Zapp Alloys

[Bartolome Beacham]

TheZapp Group is an international group of companies in the field of metal working based in Ratingen, Germany. The group's lead company is the Zapp Precision Metals GmbH in Schwerte and Unna, Germany. The group is a leading manufacturer of metallic precision semi-finished products and specialized in cold forming of stainless steel, titanium, carbon steel and special materials to strip, wire, rod, and profile.

The history of the family Zapp goes back to 1701, when Hermann Zapp, father of Engelberth Zapp, started a steel production north of Rnderoth in the valley of Leppe. He bought an iron hammer and registered a trade.

In 1852 he built his first puddle furnace for steel of constant quality. Steel was produced there for five generations. Also Krupp bought refined steel from Zapp. When in 1857 the Great Depression caught Zapp in a financial imbalance, the company was sold. However, they remained true to steel.

In 1869 Robert Zapp left Rnderoth and founded the steel trading company Zapp (today: Zapp AG) in Dsseldorf in 1871, concentrating in particular on the Europe-wide distribution of English special steels. Zapp had previously studied iron metallurgy and the Bessemer process in England and now used his know-how for the production of special steel. But the new steel grades needed explanation. The competitive advantages that resulted from this required intensive cooperation with the toolmakers.

In 1926 the company Robert Zapp took over the Ergste steelworks, which had specialized in cold forming of stainless steel. For 70 years, the two companies operated largely independently of each other. In the post-war period, the Robert Zapp trading house concentrated on innovative high-performance materials and expanded its branch network. In contrast, the Ergste steelworks increasingly shifted its production to high-alloy and new special steels and expanded its special position among drawing and cold rolling mills. In the 1960s it was decided to concentrate entirely on stainless, acid and heat-resistant steels.

In 1991, the Ergste steelworks bought the Westig steelworks in Unna. In 1995, the two companies merged to form Stahlwerk Ergste Westig. In the following years, production plants in the US in Summerville (South Carolina) and Dartmouth (Massachusetts), the second most important market after Europe.

In 1998, the companies of the group were merged into a family controlled joint-stock company. Since then, the company has expanded primarily in the US, Germany and China. In Germany, the companies Ferd. Wagner GmbH in Pforzheim and [Euro Titan Handels GmbH] in Ratingen were taken over by the Zapp Group and Zapp Precision Metals (Taicang) Co. was founded in China. In the US, the Zapp Group also grew through acquisitions.

In addition, Stahlwerk Ergste Westig GmbH was renamed Zapp Precision Metals GmbH to better express its core business as a niche supplier of precision products internationally. At the same time, Robert Zapp Werkstofftechnik was renamed Zapp Materials Engineering and Robert Zapp Service-GmbH was renamed Zapp Systems GmbH.

The core competencies of the company lie in the cold forming of stainless metallic materials in the product forms strip, wire, rod and profile into precision semi-finished products. Mainly austenitic, ferritic and martensitic are processed Stainless steels, nickel- and nickel-based alloys, cobalt-based alloys, but also titanium and titanium alloys. In addition, there are trade and service centres for special materials and tool alloys.

The German Federal Cartel Office (German: Bundeskartellamt) imposed fines totalling 205 million euros on several stainless steel producers, including Zapp Group, in July 2018 for price-fixing. From 2004 until its search in November 2015, the company has agreed the method of calculating scrap and alloy surcharges with ArcelorMittal, Saarstahl AG, Voestalpine and Drrenberg Edelstahl, among others. The companies would also have exchanged prices for products for engineering steel. These companies have acknowledged the allegations against them. The companies' agreements were uncovered on the basis of a reference from Voestalpine, who, as turn state's evidence, does not now have to pay a fine.[2]

Our material specialists advise you with their comprehensive expertise so you can find the material with the ideal combination of properties for your application. In addition to our broad material portfolio, we can also develop customized alloys together with you to yield the greatest benefits in your production and the best quality for your end product.

Nickel, cobalt, and titanium in over 30 materials and more than 1,200 tons of material are waiting for your order in our service centers worldwide. High-performance materials are extremely heat and corrosion resistant and do their job even in the most aggressive environments.

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Zapp Precision Metals is a market leading manufacturer of precision steel products. With over three hundred years of history and based on German roots, Zapp has built up a network of production locations and service centers on three continents. Operating across 15 sites globally, with approximately 1,350 employees, their semi-finished product portfolio is the feedstock for many demanding applications and products in industrial sectors such as automotive, aerospace, medical, energy generation, oil and gas.

Zapp: Zapp operates three divisions; Precision Strip, Precision Wire and Materials Engineering, which is a distributor of specialist tooling alloys, powder metallurgical products and other exotic metals in various forms. Our production sites are supported by a global network of service centers to ensure reliable delivery with short leadtimes.

In addition, we have recently developed two special heat treated products, for use within precision etching and laser cutting applications; Zapp Micro-Etch and Zapp Super-Etch. Due to the removal of internal stresses within these strip products, the material etching performance and thermal stability is vastly increased. This enables our customers to achieve improved process yields, hold tighter tolerances and ultimately offers greater design freedom.

In medical technology, additive manufacturing processes offer application-specific advantages in terms of osseointegration, flexibility in production and freedom in product design. Our metallic powders for your additive manufacturing of medical implants or instruments are available in various materials and designs. The area of application is powder fed processing technology such as SLS, SLM, DMLS, etc.

Zapp: Zapp sources raw material from leading global suppliers, according to our own high quality material specifications. Utilising this network of global suppliers, we select the best raw material for each specific end product that our customers ask us to produce.

We specialise in the manufacture of high precision, cold formed, semi-finished products and normally operate as a tier 2 or 3 supplier in our supply chains. However, we often have direct contact with tier 1 or OEM companies, in order to design and co-develop new products together.

Supporting our customers with the development of their products is an important focus for our team and we have many R&D engineers and metallurgists who work in this area. In addition, we can also offer our customers material testing services via a number of accredited laboratories, including a corrosion testing centre.

Perhaps most importantly is the fundamental requirement to manufacture our products efficiently, whilst maximising the use of our natural resources and ensuring environmental sustainability in everything that we do.

Zapp: Over the past few year the Zapp Precision Strip division has developed its capabilities for the manufacture of thin foil products (down to 0.025mm) with extremely tight tolerances and shape requirements. One specific product is Zapp SuperClean Invar 36*, which is used within the production of OLED displays. The quality demands for this application are extremely high due to the precise nature of the end product, which possesses etched apertures of approximately 30 microns in diameter.

Finally, our extensive hardened and tempered martensitic stainless steel portfolio contains performance grades such as Zapp SF (Super Fatigue) for demanding flapper valve applications, as well as other high-end engineering applications.

Zapp has been a family owned company in the steel industry for over 300 years. Today, with about 1,100 employees at 14 locations in Germany, Sweden, USA and China, the Zapp Group is established worldwide as a leading supplier of semi-finished metal products.

The core competences include the cold forming of precision semi-finished products with an emphasis on stainless steel and special alloys. Activities include consulting and the manufacture, finishing and trading of high-performance materials.

The Zapp Group, which will celebrate its 325th anniversary in 2026 and has launched a major new investment project with the construction of a 12,000 m production hall for precision foil at its Unna site, in Germany.

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