July 2018

40 41 THE SCHAEFER GROUP INNOVATION AND INVENTION THE SCHAEFER GROUP I n 1930, Frank W. Schaefer founded a refractory sales and service company, making calls to Ohio buildings to refit and relight their boilers. Over the past 88 years, The Schaefer Group has grown into a leading international industri- al furnace builder. From recognizing market shifts to harnessing the power of technology, the company not only navigated its way through the 20th Century, but is prospering well into the 21st. The beginning years of The Schaefer Group saw growth and success in tandem with the rise of the steel industry. By 1945, upon the requests of its clients, The Schaefer Group began to design and build their own furnaces. Success followed, and the firm has since grown into a leading furnace manufacturer and service provider, offering turn-key service that includes design, construction, installation, complete technical support, and maintenance. Today, The Schaefer Group is comprised of three divisions: industrial furnaces; refractory sales and services; and Delta Control, a recently purchased program- ming firm that integrates major systems with their controls. The company man- ufactures within a 95,000-square-foot facility in Beaver Creek, Ohio, just east of