Shipbuilding production, Vitkovice Ironworks, armour plating, patents, Austro-Hungarian Navy

This study analyzes shipbuilding production by the Vitkovice Ironworks, which ranked among the most important manufacturing sectors for the company in the period 18911914. Vitkovice shifted its focus to the production of military hardware in response to increasingly tense international relations and new trends in warfare. For Vitkovice Ironworks was easiest to enter competition in the manufacture of armor plates for the construction of naval forces. This production fully met the business objectives of enterprise management, which was led from 1876 - 1893 by one of the best metallurgical experts of Austria, Paul Kupelwieser.