35 Years of Innovation

HWAM A/S, and Vagn Hvam Pedersen in particular, have always been eager to find new and better solutions. In what follows, a number of initiatives and innovations are mentioned that give an overall impression of an innovative business that has set new industry standards.

The Beginnings of the Wood-burning Stove Industry

Early cast iron stoves were nearly extinct, but after the oil crisis of 1972, they re-emerged as sheet iron fireplaces with doors. Bent Falck, who designed the RAIS, was the first to offer a product that became widely popular. Afterwards, there came a great number of imitations of questionable quality and poor design.

In 1976, Vagn Hvam Pedersen and furniture designer Anders C. Fasterholdt teamed up and constructed a wood-burning stove with a new design and a degree of functionality that had never before been seen on the market. HWAM (then known as ABC Pejse) asked the local Institute of Technology to test its new product. This had never been tried before, but using the equipment and methods used in the boiler industry, the first wood-burning stove was tested for durability, safety and efficiency.

The Export Adventure Begins

We threw ourselves headfirst into an export adventure in 1980. Lacking both sales experience and foreign language skills, Vagn Hvam Pedersen set off with a brochure in hand designed by Anders C. Fasterholdt, which was written in the same idiom as the stove itself. Several customers fell for the pure, streamlined design and the thorough contours, and already after three years, 2/3 of the company’s turnover came from exports.

Inserts

In 1981 we made the first standard installation module for an existing brick fireplace, complete with loose panels used for covering the fireplace's opening. It became such a huge success that it was difficult for us to follow up on it, and two years later there were at least 50 imitation products on the market.

The Development of Glass in the Door

At the same time, the competitors began experimenting with using glass in the stove doors. Glass was used only in thin strips; otherwise it could not withstand the high temperatures. This was definitely not a good solution. At HWAM, we began using ceramic glass, which at that time was just starting to be used for hobs. It was five times as expensive, but we decided that if HWAM must have glass in the doors, it should be the best available. However, this resulted in the door being so thick that it became covered in soot on the inside. We therefore developed – again being the first on the market to do so – a method to send air in along the inside of the glass door. To this day, HWAM’s “pane flushing” method is the best on the market.

It soon became clear that glass door stoves were the future, and everyone switched to the ceramic glass already being used by HWAM. At the time, flat glass was the only type available, so stoves with curved fronts had to continue to use glass strips, which was not durable in the long term. We started to experiment with bending ceramic glass at high temperatures in a ceramic stove. We were somewhat successful, but one problem we could not solve was that the glass became milk-white in colour. In cooperation with Schot glass engineering in Germany, we were able to solve the problem, and at the industry exposition in Germany that followed, we presented the first wood-burning stove with curved glass in the door.

HWAM automatic^TM

In the second half of the 1980s, safety and environmental approval became required for wood-burning stoves, which set sharper demands on the products. It was not difficult to develop stoves that could be approved in a laboratory; however, we did come to realise that it would be difficult for the consumer to use the products in the same way as they were tested in the laboratory. Different chimneys, firewood and damper adjustment methods would yield completely different results. At HWAM, we therefore developed an automatic control of combustion. HWAM’s automatic control device makes for a uniform combustion regardless of chimney type, firewood type and the actions of the user. Always clean and effective combustion - HWAM patented the automatic combustion control device.


New Challenges with Tile

At the end of the 1980s it became popular to clad wood-burning stoves with tiles in the iron framework. HWAM latched on to the idea, but we decided that we would make a real tile stove in which only the tiles and the door in steel and glass would be visible. The first of its kind was ABC 1. It was entirely covered by small 20 x 20 tiles that were fitted with spring clamps hidden underneath the tile —incredibly attractive and ground-breaking at the time. Germany’s largest and most well-reputed tile distributor had taught us that the larger the tile, the bigger the problems that can arise.