The Story

Chapter I

The beginning

It is the year 1986, when Helmut Schwarz gathered all his courage and ingenious ideas to make his vision come true. The vision of designing solution-oriented and durable fastening systems to make the production of machines, agricultural machinery or even aircraft as easy and efficient as possible. Between bookshelf & craft glue, the tinkerer created the foundation for the company “Schwarz” in his hobby room in Merklingen, while his daughter Rebecca saw the light of day in the same year and got the passion from her father in the cradle.

After years of double workload – during the day as a developer at Mercedes Benz in Sindelfingen and in the evenings working on his own ideas, he took the final step into self-employment.

Sink or swim. All or nothing. And as you might guess…

Chapter II

The idea

…he dared to take the big step.

With a lot of innovative inventiveness and a good portion of courage in his luggage, he detached himself away from the safe position at Mercedes-Benz.

It took him a long breath and many visits to trade fairs until, in addition to the agricultural machinery industry, the aviation industry also took notice of him. Full of hope, he drove to the Hanseatic city of Hamburg to sell his ideas. Thanks to his ambition and convincing charisma, he landed a major contract. However, this opened up a new problem – because a production building to carry out the order did not yet exist at that time.

Without further ado, Mr. Schwarz decided to turn his hobby room at home in Merklingen into the first production site of his small company. A memorable time, when even little Rebecca lent a hand and carefully wrapped the parts developed by her father in Styrofoam.

Chapter III

Move into own company building

This was the beginning of a steadily growing success, which reached 1994 another peak with the receipt of another large framework contract from the renowned aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

Thereupon decided the ambitious visionary for the construction of a company headquarters in southwestern Germany, in the peaceful Althengstett near Calw. To this day, the building can call itself a greenhouse for innovative and efficient ideas for parts of aviation.

Chapter IV

The team is growing

But just as a sapling needs sunlight to grow, a courageous visionary needs his resourceful technical implementer.

And so it happened that shortly after the start of the new building, a young Bernhard Homner applied for a permanent position in the company.

Mr. Schwarz seemed to have great confidence in the latter’s talent and eventually made him the man for the visualization at his side. The trust paid off – over the decades, Mr. Homner established himself as a respected and valued developer in the aerospace industry and is still an integral part of the Schwarz team today.

From this connection grew a self-confidence that allowed them to secure orders for the development and production of tricky fastening systems without already knowing their solution. So it was when Airbus was waving a promising contract to design a robust interconnect system that would be used on a large scale in aircraft. It was an opportunity that the inventors did not want to miss. Shortly thereafter, they sat down together at a table and began to ponder.

Chapter V

The first DCC

The pressure was on. The task of developing a new, more stable decompression closure was of course based on Schwarz’s basic philosophy – high quality, easy to assemble and as cost-effective as possible!

The men were proud to present their 1998 solution of the new quick-release fastener in the year and drove to Hamburg full of relief and euphoria.

There, the customer was already awaiting the result. Success proved the dynamic team to be right, as the DCC is still produced today in various, further optimized versions and can be found in all aircraft.

Chapter VI

Back to the start

The years passed, while the “Schwarz Verbindungssysteme GmbH” grows steadily. So did the portfolio, the product range and the patent applications. Schwarz was a respected direct supplier to Airbus and also had LBA approval as a maintenance facility. 2004 an unexpected turn of events finally occurred. Mr. Schwarz decided with a heavy heart to sell his company for personal reasons. But the passion and ambition did not disappear with the sale. With revitalized strength, he planted another tender plantlet in Magstadt on January 01, 2005. The S-Fasteners was born.

Now it was also necessary to water the young plant sufficiently to withstand all future stresses. Fortunately, the vital rain didn’t take long to arrive and fell from the sky shortly after…

Chapter VII

Cooperation with FACC

…because an old and valuable customer contacted us at the right time. It was FACC, with the development of a new box system (A320 Enhanced Cabin). FACC is one of the most important suppliers in the area of the cabin and the first address for the young company.

Here again the inventive talent was required – the hinges of the luggage boxes in the interior of the Airbus were not always at the same height when opened after years of use, which is why they no longer met the significant demands of the aircraft manufacturer. So a completely new solution was needed. The two of them promptly got behind the wheel and set off for Austria.

Chapter VIII

Hinges for eternity

Fueled by renewed hope, the two did what they loved to do – they sat down at a table and started building a flawless product that would deliver what it promised and live up to the claims years later.

The result of months of development was an adjustable hinge. The specially developed damper for these hinges now guarantees a smooth opening of the luggage boxes.

Chapter IX

The A320 Boxsystem was born!

…so in 2007 it came to the big contract about the “Boxsystem A320 OHSC” with the Austrian aerospace company FACC.

Chapter X

The perfect luggage box

This meant that the luggage boxes were at the same height at all times, the customer was happy and the watering of the little plant was secured for the time being

This was to remain the case for years to come, as the company’s inventive spirit and uncompromising quality standards remained no secret. To this day, S-Fasteners’ products stand out from the competition not only because of their durability, but also because of their ease of assembly and interchangeability if a part reach the end of its long life cycle. This means that an aircraft can not only be produced more quickly, but can also be repaired more easily and at lower cost.

This makes the articles from the S-Fasteners portfolio to no throwaway products and makes them stand out for their applied sustainability. A basic philosophy that, in addition to the desire to make things as easy as possible for the customer, has been consistently lived by Mr. Schwarz since the company was founded in 1986.

Chapter XI

A new generation

Not only S-Fastners developed in the meantime from a tender little plant to a big, strong tree. Little Rebecca Schwarz also grew up to be a young, determined woman, in whom her father’s fire also flickers.

In addition to her school and university years, she often lent a hand in the production of the innovative connection systems. During her master’s degree in management at the University of Hohenheim, her father asked her one day whether she would be interested in managing the company one day. Rebecca took a sabbatical to spend the next six months experiencing the regular workday in all departments before making a final decision.

This came sooner than expected, because after just three weeks she was sure that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps.

Chapter XII

The family business lives on

So she was no stranger to employees when she found her permanent place on the S-Fasteners team in 2017 as an executive assistant. Now father and daughter were faced with the great challenge of mastering their new everyday working life together.

Rebecca benefited from her father’s decades of experience and know-how, while new perspectives were also shown to him by his daughter.

Chapter XIII

A new team emerges

As the change of management slowly became foreseeable, the deliberate transfer of knowledge to the next generation started peu à peu. Pure gold, because through the advanced globalization over the last forty years, competition has naturally also grown against which it is now necessary to stand one’s ground. Here, old and young benefit from each other.

Thus, they worked hand in hand in the development of the parts of the futuristic “E-Hang” air taxi, while Mr. Homner shared his proven design skills and the young Mr. Rode applied his learned skills. An interesting project that was tackled with joy and pride.

Chapter XIV

A challenging new era begins

When the joint project was successfully completed in 2019, Mr. Homner and Mr. Rode were invited to the Austrian aerospace company and business partner FACC. There, they were able to take a first look at the new drone.

The beginning of a challenging new era, but one in which the proven philosophy of S-Fasteners remains.

Chapter XV

A tough start

But at that time, no one had any idea how challenging the new era would actually be.

But at that time, no one had any idea how challenging the new era would actually be. When the crisis year 2020 began and the first major, unprecedented obstacles became apparent, this was the impulse for Rebecca to completely take over the management of the company to a large extent in order to relieve her father. Now she had to deal with unknown problems such as pandemics, climate change, home office, short-time work, the slump in the economy and the changes in aviation. Old patterns had to be broken and new ways to be found.

True to the motto “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, the dynamic team took on the challenges. With the certainty of being able to rely on the entire team in times of crisis, S-Fasteners emerged stronger from the situation.

Chapter XVI

S-Fasteners becomes Schwarz

Having arrived in 2022, the time is now ripe to hand over responsibility for the young tree that has grown up into honorable hands. And no one is better suited for the job than Rebecca Schwarz, whose motto in life is “Passion is the salt of life”.

A promising change, because she remains faithful to her father’s philosophy. Full of confidence and motivation, the young Schwarz team, headed by Mrs. Schwarz, is now heading off on its exciting journey into a promising future.