The company Laaf PM & Walzenservice GmbH was founded in 1998 by Karl-Heinz Laaf (former head of the service department at Voith Düren) for the manufacture of guide rolls, press rolls, reel spools, bearings, drive parts including technical design as well as the subsequent service work for the paper industry. Another product area of our company is the maintenance of functional rolls.

In addition to Karl-Heinz Laaf, responsible as Managing Director for technology and order processing, his wife, Gisela Laaf, also joined the company to manage the commercial side of the business.

Our company, with currently 40 employees, is located with our administration and production halls on approx. 6700 m² in a part of the former Dörries tool and machine factory in Mechernich - Vussem in the district of Euskirchen, directly on the A1 motorway exit Bad Münstereifel/Mechernich.

In 2002, the company also introduced its own coating with composite ceramics for wire, felt, dryer fabric and paper guide rolls as wear and corrosion protection.

This was able to establish itself in the paper industry with unexpected speed and still enjoys a pleasingly good demand today, but predominantly only for wet felt guide rolls.

In the following years, our machine park was extended by a Waldrich roll grinding machine with a grinding length of up to 8800 mm (2003) and a large lathe with a centre distance of up to 13000 mm (2004).

Since 01.10.2005 we have been an authorised sales partner and processing company for ARC compound systems. ARC is a division of A.W. Chesterton. Therefore, a further product segment in the field of erosion, abrasion and corrosion protection as well as protection against chemical attack has been added to our product range.

The existing balancing machine was optimised in 2010. A second balancing machine was also installed. Both machines were equipped with new, modern measuring systems from Schenck Rotec with graphic recording of the measurement data during the balancing of rolls.

In 2011 & 2012, the Waldrich roll grinding machine was optimized and upgraded to meet higher quality requirements. The measuring system on the Waldrich roll grinding machine was brought up to the latest state of the art and the machine was fitted with a new grinding spindle with drive motor. In addition, the bed path guides and lubrication were optimized.

Walter Prümmer, a long-time companion of Karl-Heinz Laaf both at Voith Düren and as an employee at Laaf since 2000, was appointed Managing Director in June 2012, focussing on sales and order processing.

The production area was expanded by 1280 square metres to 4920 square metres in 2014, with the assembly department, the warehouse, the painting department, the goods receiving department and the dispatch department being installed in the newly added production area in hall 1. The parts preparation department and a storage location for transport boxes were set up in hall 3, which was freed up as a result.

The investment in a superfinishing machine attached to the roll grinding machine in 2015 allowed us to achieve better surface characteristics, particularly on paper-contacted rolls.

A further expansion of the production area by approx. 950 m² (hall 6) to a total of 5870 m² took place in 2019. This new hall gave us the opportunity to expand our suction roll workshop in hall 1. The assembly department for smaller rolls was relocated to the new area.

In July and September 2021, a CNC bed milling machine CME FS4 and a new cycle-controlled lathe (Boehringer VDF 630 DUS) with a turning length of 2000 mm were started up for the production and machining of individual parts such as journals and bearing housings. These replace outdated conventional machines.

On 1 January 2023, Mario Laaf, son of Gisela and Karl-Heinz Laaf, took over the management of Finance & Administration due to Gisela Laaf's retirement. The foundation for the continued existence of the Laaf company in family hands is thus secured.