The global expansion continued throughout the 1960s and by 1971, Hilti's global turnover was 376 million Swiss francs across 45 countries, including new production facilities in Austria and in Germany.
In 1967 the company introduced the TE17, a fully electropneumatic rotary hammer drill which featured a safety clutch, and it was shipped to customers in Hilti's first distinctive red toolbox. After receiving customer feedback Hilti started a product development and improvement project under the name "Torna Entwicklung" (German for "Torna Development"), or "TE" for short, which has since then become the standard name for all Hilti electropneumatic tools. In 1964 Hilti started marketing a drill that also had a chiselling function, made by the Kocher Company, in Basel, under the name "Torna 765". In 1963 Hilti was present in 23 countries, with a turnover of over 400 million Swiss francs. Īt this time Hilti opened offices in Italy, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, France, Australia, Canada and the USA. In 1953 the company introduced its first power-actuated high-velocity fastener that allowed setting nails into concrete, called Perfix.
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In 1952, with a solution that proved mature to be marketed, Hilti launched its first construction-related product, a manual tool to drive threaded studs into steel. In the meantime, through the early 1950s, Hilti produced its own line of household products, which included a cigarette lighter, and a water-powered kitchen mixer called "Ello", which enjoyed considerable success.
Although promising, the technology proved to be immature, and required significant development. In the late 1940s Martin Hilti found a technology that would allow setting nails into concrete or masonry, and he acquired the original designs and the patents rights of what would later become Hilti's Direct Fastening first tool. To make ends meet Martin Hilti signed sub-contracts as diverse as gray cast iron parts for the Swiss textile industry, machining eggcups molds, or lighters and pencil sharpeners. 1947–1963 Īfter the war there was a sharp decline in sales and the company was close to bankruptcy. The Martin Hilti Family Trust holds all of Hilti's registered shares as of 2003. He was also a voluntary Waffen-SS and functionary in the German National Movement in Liechtenstein as editor-in-chief for Der Umbruch. Martin Hilti was trained in mechanical engineering and automotive design at the Wismar Engineering College and was 26 at the time of founding the company. In 1941, the Hilti company was founded by Martin and Eugen Hilti, with the opening of a mechanical workshop in Schaan, Liechtenstein.