The company Herbst Förder- und Hebetechnik GmbH looks back on more than 30 years of experience in its present form the company was established in January 1981 by Mr. Siegfried G. Herbst. 

10 years before setting up his own company, Mr. Herbst was employed in a similar area of responsibility i.e. “Material Handling”. In this period of time he recognised, that there was not any really efficient equipment for the various applications for the usage in mines. After the company’s foundation, S. Herbst concentrated on producing special vehicles to cover niche-markets in the mining industry.

The “Physikalisch-Technische-Bundesanstalt PTB” (the German physics laboratory) as well as the instiute of technology were situated very close by, and the young company Herbst was asked for further technical developments. Based on this cooperation Herbst, developed and produced – for the use in underground mines – the worldwide first, centrally steered heavy forklift truck for handling radio-active waste (casks and container), destined for Schachtanlage Konrad, Salzgitter. Herbst obtained further orders to develop crane-vehicles for test purposes, to handle high-radio-active screening containers, followed by transport possibilities on rails and roads. The development of a so called shock absorber (accident simulation) designed to protect the radio-active waste container.

With the assistance of the Technical University Braunschweig (i.e. institute of steel construction) and due to further developments, the company Herbst had to expand and hired even more first class engineers to meet the new demands.

Mr. Herbst realized, that politics reacted very slowly regarding the permanent disposal of waste in mines for example in Schacht Konrad and Gorleben. Therefore, the know-how was mainly used for the conventional mining concerning all.

Special vehicles for lifting and transportation systems with their excellent technology and durability meeting the demand of the special requirements in the nuclear industry.

S. Herbst decision was the right one, as to then, nothing had happened by the regions of the government and legistation regarding the permanent disposal of radio-active waste in mines.

Meanwhile, company Herbst Förder- und Hebetechnik GmbH has gained an excellent reputation in the development and production of all special vehicles and machinery in mines, that even very heavy machines like loaders and scalers with an operational service weight of up to 40 tons have been developed, produced and maintained for many years.

The product range for the underground mining equipment has even been expanded to include solid-rubber tyred machines. Furthermore, developments with regard to explosion protection, group 1 have been made.

Recently the implimentation of an explosion-protected special diesel engine – manufacturer MAN – with a performance starting from 80 up to 220 kW has been started

The market demanded the development of a very special compact forklift truck. This was immediately put into practice and the new forlklift truck was introduced on to the market in 2003. The load capacity is available from .8 – 30 tons in spite of its extremely small dimensions.

Detailed information can be seen on our special internet page Superkompaktstapler.

Our company´s vision and philosophy : customer´s satisfaction, high quality standards, close customer approach.