Used Schiess Machines We Buy

Who Makes Schiess Machines

Schiess machines are built by SCHIESS Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik GmbH in Aschersleben, Germany. The name goes back to Ernst Schiess, who established SCHIESS in Düsseldorf in 1866. The company says it began as a repair shop and contract manufacturer and only started building machine tools after 1870: vertical lathes, portal milling machines and, later, horizontal milling machines. By 1880 it was among the top three machine tool makers in the German Empire, and in 1891 Ernst Schiess started the founding of the VDW, the German machine tool builders' association.

The Aschersleben plant has its own line. Heinrich Billeter and Wilhelm Klunz founded a machine works there in 1857. After World War II it was nationalized as WEMA Aschersleben in East Germany, while in West Germany Schiess restarted production of its machine tools in Düsseldorf during the 1950s. After German reunification, Schiess AG acquired WEMA Aschersleben, and Schiess dates the reunion of the companies to 1991.

A management buyout in 1997 formed SCHIESS Wema GmbH, and by 1999 the company was designing a new line of horizontal boring machines, vertical turning lathes and gantry milling machines. China's Shenyang Machine Tool Group acquired SCHIESS GmbH in 2004, and that company ceased operations in 2019. At the end of 2019 the current SCHIESS Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik GmbH was founded again as a subsidiary of China Longma Holding Group, a Chinese wind energy specialist.

Schiess Froriep and the Older Düsseldorf Machines

Some older machines carry the Schiess Froriep name. Schiess's own history does not mention Froriep, so this part comes from German Wikipedia's article on Maschinenfabrik Froriep. It says Froriep was founded in 1867 in Rheydt, now part of Mönchengladbach, and built heavy machine tools, among them vertical and horizontal lathes and horizontal boring and milling machines. Tube Investments of London bought Froriep in 1966 and sold the works to Schiess AG of Düsseldorf in 1971. In the years after, most production moved from Rheydt to Düsseldorf.

Schiess's Current Lines

Schiess builds CNC large machining centers for heavy work on large parts, used in mechanical engineering, energy, aerospace and shipbuilding. Its machines page lists two series. The VERTIMASTER series covers portal milling machines, a gantry milling machine with a faceplate for milling and turning, vertical turning machines, a vertical turning and milling machine, and the V series, which turns, drills and mills in one setup. The HORIMASTER P series covers boring mills. That is the full list on the machines page; the table below gives each name.

Schiess says the VMG-PS handles workpieces up to 600 tons, and the V series takes workpieces up to 3 metres in diameter and 20 tonnes. Its machines use what Schiess calls the MASTERHEAD principle, a standard interface between machine and head so that milling, turning, drilling or grinding heads change by a pick-up method instead of by hand.

Reading a VERTIMASTER or HORIMASTER Name

The names on Schiess's machines and technical details pages, and what Schiess builds under each one:

From Schiess's machines page and technical details page. The older Schiess and Schiess Froriep model codes are not on either page.

What Decides the Offer on a Used Schiess

The Schiess machines that reach us span a long stretch of the company's history. Older model strings on our listings include DKE, DS and DSC, DZ, DF, DV, KZ, ZK, EK and VKE names, FB and BF boring mill names, RF and RFH names, and an FZG millturn, plus machines badged Schiess Froriep or Schiess Moweg. Newer listings carry VERTIMASTER, VMG, Vertiturn and Horimill names. Schiess's site does not explain the older letter codes, so we read them from the plate and the machine itself rather than guess.

Schiess builds to order from modular parts, and it adapts the sizes on its own data pages to each customer, so two machines with the same family name can differ a lot. The plate string, the faceplate or table size, the working height and the heads that come with the machine set the starting range. The condition of the faceplate drive, the ram and the ways, and the age of the control, move the number from there.

Schiess Service and Retrofit, or Selling Outright

Schiess runs a service and retrofit department that works on machine tools of any make and type, whatever the year of manufacture. It makes new parts and reworks old ones for older machines, keeps a central archive of documents from over 60 years, and converts conventional machine tools to CNC control. For the USA, Canada and Mexico, Schiess lists SHUB Machinery of Marietta, Georgia, as its partner.

That route fits a Schiess you plan to keep and upgrade. For one you want off the floor, we buy it outright, and retrofit or service records are worth sending with the details.