The company was founded on 1 October 1897 in Bielefeld and still has its headquarters at the same location. We have been operating successfully in diverse fields of lift construction for over 100 years. The quality of our products paved the way for the international focus of the company from an early stage. There are HIRO lifts in many public and commercial buildings throughout the world. Perhaps you have been in a HIRO lift yourself, in a large department store, for example.

In the short abstract below, we have listed some of the milestones in the history of our old-established company:

• 1920s:
  Construction of rope-driven passenger and goods lifts. These were generally operated by a lift attendant at first. Even at this early stage an automatic stopping mechanism was implemented with a purely mechanical rope control system.
  
  
• 1930s:
  The main manufacturing focus was on rope-driven gasometer lifts. These were technically complex maintenance platforms that could be lowered on ropes in the middle of the spherical gasometer according to the level of the gas.
  
  
• 1940s:
  During this period, HIRO LIFT produced, for the most part, rope-driven Passenger lifts, goods lifts, and hospital lifts, for use within Germany.
  
  
• 1950s:
  In the early 1950s, hydraulic lifts were introduced to the production line. Over a period of about 30 years, numerous large goods lifts were installed in department stores and residential buildings.
  
  
• 1960s:
  The brand name HIRO LIFT became known beyond the borders of Europe, due mostly to their facade lifts used for cleaning facades and windows. The production of these lifts for the tallest buildings in the world at that time, the World Trade Center and the John Hancock Center in Chicago, with working platforms that could turn through 360 degrees, consolidated the worldwide reputation of products with “Made in Germany” quality.
  
  
• 1970s:
  Climbing elevators for maintenance and servicing applications were produced for the national and international markets. They were installed in cranes, transmission masts and the tallest pylons in the world.
  
  
• 1977:
  At the beginning of 1977, specialisation in lifts for the elderly and lifts for the disabled was introduced. At that time there was no market for these products. HIRO LIFT is a pioneer in this field and created this market to begin with: the experience gained in more than 100 years of classical lift construction was transferred to the field of stair lifts and lifts for the disabled. The reciprocal influences that come with constructing many different types of lift provide us with important stimuli for improvements and optimisation.

The second focus of our activity is the development of Passenger lifts for particular architectural requirements, especially for applications where space is restricted.

Some of our new developments were milestones in the history of technical progress:

• 1979:
  Development of the worm segment drive system for inclined wheelchair lifts and stair lifts
  
  
• 1982:
  Construction of the first fully automatic wheelchair platform
  
  
• 1990:
  Development of the traction drive, now employed to the exclusion of all other drives for inclined lifts
  
  
• 2003:
  Development of the HIRO Prestige, a classical Passenger lift designed specifically for use in private houses
  
  
• 2007:
  Development of further product lines of Passenger lifts for private houses