50 years of Dugar + Schuster
1974 – 2024
The year is 1982
Argentine troops occupy the Falkland Islands. This is the beginning of the Falklands War.
Helmut Kohl (CDU) is elected as the new head of government after a vote of no confidence against Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (SPD).
The first German test-tube baby is born in Erlangen.
Audi presents the aerodynamic “world champion” Audi 100 with a drag coefficient of just 0.30.
Walter Röhrl wins the 50th Monte Carlo Rally in Monaco with an Opel Ascona 400.
Niki Lauda is celebrating his Formula 1 comeback after a three-year break.
Michael Jackson’s successful album Thriller is released, which over the years becomes the best-selling album in the world.
The first Commodore 64 comes onto the market.
Student Scott E. Fahlman suggests using the three ASCII character string 🙂 for email jokes. The first smiley (emoticon) will soon spread across Arpanet. The Internet doesn’t exist yet.
Move to Langenfeld
In the meantime, Mr. Janos Dugar had left the company for reasons of age, but his name remains in the company name to this day.
This also made it possible to move to Horst Schuster’s hometown of Langenfeld in the Rhineland, which reduced the daily commute to the office from 50 to 5 km.
The TVA company’s representation for the rim machines was no longer viable because the stability of the TVA company was at risk despite good sales.
CNC technology had recently found its way into machine tool construction, which reduced set-up times and enabled flexible use of the machines while improving precision.
During this pioneering period of CNC technology, TVA had too much faith in it. In theory, the double-spindle machine of the “Polyp” model could be used to finish machining two wheels in record time.
In practice, this lathe had 7 cross slides, which required a 14-axis NC control – this did not exist. TVA therefore used a SEPA robot controller. This turned out to be very problematic. The machines delivered to well-known customers were the subject of legal disputes and marked the end of the TVA.
The crisis at TVA was the reason why TVA’s executives and Horst Schuster thought about preparing for the future without TVA. These considerations ultimately led to the founding of the company IMT Intermato S.p.A. in 1983, in which Horst Schuster, together with Francesco Chinaglia, played a key role as later president.
Cover photo Ascona 400:
Photo by M.Rejha at Wikimedia Commons
