Company profile of Maerz Ofenbau AG

Maerz Ofenbau AG was founded in 1950 in Zurich, Switzerland, by Austrian magnesite producers, to design and sell open hearth furnace technology to the world-wide steel industry.

In 1965 Maerz began the design and construction of the patented "MAERZ^® Parallel Flow Regenerative (PFR) Lime Kiln” with high thermal efficiency and superior lime quality. This kiln – known since then as the "MAERZ^® Kiln” – has continuously been improved upon. The initial design was an oil fired lime kiln of 100 tpd capacity. Soon this was followed by larger units with higher capacities, which were optionally oil or gas fired. In the late seventies a patented firing system was introduced for pulverised solid fuels.

As a further milestone, Maerz introduced the "MAERZ^® Finelime Kiln” to the lime industry in the late eighties. This vertical shaft kiln type allows for the calcination of small size limestone and dolomite which in the past had to be processed in rotary kilns with a significantly lower thermal efficiency. 

Today Maerz offers PFR Kilns with nominal capacities between 100 and 850 tpd and with firing systems for all types of liquid, gaseous and pulverised solid fuels.

In 1995 RCE Industrieofenbau Engineering GmbH in Radenthein, Austria, became a subsidiary of Maerz. RCE is a specialist in the sector of kilns for calcining and sintering raw materials for the refractory industry and has increased Maerz’s product portfolio by single shaft kilns for the production of lime with medium and low reactivity.

In 2006 Maerz became a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Polysius AG in Beckum, Germany, and is now the centre of all lime-related activities in the whole group. With Polysius’ know-how, Maerz today also offers rotary kilns, annular shaft kilns and suspension calciners, as well as facilities for limestone handling and processing of burnt lime, thereby offering complete systems to the lime industry.

By combining the know-how and the experience of Maerz, ThyssenKrupp Polysius and RCE in the lime industry, Maerz is able to offer tailor-made solutions to its customers. The different types of kilns complement one another in their operative range and are deployed in accordance with the requirements of a project, depending on production capacity, fuel, grain size of the raw material, required quality, etc.

Maerz has designed and constructed roughly 500 kilns in more than 60 countries around the world and therefore has the most comprehensive reference list for lime kilns.