In 1857, several merchants founded the "Anonyme Nassauische Rheinhütten-Gesellschaft" with a share capital of 250,000 fl. A blast furnace plant was built according to plans by the town architect Alexander Fach, but its operation proved to be a failure because the ore was too "lean" and impure. In 1868, the company was sold to a company led by the mayor of Biebrich, Johann Heppenheimer, and taken over by the ironworks expert Dr. Ernst Ludwig Beck in 1869. He converted it into a cupola furnace plant for the production of machine castings.

The "Rheinhütte Ludwig Beck & Co." was successful in its first year and expanded during the war of 1870/71 and in the early years. The workforce increased to 200 men. In addition to iron castings such as manhole covers, lamp columns and stair railings, the plant also produced machine castings for the neighboring Albert and Kalle chemical plants and the Dyckerhoff cement factory. In 1910, Ludwig Beck acquired the shares of the limited partners and, together with the businessman Max Schulz, founded "Rheinhütte GmbH vorm. Ludwig Beck & Co." with a share capital of RM 200,000. Graduate engineer Wilhelm Beck (1881-1963), who took over the management of the company in 1918, continued to drive forward the expansion and modernization of the mechanical production facilities. In 1909, he succeeded in developing acid- and alkali-resistant silicon casting (Siguss), which was used to manufacture pumps, fittings and mixers for the chemical industry as well as cement slurry pumps. Rheinhütte, which only had 125 employees at the end of the war, survived the difficult years of the First World War thanks to numerous new developments. Wilhelm Beck, brother of Colonel General Ludwig August Theodor Beck, was taken into custody immediately after the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944.

Despite being completely dismantled, Rheinhütte was soon rebuilt and began selling its products worldwide as early as 1950. A new machine factory and a new foundry were built in 1957 and 1966, and a stainless steel foundry in 1970. In 1963, graduate engineer Walter Beck took over the management of Rheinhütte. With the takeover of Rheinhütte by the Friedrichsfeld Group in 1988, the era of the Beck family as company owners came to an end. From then on, the company concentrated on chemical pump construction, relocating the foundry to Portugal and the ceramic pump program to Biebrich.

In 1990, the Friedrichsfeld Group was transformed into a public limited company and has been trading as "FRIATEC AG" with the "Rheinhütte Pumps Division" since 1993. In 2007, the company celebrated its 150th anniversary.