12th Merck company run

Donges SteelTec team impresses at the 12th Merck company run

Darmstadt 13 May 2025. Our Donges SteelTec team started the 12th Merck company run with a lot of joy, team spirit and a touch of nervousness. Over 7,000 runners from more than 300 companies joined forces to create an unforgettable event that was bursting with energy and team spirit.

Whether on the short 3.5 km, the medium 5 km or the 10 km challenge – each individual gave their best. The feeling of crossing the finish line together, the cheering spectators and the positive atmosphere in the Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor – these are moments that we will remember for a long time to come.

After the run, we celebrated this special day with a cold beer, full of pride and gratitude for our team and our joint achievement.

/by

Change in production management at Donges SteelTec

Dr Peter Schäfer hands over the baton to Dr Aaron von der Heyden

After 35 years of dedicated service to our company, we have bid farewell to our long-standing Production Manager, Dr Peter Schäfer, on his well-deserved retirement. We would like to express our sincere thanks for his extraordinary loyalty, his tireless commitment and his great contribution to the successful development of our production. During his career, Dr Schäfer has made a significant contribution to the technological and organisational development of our company – always with an eye for quality, efficiency and teamwork.

Our Technical Director, Dr Aaron von der Heyden, will take over the management of production in future. By closely combining technical management and production, we are creating optimal conditions for the holistic further development of our production processes and for shaping the future of our company in a sustainable manner.

We wish Dr Schäfer all the very best for his new chapter in his life and would like to thank him once again for over three decades of valuable collaboration. We also wish Dr von der Heyden every success in his new role.

/by

Our construction site containers have a new look!

The first containers in the new Donges CI are used on the Mainflingen bridge construction site.

/by

C-XIII Interim Meeting 2025

Donges SteelTec welcomes international welding technology experts from the IIW in Darmstadt

As part of the C-XIII Interim Meeting 2025, an international group of experts from the International Institute of Welding (IIW) visited our company in Darmstadt last Thursday.

After a brief presentation of our company and our projects, the welding technology experts were given an insight into our production and processes during a workshop tour. The meeting with colleagues from all over the world provided a welcome opportunity to discuss current challenges and developments in steel construction and welding technology.

Many thanks to the IIW group for their visit and interest – we were delighted to be part of this meeting!

/by

Summer party at Donges SteelTec

Last Friday, the company premises of Donges SteelTec GmbH in Darmstadt were a hive of activity.

Around 300 current and former employees and their families met in the company’s courtyard in the afternoon to discuss current projects and reminisce about the many successfully completed buildings in recent years. The current projects were presented during a tour of the factory halls and the heavy steel structures for the Pfaffendorf Bridge, the Lufthansa Visitors Centre and the Salzgitter Fireproof Hall were shown up close.

The works council, above all its chairman, Ercan Kaya, who had organised the event and provided the food and drink, was highly praised. After the official opening by the Managing Director, Dr Wolf Cornelius, in the early afternoon, the ‘Donges family’ celebrated carefree and with many personal conversations and memories until late in the evening.

/by

New trainees at Donges SteelTec

In southern Hesse, countless young people start their apprenticeships in September, including at Donges SteelTec in Darmstadt.

On Tuesday (2 September), 8 trainees in 3 professional fields celebrated the start of their vocational training at Donges SteelTec. For years, training in our traditional company with its own steel construction production has been in great demand.

Four construction mechanics, three technical system planners and one industrial clerk are familiarised with the processes in steel construction production, the use of 3D/2D CAD programmes, the creation of workshop drawings, parts lists and NC data for the production machines as well as the commercial and business management processes of an industrial company during their three and a half years of training. Company training projects and a comprehensive training programme round off the apprenticeship.

We regularly offer trainees permanent employment contracts and are keen to be able to retain young talent within the company in the future.

“We have been building steel bridges and innovative steel structures for over 150 years. Each construction is individual and a small masterpiece. Getting young people excited about it is both a claim and a challenge for us” says Thomas Kloose, head of training in the technical office at Donges SteelTec.

/by

International welding specialist” training course

Donges SteelTec is once again involved in training international welding specialists this year.

Darmstadt, 19.02.2024. Donges has been building steel bridges and innovative steel structures for 150 years. Each structure is unique and a small masterpiece. To ensure that the high quality requirements for steel structures can continue to be met in the future, well-trained specialists are needed. With this in mind, Donges SteelTec not only trains construction mechanics and system planners in its own company in Darmstadt, but is also involved in training courses at the Hessen Metal College in Oberursel.

Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Schade, head of quality management/assurance and welding engineer at Donges SteelTec, once again took on part of the theoretical training for the “International Welding Specialist” course at the Hessen Metal College. The practical knowledge of the course participants was deepened during an excursion to Darmstadt in the production halls of Donges SteelTec GmbH.

We congratulate the 18 participants on passing their exams and wish them every success in their future careers.

/by

Excursion into practice

Donges SteelTec trainees visit the PTS and RTW construction sites in Frankfurt

“We offer our apprentices an exciting, comprehensive and practical training as a solid basis for the start of their professional life” with this motto Donges SteelTec advertises apprenticeships to young people.

Now the practical relevance was established for the prospective technical system planners and construction mechanics. Together with their training supervisors, the 15 technical and industrial apprentices of Donges SteelTec first visited the new Passenger Transport System (PTS) station under construction at Frankfurt Airport and then the RTW construction site (Regional-Tangente-West) near Frankfurt Stadium. Donges SteelTec has been commissioned with the manufacture, delivery and assembly of the complex steel structures for both construction projects.

The two Donges site managers proudly presented the current assembly status of the projects, pointed out the technically demanding assembly steps to the young colleagues and explained the special working situation on a construction site. With great interest and impressed by the huge steel constructions that characterise both the PTS station and the new bar arch bridge of the western regional tangent, the trainees absorbed the many practical information during their tour of the construction sites.

/by

Business meets Science

Donges SteelTec promotes young scientists

Darmstadt, 19.10.2023. It pays to promote young scientists: Darmstadt-based Donges SteelTec GmbH has now awarded a total of 6,000 euros in prize money to four students at Darmstadt Technical University. This is the 11th time that the Donges sponsorship award has recognised outstanding bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral theses in the field of steel construction at TUDa.

The award fulfils several objectives for Donges SteelTec. “On the one hand, this is how we document our solidarity with the Technical University of Darmstadt, which is based on many years of scientific and personal cooperation,” explains Donges SteelTec Managing Director Dr Wolf Cornelius. On the other hand, as one of the leading German steel construction companies, Donges SteelTec is committed to thinking beyond the day and acting sustainably. “And this also includes promoting young technical talent, which is essential for the success of our economy in global competition.”

The jury, including Professors Lange and Vormwald from the Institute for Steel Construction and Mechanics of Materials at TU Darmstadt, sifted through numerous dissertations, bachelor’s and master’s theses and finally selected four young academics, whose work is of outstanding importance in the field of steel construction. The works awarded in two senses deal with the ecological-economic evaluation of sandwich elements, “3-D printing with steel: additive manufacturing of steel columns, the material behaviour of butt welded joints and the load-bearing behaviour of fillet welded joints under longitudinal shear. All papers have experimental as well as theoretical or numerical parts, which mutually confirm the results found.They all lead to findings on the basis of which structural components in steel construction can be designed more economically; thus an essential evaluation criterion for the submission was fulfilled.The four young engineers Alina Behrendt, Niklas Brand, Joachim Schliemann and Anusikah Sivakadadcham were honoured at the ceremony on 19 October 2023 in the guest house of the TU Darmstadt.

In his presentation of the company, Stephan Langer, bridge construction manager at Donges SteelTec, made special mention of the company’s involvement in the construction of the new stadium for the “Lilien” and thus led over to the evening’s keynote speaker, Rüdiger Fritsch. In his rousing speech, the president of SV Darmstadt 1898 provided insights into the business enterprise “football”.

At the subsequent get-together, around 100 guests, including many students from the Department of Civil Engineering at the TUD as well as business partners and employees of Donges SteelTec GmbH, found time to exchange ideas and network.

The next Donges Award ceremony will take place in two years’ time.

/by

Top placings for Donges young welders

Donges SteelTec takes part in the “Jugend schweißt” competition of the DVS Association.

Darmstadt, 02.06.2023. In the preliminary round of the “Jugend schweißt” competition, the trainees of Donges SteelTec GmbH achieved first and third places in the MAG and E-Hand processes. With torch in hand, they were able to demonstrate their manual skills in welding steel sheets. The young Donges welders were rewarded with valuable non-cash prizes and a cash gift. In addition, welding test certificates were issued for the welded fillet welds.

For the first-place winners, it is now on to the next round of the competition at state level in Kassel, and if the welds are perfectly set, then to the national competition in Essen in September. We are already keeping our fingers crossed!

Marco Arndt, responsible for welding training at Donges SteelTec, is proud of the young talent and sees their successful performance as confirmation of the good quality of training at Donges SteelTec.

 

/by