Artillerie-Inrichtingen
Artillerie-Inrichtingen was a Dutch state-owned artillery, small arms, and munitions company which also produced machine tools and was founded in 1679 in Delft, Netherlands.
The company was split in 1973 with its defense related businesses becoming Eurometaal and its civilian manufacturing becoming Hembrug Machine Tools.
With the creation of United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815 following the Napoleonic Wars and the period of French Occupation, there was a need for a strong army in order to provide a buffer against France.
By 1813, the company was already utilizing steam power and producing artillery, field guns, small arms and military vehicles.
The company began to manufacture small arms and ammunition as well, while continuing to produce machinery and precision instruments.
[3] From this point, all production was no longer centered in Delft because the Hague Grove Geschut Gieterij was also included in the company.
Most of its production was then going to the Dutch East Indies to suppress rebellions of the indigenous peoples, such as those the Aceh Wars.
The company also employed 200 drivers delivered mail, until this function was transferred to the "Mailies" of the Dutch National Postal Service in 1930.
The largest customer was still the KNIL, and the number of employees slowly recovered, before later falling back to 1200 in 1932 during the Depression, despite an increasing demand for the company's civilian production, including lathes.
[1][2][3] During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Frans den Hollander remained Director of Artillerie Inrichtingen, but he had contact with the Dutch government in exile.
The Nazi's demanded immediate reopening of the factories following the surrender of the Netherlands, but Den Hollander and his superiors, Dutch Commander-in-chief Henri Winkelman and Secretary-General Cornelis Ringeling refused this initially, and succeeded in delaying the resumption of production for about a month.
Eurometaal took the company's military production facilities including those for arms and armaments, while Hembrug took the precision tool manufacturing.
Eurometaal also sought to target the civil market and manufactured parts for cars, forklifts, milking robots, high-precision precision tools, light commercials, sailboats, and durable locks.
A unique technical event was the acquisition of a 3000-ton soil pump, which was the largest in Europe in terms of capacity and stroke length.
Companies in Eurometaal Holding including Intergas at Coevorden and the German Heidel, which worked for the automotive industry, were rejected for a social plan for the last 200 employees.
In the old mansion workshop at Zaandam, the Tetrix training center was established in the old Artillerie Inrichtingen masonry pattern factory, founded in 1939.
As of 2017, the Hembrug Machine Tools company still makes precision lathes including the Mikroturn line in Haarlem.
On the site of the old Artillerie Inrichtingen Hemburg factories, the Hembrug Museum is furnished to provide information about the past, present and future of its activities.
The AR-10 was invented by Eugene Stoner in 1955 as a late entrant to the United States Army's Light Rifle Trials to replace the M1 Garand in US service.
It had however caught the interest of Foreign militaries which led to Armalite's deal with Artillerie Inrichtingen whose large factory and production facilities were felt could produce the ArmaLite rifle in the large quantities Fairchild anticipated would be needed to fulfill expected orders.
AR-10 production was limited, though Guatemala,[7][10] Burma, Italy, Cuba, Sudan and Portugal all purchased AR-10 rifles for limited issue to their military forces[7][11][12][13] with examples eventually turning up in unofficial service with various African and colonial armies, police, and guerrilla forces.
[7][13] The AR-10 was officially adopted by the Portuguese Paratrooper Battalions (Caçadores páraquedistas), and the rifle saw considerable combat service in Portugal's counter-insurgency campaigns in Angola and Mozambique.
