Which company owns the oldest hardness testing device in Germany that is still operational? ZwickRoell, a testing machine manufacturer based in Ulm, organized a contest with prizes worth over €15,000. The grand prize, a Durajet 10 G5 Rockwell hardness testing device, goes to Oerlikon Textile GmbH. The company has been using a hardness testing machine from 1954 to date.

The competition took place from April to November and was advertised on the ZwickRoell website, in the newsletter, and on the company's social media channels, LinkedIn and Instagram. Second place went to Zentrallabor GmbH Leipzig, which owns a hardness tester from 1957. The prize: a portable Rockwell hardness tester N4A. And third place went to HWG Horst Weidner GmbH from Renningen in Baden-Württemberg. It has a machine from 1958. Its prize: three hardness reference blocks.