The engine poet

The engine poet

In the halls and storage rooms of the small company Wolf Seals in Vienna Donaustadt, the raw material is stacked on meter-high shelves over 600 m². Plates and rolls made of copper, rubber, cork, fiber materials, technical felts, graphite, mica or PTFE are used to create flat gaskets with an accuracy of a few hundredths of a millimeter using punching or CNC machines, which are in demand both in the classic car scene and in industry. Cylinder head gaskets for small moped engines or powerful twelve-cylinder units, pipe seals for water pipes or power plants with a diameter of 2 meters - for Wolf there is nothing that he cannot seal. In addition to vintage car workshops, his customers also include major buyers such as the ÖBB, the armed forces and district heating, but also the Ferris wheel and the Liliputbahn in Vienna's Prater. Wolf knows exactly which materials are needed for which applications - some have to withstand high pressures and temperatures, others have to withstand extreme cold or moisture. The crash of the US space shuttle Challenger in 1986 showed how dangerous choosing the wrong seal can be, when the sealing rings in a side solid-fuel rocket failed. To be on the safe side, Wolf excludes customers from the aviation and medical technology sectors; the liability issues in these areas are too sensitive for a small business owner.

Family business with tradition

Martin Wolf grew up in the family business that his parents founded in 1970. After successfully completing his commercial training and the sudden death of his father, he took over management at the age of just 21. He had to break off his training as an industrial engineer - responsibility for the company and family took priority. Today his company employs nine people, including his wife, daughter and her partner. Wolf's intensive contacts with the classic car scene came about when, as a young man, he presented his offer of being able to make seals for all types and years of manufacture at the classic car fair in Tulln. Although Wolf returned with numerous orders, he had to make many individual seals by hand due to a lack of suitable punching tools. He still remembers the calluses he suffered back then. Although orders from the classic car scene currently only make up around ten percent of his total sales, he wants to continue to maintain contact. “Business contacts with industrial customers are usually rational, while those with classic car customers are refreshingly emotional,” says Martin Wolf, and he is happy when someone writes him a letter of thanks or rewards the precision of his work with pastries or a glass of honey.