By Wolfgang P. Getta

Egon Evertz (76), the founder and senior boss of the group of companies named after him, was born in 1936 with two things in his cradle: a natural talent for tinkering and inventing, and an unconditional will to do things better than other people. The first talent enabled the son of a radio technician to build his own cathode-ray oscilloscope at the age of 14 - three years after his father's death. The second trait made Evertz the only non-high school graduate to pass the test in 1951, with which the internationally very well-known Ohligs wholesale company Gebr. Weyersberg selected qualified apprentices at that time. After passing his test, the freshly graduated wholesale merchant was hired by a Neuss company that manufactured welding electrodes. The newcomer, entrusted with setting up an export department, wanted to know what he was selling. So he had himself taught welding in all its facets - a pioneering step.

The entrepreneur's career began with the welding of casting molds.

During visits to steel mills, the technical businessman noticed that the molds needed for steel casting - steel molds made of gray cast iron - could not withstand being filled with liquid steel at 1,600 degrees Celsius for long and were then sent for scrap.

Evertz devised a completely new "cold" welding process by which defective ingot molds could be repaired by casting electrodes.

On May 6, 1956, the 19-year-old - by then an orphan - set up his own "mass welding of permanent molds. It became a worldwide success. "The Thyssen company alone saved over 100 million marks from 1970 to 1974 through this process practiced by our people," Evertz says in retrospect. The repair of the ingot molds was quickly joined by other work for the steel industry: overhauling and repairing wear parts. In the 1970s, continuous casting replaced permanent mold casting. In this process, copper molds form the "casting mouth" that gives the liquid steel strand its shape. A new field of activity for Evertz companies became, on the one hand, the processing of slabs by means of scarfing and grinding - in order to optimize the surfaces - and the construction of the necessary machines. We were the first to act as maintenance engineers for continuous casting and introduced many new ideas," emphasizes Egon Evertz. These include improved water cooling and special nickel coating of the copper ingot molds.

Childhood experience leads to improved safety of electromagnets.

The Evertz Group's activities also include the construction of various electric load lifting magnets. Among them is a magnet developed in-house for "gentle" turning of slabs weighing up to 56 tons.

The breakage of the power cable is an uncertainty factor with such magnets. This has been reduced by inventor Evertz - whose group of companies has registered a total of over 300 patents.

"When I was a boy, a capacitor that was still charged gave me an extremely violent electric shock." That energy is the key to EGIS (Evertz Group Intelligent Safety): If the cable breaks, it maintains magnetic force for another ten seconds. That's enough to escape from the danger zone. The system is proving its effectiveness in a Hamburg rolling mill.

The Evertz Group also includes Hydrotechnik. It supplies cooling systems for rolling mills on the one hand and irrigation and spraying systems for automotive test tracks and driving safety centers on the other.

If required, Evertz manufactures equipment for the steel industry, such as transport wagons for 400-ton ladles holding 300 tons of liquid steel. The company portfolio is rounded off by the five milling machine models of Klopp, the traditional Solingen-based machine builder acquired by Evertz years ago.

Successes also as a racing driver, chess player and musician.

Egon Evertz also demonstrated the aforementioned will to do things better than others in his spare time. From 1958 to 1961, for example, he was a car racer and won the German championship in rally, touring car and circuit racing. Spurred on by a bet, he then also won the Bergmeister title in 1975 on a Porsche. After motor racing, Evertz discovered his love of chess and did not do things by halves there either. He had the subtleties of the royal game explained to him by three-time German singles champion Georg Kieninger. In 1964 he was city champion and later many times German team champion with the SG1968.

As a co-founder and sponsor to this day, he helped this club win countless titles at German and international level, including two European Cup victories.

"The commitment to music has given me the most," says the 76-year-old. He continued learning to play the violin, practiced for three years in his childhood, with great ambition at the age of 56. Among those who heard him on his steel violin at the celebration of the merger of the Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl with the Verein Deutscher Hüttenwerke was German President Johannes Rau. For his patronage, Evertz received the Ring of Honor from the city of Solingen. Egon Evertz is a major sponsor of the Youth Music School, which uses two of his halls rent-free, as well as the Choir Academy and the Singers' Youth. One of his halls is regularly used for concerts. For his patronage, which also includes social commitment, the successful entrepreneur was recently awarded the City of Solingen's Ring of Honor. He had already received the Sports Ring of Honor many years ago.

Evertz Group

Around 600 people work in 20 companies (including companies in the USA, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland), almost 100 of them in Solingen.

Succession: His sons Ralf (51, graduate engineer) and Stefan (48, graduate economist) are co-managing directors and designated successors.

"Wirtschaftsraum Solingen" Supplement to the Solinger Tageblatt of July 9, 2013.