On 2 September, 1897, Robert Hermann Pfauter registered a gear manufacturing patent in Chemnitz covering a 'Process and machine for the cutting of worm gears by means of a hob tool'. He himself described the invention in a hand written notice, stating 'The hob and workpiece are forced in a certain relation to each other in which the hob rotates as many times as the number of teeth to be cut during one rotation of the workpiece. During one rotation of the gear, the hob executes the first cut of the total number of teeth and moves continuously ahead by the feed rate (when cutting cylindrical gears in an axial direction to the gear). Consequently the rotation of the hob and gear as well as the infeed are actuated at the same time contrary to  current machines which actuate these movements one after the other.'
He also proposed to use a differential drive to produce gears with helical teeth, which meant that all gear types could be manufactured on a single machine, known as the 'universal hobbing machine'. To this very day, gear hobbing is based on these same principles, and aside, of course, from the introduction of CNC technology, very little worthy of mention has changed since this first pioneering breakthrough.
And, after all these years, we are indeed proud to be developing and producing hobbing machines in the very place where everything started. Against all odds, both political and economical, a healthy and strong company operates in Chemnitz today, and Samputensili machines are testimony to a special inventive spirit typical of this Saxon region and the longstanding skill and experience of our local employees. We look forward to your visit, where you will have the chance to experience this deep-rooted tradition for yourselves.