On January 1, 1949, Karl-Wilhelm Burgdorf founded the company Dipl.-Ing. Karl-Wilhelm Burgdorf, Abschreckhärtetechnik, Nienburg a. d. Weser, in the turmoil of the post-war period.

His decision to found the company was based, on the one hand, on the experience he had acquired during his work for international mineral oil companies before and during the Second World War and, on the other hand, on the opportunity to use two patents that he had been significantly involved in developing.

On the basis of these findings, Karl-Wilhelm Burgdorf developed the first high-performance quenching oils with controlled cooling behavior.

These new quenching oils benefited German industry, which demanded high-quality, high-performance quenching oils with long-term stability due to a post-war shortage of alloyed and easily hardenable steels.

Due to an unfavorable living and working situation in Nienburg, Karl-Wilhelm Burgdorf quickly looked for a larger home for his extended family and the newly founded company. To this end, he made personal contact with the then Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Arnulf Klett. In the interests of rebuilding Stuttgart as a business location, he was given a building for his family and the company at the instigation of the Lord Mayor, which they moved into in 1950.

BURGDORF was carefully and purposefully built up by him, from the end of the 1960s by his sons the brothers Dipl.-Kfm. Hannes Burgdorf and Dipl.-Ing. Eckhard H. Burgdorf and since 2005 by Dipl.-Ing. Rainer Braun and Dipl.-Kfm. Frank Burgdorf into an internationally active specialist company for heat treatment technology of the highest rank.

Building on the high-performance quenching oils already introduced to the market, BURGDORF has expanded its product portfolio over the years with the development of synthetic quenching oils, vacuum quenching oils, polymer quenchants, special cleaners and corrosion inhibitors. With the acquisition of NÜSSLE GmbH & Co KG and OSMIROL GmbH, we expanded our product portfolio to include high-quality stop-off paints and gained internationally recognized polymer quenchants expertise. Following the takeover of the quenching agent activities of Carl Bechem GmbH, Hagen and Georg Oest Mineralölwerke GmbH&Co.KG, Freudenstadt, we now operate worldwide in the field of materials technology and heat treatment under the name "bon Group".

Achieving results of exceptional quality for our customers - this is not only because of our high-quality product range. What has set us apart is our comprehensive application technology advice and in-depth expertise, which is unrivaled on the market. We share our profound know-how on heat treatment, application, handling and care of our products with our customers. We supplement this with an excellent after-sales service with regular customer visits, on-site support in the event of problems and information on new and further developments. Based on this, we operate until today as a specialized technology company focusing on the heat treatment of metals.

Every year, we support children and young people in regional projects to meet their basic essential needs and health or to help them in their educational and professional development.

For the Olgäle Stiftung e.V. in Stuttgart, BURGDORF is financing the purchase of urgently needed medical equipment for the pediatric examination of children with € 5,000.

NUSSLE is supporting the Jugendforschungszentrum Schwarzwald Schönbuch e.V. a youth research center in Nagold with € 5,000 for a specific and exciting climate research project, which is being carried out by a young student and supported by scientists and entrepreneurs.

In a smaller setting and over shorter distances, we came together all the more quickly this year. This year, discussions with our customers and business partners focused primarily on the topics of transformation and sustainability as well as the development of our industry in the current challenging political and economic situation. 

We are particularly pleased about this year's Karl Wilhelm Burgdorf Award winner, Dr.-Ing. Joachim Georg Wünning (Managing Partner of WS-Wärmeprozesstechnik GmbH in Renningen near Stuttgart). The Karl Wilhelm Burgdorf Prize honors his development of flameless oxidation (Flox). Together with his father, Dr. Joachim Alfred Wünning, he developed this technology to series maturity and subsequently introduced it into practice (e.g. in recuperative burners with high combustion efficiency).

In numerous groundbreaking lectures and contributions, Dr. Wünning has presented concrete approaches to decarbonization (including "Emission-free heating of heat treatment furnaces"). He also contributes his scientific knowledge through his extensive involvement in the AWT's technical committees and in the Forschungsgemeinschaft Industrieofenbau FOGI.

Overview of the award winners

The war and the resulting great suffering in Ukraine prompted us to make our annual donation to the affected local people. BURGDORF and NUSSLE support with € 5,000 each the aid organization STELP e.V.  in Stuttgart, which helps the people in need with aid activities under very difficult conditions.

Happy to be able to talk to each other in person again, standing together and exchanging ideas. That was also the unanimous feedback we received from the trade fair. It was great!

We are very happy about this year's Karl Wilhelm Burgdorf Award winner, Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Wolfram Schmid from the Berufsgenossenschaft/ Deutsche Gesetzliche Unfallversicherung e.V.! As a member and head of the AWT's Fachausschuss 8 "Safety in Heat Treatment Plants", Wolfram Schmid played a major role in revising the "Safety Recommendations for the Operation of Industrial Furnaces with Process Gas Atmospheres", which are very important for the industry. In addition, he and his management team support heattreatment shops in the implementation of occupational and operational safety through seminars, training courses and practical aids such as checklists and action aids. This valuable work, in which theoretical knowledge is put into practice anew every day and heattreatment shops are made safer, is highly deserving the Karl Wilhelm Burgdorf Award.

Overview Award winner

After a break of 2 years, this year's HärtereiKongress will return to Cologne as a presence trade fair from October 11 - 13, 2022. We are again represented with a booth with the bonGroup and look forward to your visit!

You will find us in hall 10.2 at booth C-040 / C-042.

Also we would like to welcome you again to the reception of the AWT and the ceremony of the Karl-Wilhelm-Burgdorf-Award on the evening of October 12 at 6 pm.

Another exceptionally challenging year comes to an end with great uncertainty. As in the previous year, hopes and worries alternated. More than ever, we are challenged to stand up for our social coexistence and solidarity. The economic and social turbulence has also accompanied us through 2021 and will probably remain with us well into the coming year 2022.

A year ago, we asked ourselves what the following weeks might hold for us in the new year 2021. Weeks have become months; a year and the uncertainty has remained.

Nevertheless, we are in good spirits and very confident that we can successfully master the challenges.

We wish you a merry and blessed Christmas and a new happy year 2022 - stay healthy!

Instead of presents and gifts we donate and support with € 7.500,- the Stuttgart Johannes Falk Haus (residential home and help center for young people in need) and with € 5.000,- the Youth Research Center in Nagold.

In this exceptional year, instead of gifts, we are once again supporting two institutions in the Stuttgart and Nagold regions with a donation of €5,000 each.

The association "fürs Käpsele e.V.- Freunde helfen Kindern aus Stuttgart", which was founded in 2020, supports children from financially underprivileged families with the aim of giving them hope and the chance to be an equal part of our society.

For 9 years, the "Förderverein Stationäres Hospiz Region Nagold e.V." has made it its task to create a home for seriously ill people in their last phase of life, in which they can be cared for medically and pastorally according to their needs in a familiar environment.

Due to the infectious disease COVID-19, the HärtereiKongress 2020 takes place from 21 to 22 October as an online event.

The series of lectures can be attended on both days as webinars. In parallel, a freely accessible virtual trade fair will be set up on the website www.hk-awt-2020.de. We are represented on this trade fair platform and look forward to your contacting us via chat or video.

We are promoter and sponsor of the AWT and are pleased to be able to support our association in difficult times.

At the member's conference of the AWT on October 20, 2020, our managing partner Dipl.-Ing. Rainer Braun was appointed to the managing board of the AWT. This is a great honor and a huge leap of faith in challenging times.

Unfortunately, the Karl Wilhelm Burgdorf Prize will not be awarded in 2020, as the events accompanying the trade fair cannot take place in the usual form and we want to give the recipient of the prize the honor of receiving his prize at an official ceremony. The award ceremony will therefore be postponed until 2021.

Just in time for the HK 2020 we are pleased to supply the new heat treatment furnace at the IWT with our High-Performance Quenching Oil DURIXOL W72. 

We miss you personally! We would like to meet you virtually at our digital booth, via chat or video as you like.

We support the Stuttgart Child Protection Centre (KISZ) and the Child Protection Association in Nagold as part of the annual Christmas donation campaign.

The Child Protection Centre in Stuttgart is a counselling and crisis centre for children and young people affected by violence. The donation of 7.500,- € will be used for the design of a "Snoezelen room" in the new shelter in the therapy garden of the KISZ, which is also new. There the children and adolescents will find a place of retreat to relax and recover in addition to their therapeutic work.

At the Child Protection Association in Nagold, children and youths between the ages of 6 and 16 are looked after in socio-pedagogical day groups on behalf of the youth welfare office and their parents. The existing rooms in the Old Mill are being renovated as part of an enlargement. With our donation of 5.000,- € the rooms can be equipped with new furniture. In addition, we support the existing media pedagogical concept by purchasing digital equipment such as laptops and printers.