The Maxhütte in Sulzbach Rosenberg has been closed in September 2002. The plant is a unique technical monument, as it contains all productional steps from iron ore to finished profiles in a relatively compact space, starting with raw iron production in blast furnaces, continuing with a basic oxygen facility for steelmaking and finishing with a continuous casting facility and rolling mills. The Maxhütte was equipped with unique and rare installations: the blast furnaces were still charged with buckets, the converters applied the OBM method, i.e. argon and oxygen were injected into the converter from the bottom, and the still existing steam engines are outstanding and among the world's most powerful engines of that type.

steel mill Maxhütte	steel mill Maxhütte	steel mill Maxhütte: raw material silo	charging bucket transporter
charging bucket elevator	steel mill Maxhütte: blast furnace section	no 3 blast furnace	cooling system
no 3 blast furnace	Cowper stoves	Cowper stoves	steel mill Maxhütte: blast furnace section
casthouse	tools at the casthouse	wheel-barrow at the casthouse	ladle shop (former blower house)
converter building	converter building	converter building	crane
converter (Voest Alpine)	converter (Voest Alpine)	steel mill Maxhütte: mixer	ladle shop
steel mill Maxhütte: rolling mill	steel mill Maxhütte: rolling mill	steel mill Maxhütte: steam engine	steel mill Maxhütte: cooling tower
steel mill Maxhütte: cooling tower	steel mill Maxhütte: cooling tower

This section pictures the process from ore to sectional steel using the photographs of Markus Grünthaler, who worked at the Maxhütte for many years. I would like to express my deep respect and gratitude to him and his colleagues, who stand up for the preservation of the Maxhütte.

ore storage area	charging car	blast furnace	tapping the blast furnace
mixer	charging converter no 1	tapping converter 3	S32 continuous casting
steam engine 850 rolling mill	850 rolling mill	cooling plant