SIG Combibloc

The schweizerische Waggonfabrik was founded in 1853 by Friedrich Peyer im Hof, Heinrich Moser, and Johann Conrad Neher. From 1854, it produced railway cars for the emerging Swiss railway companies. Friedrich Peyer was one of the directors of the Swiss Northeastern Railway, also founded in 1853. Their factory in Neuhausen am Rheinfall was originally powered by the nearby Rhine Falls and employed 150 workers, by the mid-1860s increased to 500 workers.

Firearms

They produced the Prélaz-Burnand 1859, invented by gunsmith Jean-Louis Joseph Prélaz and forestry inspector Colonel ?douard Burnand . In 1860, the rifle won a competition held by the Swiss Federal Ministry of Defence, resulting in a contract to produce 30,000 pieces. This rifle was adapted as the M1863.

Upon receiving the contract to produce rifles, the company name was changed to reflect its new emphasis on machined production, becoming Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft ; in English, Swiss Industrial Company; and, in French, Société Industrielle Suisse.SIG produced other firearms, including Mondragón Rifle, which was produced between 1908 and 1910. The SIG P210 pistol was developed in 1937 based on the French Modèle 1935 pistol, and was adopted by the Swiss military in 1949 as the "Pistole 49". This pistol's frame design incorporates external rails that fit closely with the slide, thus eliminating play in the mechanism during firing. The P210 was noted for its good accuracy. The Petter-Browning patent was a refinement—and John Moses Browning's last design—of the Browning Hi-Power .In 1975, the Swiss military replaced the P210 with the P220, dubbed the "Pistole 75", which was the first product of a partnership with J.P. Sauer & Sohn. In a 1984 bidding contest to provide more than 300,000 sidearms to the US military, the SIG Sauer P226 was defeated by Beretta's 92FS which was awarded the contract for the M9 pistol. The SIG SG 510, or Sturmgewehr 57, battle rifle was produced by SIG from 1957 to 1983. Its appearance was vaguely similar to the German MG34 light machine-gun, due to its ventilated barrel jacket. It employed roller-delayed blowback, as used on the CETME/HK rifles. The only general purpose machine gun produced by SIG was the SIG 710-3, which is based on the MG42.During the 1970s, SIG purchased both Hämmerli and J.P. Sauer and Sohn, resulting in the formation of SIG Sauer. Due to Swiss restrictions on the export of military weapons, SIG entered into a relationship with the German company J.P. Sauer & Sohn, in order to give SIG access to the global firearms market.

In January 1985, SIGARMS was established in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, where its handgun models P220 and P230 were imported into the US from Sig Sauer in Germany. In 2007, SIGARMS changed its name to SIG Sauer. SIG Arm's division was purchased in 2000 by L & O Holding, and is now known as SIG SAUER AG.

Railways

In the late 1970s, SIG was the designer and builder of Toronto's newest streetcar, the CLRV L1. Only the first six CLRV cars were made by SIG . The remaining 190 L2 vehicles, along with 52 articulated variants, were made by Thunder Bay, Ontario-based Urban Transportation Development Corporation , now a subsidiary of Bombardier Transportation, which had, in late 1991, negotiated a $17 million subsidy from the Ontario government for the purchase.In the early 1980s, SIG was the designer and builder of the Utrecht sneltram trams. 27 were ordered and delivered in 1983. Replacement plans were commenced in 2016 and rolled out in two phases. Scheduled replacement began with first vehicles retired during 2017 - 2018 and final run in July 2020.

The tilting system of the SBB RABDe 500 was developed by SIG. The railway branch of SIG was sold in 1995 to Fiat Ferroviaria.