time later1. With his own enthusiasm for the technology, Karl Mayer studies the operating principles of the five warp knitting machines still existing in West Germany and starts to save something that seems to have been lost forever as a result of the dismantling policy in the Soviet-occupied zone, i.e. the world market for warp knitting machines.
1949
The company exhibits for the first time at an international sales fair.
1950
The first KARL MAYER direct warping machine appears and marks the beginning of the ‘Warp Preparation’ operations.
1953
KARL MAYER produces its first Raschel machine.
1954
The 1,000th warp knitting machine is dispatched from the works in Obertshausen. Since 1954, this has consisted of the first big assembly hall having an area of 3,000 square metres.
A tulle Raschel machine and an elastic Raschel machine are also built for the first time this year.
1955
Karl Mayer decides to set up the company’s first overseas subsidiary in Clifton, New Jersey. The company also exhibits at ITMA for the first time.
The domestic market has limited capacity to buy up all the warp knitting machines produced in Obertshausen, so the company begins operating on the international market at a relatively early stage. As Karl Mayer later explains: ‘We have to export if we want to guarantee job security, and we can only export if we are competitive on the world market,’ /1/. And in addition to supplying innovative products at reasonable prices, being competitive for the company means also operating at a regional level.
In this case, the first step is to set up a subsidiary in Clifton. Karl Mayer finds the money to finance this venture on his trips to the USA, and it comes from changing travellers’ cheques into dollars. Initially, the new subsidiary provides customer service, and consists mainly of a warehouse for spare parts and a sales office. The subsidiary later begins to produce the parts on an area covering 10,000 m2.
1956
KARL MAYER produces the first Multibar Raschel machine for manufacturing lace.
1957
The first Double-bar Raschel machine is delivered to the client. A dispatch hall, covering an area of 750 m2, is opened in the same year.
1958
The company continues to expand in Obertshausen. Building work begins on Factory II with the first 4,000 m2 shed. The building of further halls having an area of almost 40,000 m2 follows rapidly. KARL MAYER also starts building net curtain Raschel machines in 1958.
1959
10 employees set up the "Werkgemeinschaft "Karl Mayer (Karl Mayer Works Union). This association for ‘protecting and improving the working conditions of its members’ does not encroach on the jurisdiction of the works council, is supported by the company, and carries out virtually all the duties of an industrial union. It accepts both white- and blue-collar workers, and provides various cultural and social amenities.
1960
A training scheme for technicians is instigated.
The ‘Company Centre for Training Warp Knitting Technicians’ is a logical progression from the intensive training course for assembly fitters. The courses are aimed at the workers employed in the companies of KARL MAYER’s customers, and provide in-depth theoretical and practical information - a service that is used extensively every year.
A company health insurance scheme is set up in the same year.
1963
The 10,000th warp knitting machine is dispatched to the customer.
1964
The contract for setting up ‘Wohnhilfe Mayer GmbH’ is finalised. This organisation is owned jointly by the company’s union and KARL MAYER itself. It acquires and builds on land to provide reasonably priced accommodation for the company’s workers.
1965
A new subsidiary, with responsibility for assembly work and servicing, takes over in Brazil.
The KARL MAYER Company House is opened in Obertshausen.
1966
The administration building alongside Factory 1 is ready for occupancy.
Karl Mayer has his desk in a corner of the new administration building on the ground floor, covered only by a plate-glass window – no plush office for him, but a workplace where he can be ‘at the thick of things’, so that he can have a clear view of everything that is going on.
1967
The first issue of the technical journal, ‘Kettenwirk-Praxis’ appears and the first jacquard raschel machine is built.
The journal appears four times a year, is published by KARL MAYER, and reports on the warp knitting sector. The articles focus on new developments in the machine technology and end-uses, and economic trends. Actual fabric samples are also included.
1968
The company expands its operations in Asia and opens the subsidiary, NIPPON MAYER Co. Ltd., as well as subsidiaries in the UK and Greensboro, USA. The KARL MAYER guesthouse is opened in Obertshausen, with 50 twin-bedded rooms, and Karl Mayer is made an honorary citizen of the town. Karl Mayer himself is actively involved with opening up the Japanese market. The first shipment to Japan comprises 27 machines and makes it necessary to provide on-the-spot technical support. Since no fitter is available, Karl Mayer himself personally travels to the client. Within three weeks, he has set up and put into operation all the machines, and trains the Japanese, who are rather sceptical at first, since they had expected a technician, rather than a ‘globetrotter’. In autumn 1968, KARL MAYER and TAKEDA KIKAI, the current licence-holder for KARL MAYER, join forces to form a joint company. This is the first time in Japanese economic history that a German company has been allowed to have a 50% interest in a Japanese company.
The new subsidiary in Greensboro is mainly responsible for sales and servicing on the rapidly expanding textile market of the southern American states.
180 tonnes of airfreight have already been sent this year, and customers are prepared to pay the higher cost of sending the machines by air so that they can be put into operation as quickly as possible.
1969
The first double-plush Raschel machine and the first warp knitting machine with magazine-weft insertion appear on the market.
1970
Karl Mayer is awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of the Order of Merit of the Federal Germany Republic, and the street in which he was born is renamed in his honour.
1972
The Mayer Cone cross-winding machine is included in the company’s production repertoire.
1974
The first terry warp knitting machine, the first magazine-weft Raschel machine and the 50,000th warp knitting machine are dispatched from KARL MAYER’s works.
1980
The three sons of the company’s founder, Ulrich, Ingo and Fritz P. Mayer, become members of the management board.
1981
Electronics begin to make inroads into KARL MAYER’s machine technology. The first electronic jacquard system is introduced with the development of the first Jacquardtronic® Lace machine.
1983
KARL MAYER launches a new warp-drawing process onto the market. In the same year, Karl Mayer is made an honorary professor of the Fukui University of Technology, and the KARL MAYER Foundation, supporting the Klingspor-Museum in Offenbach, is set up.
1985
KARL MAYER’s subsidiary in Hong Kong is established.
1987
KARL MAYER celebrates the delivery of the 10,000th warp preparation machine and the installation of the first warp-drawing/sizing machine.
1989
The subsidiary in Büdingen is acquired.
1990
A new hall in Factory II is completed.
This covers an area of 7,500 m2 and extends the total area of the company’s halls to roughly 85,000 m2. The 75,000th warp knitting machine is also produced by Nippon Mayer Co. Ltd. in the same year.
1991
The first KARL MAYER warp preparation machine for weaving is launched onto the market.
1992
Malimo Maschinenbau GmbH in Chemnitz is taken over and is merged with Kändler Textilmaschinenbau shortly afterwards.
Malimo can look back on a hundred years of constant change. It was founded in 1887, became a joint-stock company in 1907, producing machines and tulle, and was destroyed in 1945. It was rebuilt, and operated as a ‘state-owned company’ from 1954 onwards. In 1957, this company developed the first Malimo stitch-bonding machine up to the point at which is was ready to go into mass production, and grew as the success of the machine on the market grew.
Further milestones in the company’s history include a change of name to Malimo Maschinenbau GmbH in 1990 and the takeover by KARL MAYER Textilmaschinenfabrik GmbH two years later. This step assures the future of this long-established Saxony-based company, the further development of the Malimo stitch-bonding process, and the commercial success of KARL MAYER by supplementing its product range, especially in the field of technical textiles.
1995
A subsidiary is set up in Wuijin / PR China, known as KARL MAYER Textile Machinery Ltd.
Sadly, the company’s founder also passes away this year.
1997
A new company building in Chemnitz is inaugurated, and the company continues to invest in Wujin by building a 10,000 m2 production hall.
1998
KARL MAYER takes over Rotal s.r.l. and sets up KARL MAYER Rotal.
At the same time, the starting bell is rung to herald the beginning of a new concept of ‘team work’ in the German factories.
Rotal is a family run machine manufacturer, it is located in Mezzolombardo in Northern Italy, produces sizing machinery and has already been cooperating very successfully with KARL MAYER since 1992. The product repertoire of the new company includes sizing machines for processing staple-fibre yarns, sizing machines for synthetic filament yarns, and assembly beaming machines.
The concept of ‘team work’ is a new organisational strategy in the manufacturing sector. It replaces the previous way of doing things, and the rigid hierarchical structures, and is based on the idea of worker responsibility. A team is made up of up to 20 workers. They work independently and on their own initiative on specific tasks, which have been agreed after consultation with the relevant supervisor. The group, therefore, has a great deal of freedom when it comes to taking action and making decisions, and can make suggestions on how the production sequences and productivity can be improved.
1999
KARL MAYER celebrates the start of production in the company’s new building in Wujin, China, and the takeover over of all the business interests of the company.
A new production and assembly hall for building warp preparation machines is inaugurated in Hausen.
The factory in Hausen doubles the amount of space available to production from 5,000 to 10,000 m2. An additional storage warehouse, covering an area of 2,500 m2, is also available.
2000
An agency representing warp preparation machines begins operating in Changzhou, China.
2001
The Warp Knitting Research Center of Southern Yangtze University & the KARL MAYER Group (WKRC) is set up.
The Warp Knitting Research Center is located in Wuxi, China, to promote research and applications within the Chinese warp knitting sector. The main role of the centre is regular customer training, the dissemination of information via the Internet, and the publication of the technical journal, ‘Kettenwirk-Praxis’, in Chinese.
2002
KARL MAYER continues to expand in China. The production area of KARL MAYER Textile Machinery Ltd. in Wujin is extended by 5,000 m2 to a total area of 17,000 m2 and KARL MAYER Technical Service is set up to provide service.
KARL MAYER Textile Machinery Ltd. now employs approx. 310 workers in Wujin and, in addition to producing established, standard warp knitting machines, also manufactures warp preparation machines. As a complement to this, the service specialist, KARL MAYER Technical Service Ltd., provides comprehensive, on-the-spot technical support.
2003
The Textronic® Lace TL 66/1/36 and the Fascination Lace FL 20/16, the first machines in a new generation of lace machines, create a sensation on the market.
The new Gir-O-Matic sample warping machine sets new standards in warp preparation in terms of economic efficiency, flexibility and quality. The first stage in the introduction of the SAP R/3 operational management software is also successfully concluded, and the KARL MAYER project management system for dealing with complex tasks systematically and efficiently is developed. These are not isolated solutions – on the contrary, the new generation of lace machines features a complete package of innovations. The highlights are highly dynamic servo-drives, modern electronic control facilities and a completely new patterning system. This permits flexible patterning, efficient production and a level of fabric quality to be achieved that has never been achieved before.
2004
The package of innovations provided by the new generation of lace machines is integrated in the Jacquardtronic® series of machines. The Jacquardtronic® Lace is launched onto the market.
2005
KAMCOS® hält in allen KARL MAYER-Maschinen Einzug. Zudem werden die Auslandsaktivitäten in Brasilien der regionalen Marktlage angepasst und die Geschäftstätigkeit der dortigen Niederlassung einer Vertretung übertragen.
KAMCOS® steht für KARL MAYER Command System und damit für ein kompetentes Management der gesamten Rechentechnik der Maschine. Es bietet ein effizientes Handling aller Maschinen- und Produktionsdaten, eine einfache Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation und weitreichende Vernetzungsmöglichkeiten – aller Maschinen untereinander, der Fertigung mit der Verwaltung bzw. dem Controlling und auch der Zugang zum Internet ist möglich.
KAMCOS® is introduced into all KARL MAYER’s machines. KAMCOS® stands for the KARL MAYER Command System, and is an efficient system for managing all the machine’s computer facilities. It provides efficiently handling of all the machine and production data, simple man/machine communication and extensive networking possibilities – all the machines can be networked, the production department can be linked to the administration and control centre, and access to the Internet is also possible.
The overseas operations in Brazil are adapted to suit the local market situation, and the business activities of the subsidiary there are transferred to an agent.
2006
A new logistics centre is opened in Obertshausen
2007
KARL MAYER celebrated its 70th anniversary at the same time as the opening of its new Customer Support and Development Centre
2008
Opening of the new production plant KARL MAYER CHINA Ltd. in Changzhou
Foundation of the KARL MAYER Academy CHINA
KARL MAYER takes over the warp preparation weaving division from Benninger/ Switzerland.
2010
KARL MAYER delivers its 100,000th machine.
