Knipex

First Generation

The company was founded as a forge in 1882 by Carl Gustav Putsch in the basement of his family home. The firm began with one employee and two apprentices. Until the 1960s the firm was known as the C. Gustav Putsch Drop Forged Pliers Works (Zangenfabrik-Gesenkschmiede). In its early days manufacture focused on carpenter's pincers and farrier's tongs, at first made by hand and then increasingly by drop forging hammers. At the apex of the company's success under Carl Putsch the forge had 27 employees and produced 7,000 pairs of pliers per week.

Second Generation

Carl Putsch ran the company until his death in 1927. In 1942 the second generation of ownership, also named Carl Putsch, registered the "Knipex" brand in Germany. During the economic expansion of West Germany in the 1950s Knipex added new and more specialized types of pliers to its catalog.

Third Generation

Karl Putsch took over as company manager in 1954. Manufacturing operations were increasingly automated. The development of new tool patents and product specialization was given greater emphasis.

Fourth Generation

Various subsidiary companies were acquired during an expansion campaign that began in the 1990s, enlarging the Knipex Group. Many foreign sales offices were established. Presently better than 60 percent of production is exported to more than a hundred countries worldwide. The Knipex group has been led by Ralf Putsch since 1996. He is the great-grandson of founder Carl Putsch.

Products

The tool catalog of Knipex encompasses about a hundred types of pliers, with more than 900 variants in length, handle design and finish. These tools include common items such as side cutters, electricians pliers, plumber's pliers as well as more specialized pliers for use in electronics. The range also includes special electrician's tools for cutting, stripping and crimping conducting wire. The tools specialized for electrical work find application in aerospace, solar power technology and optical fiber installation. Many of these tools are available in a parallel line of electrically insulated items, designed to protect users in cases of accidental contact from voltages up to 1 kV and the currents they may induce.

Most Knipex tools are readily identifiable by their bright red grips. These may be simple vinyl dips or injection moulded red-and-blue grips with integrated, softer polyurethane panels. Electrically insulated pliers are not offered with vinyl dip grips and are identified instead by their yellow-and-red injection moulded grips.

Decimal product codes

All Knipex products are identified by a decimal system. This takes the form of three groups of numbers (e.g., "12 12 14" or "26 16 200"), usually stenciled or printed on the tool's handle.

The decimals are decoded as follows: the first group indicates the model of the tool (type of pliers), the second its style (variety, shape or finish of its jaws) and the third some measure of its size (length of the tool or whether meant for metric or imperial gauges). The top-level categories encoded by the first two digits are summarized in the following table,