1970–1979: The Service Company Grows

An Innovative Service Company Establishes Itself

At his company headquarters in Windhagen, Reinhard Wirtgen systematically expanded his fleet of company-owned milling machines to 100 large machines. With his team, which in the meantime had grown to 150 employees, he operated the machines as a service provider not only throughout Germany, but also beyond the country’s borders.

1971

One of the first hot milling machines in the world.

1976

With the development of the repaver, Reinhard Wirtgen laid the foundation for hot recycling technology.

1977

Factory expansion at the Windhagen site.

1979

The cold milling machine is the company’s next major innovation.

The WIRTGEN Portfolio grows:

A fleet of over 100 large machines.

Because WIRTGEN successfully completed an increasing number of rehabilitation jobs via the milling process, milling was finally included as the standard procedure in invitations to tender. At the end of the 1970s, WIRTGEN succeeded in making the leap from hot milling to cold milling, which enormously increased the cost-effectiveness of the process. This was a groundbreaking step for WIRTGEN in its core area of business.

In addition, the hot recycling process was developed as a second rehabilitation method. Reinhard Wirtgen introduced it to the market with conviction – once again with machines he had built himself in his own service fleet. The company began to expand internationally by founding its first subsidiaries abroad.