Pioneers In The Paper Converting Industry

Company E.C.H. Will founded by Eduard Christian Heinrich Will. First pen ruling machine with manual infeed of single sheets and inking unit.

First rotary machine for the production of exercise books.

Hans Biel founds a design company focusing on automation in Neuffen, Germany.

Hans Biel officially registers bielomatik GmbH in Neuffen, Germany.

First paper processing machines.

First automated exercise book line.

Pemco founded in Sheboygan, WI, by local entrepreneur, Fred Koehn, to rebuild and modify existing packaging machines.

Walter Kugler founds Kugler Automation GmbH. First semi-automatic writing pad machine.
Ward Machinery was founded by William F. Ward, Sr., who invented the world's first Rotary Die Cutter.

First cut-size sheeter for the production of communication paper.

100th anniversary of E.C.H. Will GmbH.
First Pemco engineered cut-size ream wrapper.

Leuze Group acquires bielomatik GmbH and forms bielomatik Leuze GmbH + Co.KG First paper punching machine. First carbon paper inspection and cut-size machines.
Marquip, Inc. was founded as a manufacturer of custom-designed automated machinery for building materials industry; Under the leadership of founder Carl Marschke and his business partner, Richard Thomas, the company refocused to providing machinery for the corrugated paperboard industry.

Completion of the first bank note cut-size and sorting machine.

Hans Wohlfahrt founds Womako Maschinenkonstruktion GmbH.

E.C.H. Will GmbH acquires Womako Maschinenkonstruktionen GmbH, Nürtingen (Germany), developer and manufacturer of machinery for the stationery industry and bookbinderies.

First fully-automatic passport manufacturing line.

Machine for production of suspension files from the web.

E.C.H. Will GmbH acquires Pemco Inc., Sheboygan (USA), manufacturer of complete lines for wrapping small paper formats, folio-size cutters and fully automatic cartoning machines.

E.C.H. Will GmbH acquires Kugler Automation GmbH in Riederich (Germany), builder of machinery and production lines for manufacturing personal documents.

First wire comb forming machine P 496 and the exercise book line P 15- 90 with shrink film packaging line, 100 cycles/min.
The company Maryland eventually became the United Container Machinery Company.

Pemco builds first fully automatic folio ream wrapper.

E.C.H. Will GmbH acquires Wrapmatic S.p.A. of Bologna (Italy), manufacturer of large format, folio-size ream wrapping machines and completelines for pallet handling.

Pemco expands product portfolio by acquiring Clark-Aiken (Lee, Massachusetts), building first DM series folio sheeter

Development of the new machine generation P 2000, a web-finishing system. First 12-pocket cut-size sheeter.

Delivery of the 200th binding machine.

Laser perforation of passports with 50 books/minute.

Flexible high-speed cutting machine for photo paper.

First high-speed label cutting machine for wet glue applied labels.
Merger of Kugler Automation GmbH and Womako Maschinenkonstruktionen GmbH to Kugler- Womako GmbH based in Nürtingen Germany.

Barry-Wehmiller acquired Marquip, Inc.
Pemco enters small folio sheeter market with acquisition of product line from Strachan Henshaw Machinery (SHM).

Delivery of the 100th double wire forming machine.

Barry-Wehmiller acquired Ward Machinery Company which then merged with Marquip to form MarquipWard.
Barry-Wehmiller completed the acquisition of United Container Machinery; the addition of United's wet end and finishing products to MarquipWard's dry end products enabled the merged company to provide a full corrugator and finishing machinery.

Machine for chip-integration in passports. Acquisition of the Combina of Schafer-Etiketten V GmbH labelina machines.

PassPort 4 machine for chip-programming in passports.

Kugler-Womako acquires the existing company premises in Nürtingen.
VortX United, Inc., a manufacturer of high-shear starch mixing systems, was acquired and integrated with MarquipWardUnited.

Apollo Sheeters Ltd. of Bedford, England, was acquired and integrated with MarquipWardUnited; Apollo manufacturers sheeters for paper and board.
First 16-pocket cut-size line.

Kugler-Womako wins the Innovation Award of the German Printing Industry for the new paper binding machine EcoBinder.
Pemco celebrates its 50th anniversary.

MarquipWardUnited acquired Officine Curioni S.p.A. of Milan, Italy, a provider of finishing machinery since 1925.

MarquipWardUnited, a Barry-Wehmiller company, acquires E.C.H. Will and its sister companies Pemco and Kugler-Womako. The new holding BW Papersystems is set up to combine all these strong brands.

Barry-Wehmiller acquires Bielomatik paper processing group.
The new brand WillPemcoBielomatik is created. The large product portfolio now includes cut-size sheeting and packaging lines, folio sheeters, folio ream wrappers, stationery production equipment, and RFID processing solutions.

The manufacturing Location Kugler-Womako GmbH is legally renamed to BW Papersystems Stuttgart GmbH and is now the home base of Kugler-Womako and BW Bielomatik brands.

BW Papersystems adds Zerand, based in New Berlin, WI, a leading manufacturer of high-speed platen and rotary die-cutting machines, to the portfolio.

BW Papersystems acquires K&H, a producer of corrugators founded in 1989 in Taiwan, and Questec, Germany, a manufacturer of innovative sheeters for lightweight materials.