Steurer Seilbahnen: Decades of pioneering and individuality

Steurer was founded by Ludwig Steurer in 1924 as a forging company, and from the 1930s it was developed into the renowned ropeway technology company by his son, Johann Steurer, who was actively involved in the business until 2006.

Steurer has been manufacturing material ropeways since 1926 and cable winches since 1934.

In 1947, Steurer built the Grabs single chair lift at Tschagguns (Montafon), making it the first commercial chair lift manufacturer in Austria. Within this field, it made several innovations including the construction of the first chair with a protective hood at the beginning of the 1970s. Ridiculed at the time by rivals and operators, the so-called “bubbles” are now common in modern chair lifts.

The company went on to manufacture chair lifts and surface lifts until 1955 when it also started building reversible passenger ropeways with the construction of the Bezau-Sonderdach aerial tramways. This gradually became the company’s main line of business.

The company’s ropeway technology programme has been complemented by funiculars and inclined lifts since 1991 and by overhead cable railways (German abbreviation SHB), a patented detachable transport and logistics system, since 1993.

Since 2009 Steurer serves the important Swiss market with its own local subsidiary, which also manages the non-German speaking countries.

Even though ropeway technology represents the main line of business, Steurer has always been involved in special-purpose machine engineering. It has always been particularly successful where solutions are required for specific problems linked to complex movement sequences.

In a similar context, for many years Steurer has been a supplier or toll manufacturer for reputable domestic and foreign companies seeking broad technical skills.