The choice of today’s Skarżysko-Kamienna as the location of the munitions factory was determined by the city’s location in the so-called safety triangle and the route of the railway line. The 1920s was the time of the organization of the entire factory, from taking over the land (245 hectares) from the Skarżysko Forest Inspectorate for the construction of the factory, through the establishment of the Design Office in Warsaw by the Ministry of Military Affairs (whose task was to develop a design for the most modern factory in Europe), to the construction of the State Ammunition Factory. The organization included the construction of a treatment facility, the first housing estate for senior officials and a Worker’s Colony and Rejów Colony. The official date of the factory launch, then the State Ammunition Factory is August 25, 1924.

 

In 1924, the building of the department for the elaboration of artillery shells, grenades, aerial bombs and fuses is also built, and a year later the first information batch of caps and percussion caps for fuses and hand grenades is produced.

 

The result of the visit of the generals, led by Major General Władysław Sikorski – then the Minister of Military Affairs, is preventing the factory from being rebranded to the mobilization machinery warehouse. The production and sale of the first products , i.e. artillery fuzes, is launched. The rifle ammunition department transferred from Warsaw is launched.

 

In 1925, the PFA Employees’ Association “Promień” was established, bringing together craftsmen and lower officials, and “Ognisko” gathering white-collar workers. A Traffic Department was launched (it was responsible for: the central tool shop, repair department, carpentry shops and an electromechanical department with a power plant) and a company fire brigade was organized. The first commandant – until September 1939 – was the fire officer, Władysław Krajewski.

 

In 1927, the factory was taken over by the State Armaments Factory and transformed into a commercialized state-owned enterprise. Monthly production of Mauser rifle ammunition is at the level of 1 million pieces, 40 thousand pcs of fuzes and 20 thousand pcs of 75 mm artillery cases are elaborated. The company wins the tender for the supply of 12-kg aerial bombs to Yugoslavia distancing the Skoda and Bofors plants. Official visits of the President of the Republic of Poland, prof. Ignacy Mościcki and the Minister of Military Affairs, General Sławoj-Składowski, results in a significant increase in orders and production.

 

There is a strong investment and expansion of the factory, the Granat Sports Club is established (from the merger of the Promień and Elaboracja circles) and the Metal workers’ Trade Union at the elaboration department. The Rejów water circle is also established and in 1936 it was renamed the Rejów Rowing Club. In the area of Kolonia Górna, the Józef Piłsudski Public Primary School is opened, built mainly from the contributions of the PFA staff.

 

The Ammunition Factory Studies Bureau is established, which by September 1939 had developed five hundred projects in the field of armaments. In the same bureau, a new product was constructed – the FP-35 impact fuse with centrifugal protection, which becomes the factory’s export hit.

 

An agreement is concluded between PFA in Skarżysko and National Engineering Works in Warsaw for the production of equipment for the “Polski Fiat” passenger car.

 

In the years of 1922-1939 the position of the managing director was successively held by:

  • Eng. Leonard Łabuć,
  • Eng. Tadeusz Kolasiński,
  • Eng. Stanisław Piotrowski,
  • Eng. Władysław Jakubowski,
  • Eng. Eustachy Gutkowski,
  • Eng. Mieczysław Olszański.

 

During this period, the State Ammunition Factory employs over 3500 workers and 250 officials.