KraussMaffei celebrates its 175th birthday

“The KraussMaffei Group with its 4,000 employees can proudly look back on the 175 years of its existence. That is because the company has over this long period succeeded in maintaining a leading international position as an innovative mechanical engineering firm in its various fields of activity. Today, we still enjoy a position of leadership in the global market as a manufacturer in the plastics and rubber industry. I would like to thank all employees who have played a great part in the company's development”, said Jan Siebert, Chief Executive Officer of KraussMaffei Group GmbH.

 

Historic development from 1838 until the present day

On 20 March 1838 the merchant Joseph Anton von Maffei (1790 – 1870) purchased the Hirschau property in the Schwabing district of Munich, Germany, and in the following years built the ironworks and the first locomotive workshops there. In doing so, he laid the foundations for the modern-day KraussMaffei Group. Maffei was active in the railway construction, ship and bridge building sectors, while also demonstrating its pioneering spirit in the banking, insurance and hotel businesses.

In 1866, on the Marsfeld in Munich, Dr.-Ing. e. h. Georg von Krauss (1826 – 1906), established “Krauss & Comp.” as a limited partnership which also built locomotives. The two competing companies Maffei and Krauss merged in 1931 to form “Krauss & Comp.-J. A. Maffei AG” and moved into the new company headquarters in the Allach district of Munich, which is still the company headquarters today. As before, the core business area was locomotive building. From 1945 until 1999, the company produced a mixed portfolio of civilian and military vehicles, centrifuges, butchers' shop machines, locomotives, buses and the first precursors of plastics machines – thereby concentrating its business activities on traffic systems, defense technology, process engineering and plastics technology.

During the 1950's, the company exclusively developed and produced injection moulding machines for the plastics sector and consolidated its market position by acquiring injection machine manufacturer “Eckert & Ziegler GmbH” in Weissenburg, which had been building injection moulding machines since 1926. From 1968 onwards, the company broadened its activities in the plastics engineering sector to include the Reaction Process Machinery Division and, in 1971, began the production of extruders. This marked the beginning of a process, the results of which today set the company apart from others in the industry: the products and services portfolio of the KraussMaffei Group covers all aspects of injection moulding systems, extrusion technology, and reaction process machinery.

The company underwent expansion during the 1990's, acquiring, in 1992, a controlling interest in Swiss manufacturer Netstal-Maschinen AG and, in 1998, taking a majority share in Hanover-based company Berstorff GmbH. In 2002, the group's portfolio was extended to include the automation solutions of Neureder AG in Schwaig. In 1999/2000, due to the dissolution of the Mannesmann Group, the KraussMaffei Group refocused its activities on plastics and rubber engineering. The Locomotive Engineering Division was acquired by Siemens and the Defense Technology Division by Wegmann, now operating under the name of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW).

Today, KraussMaffei covers the complete value-adding chain in the production and processing of plastics and rubber – and caters, among other things, to clients in the automotive, packaging, medicine and construction industries as well as to manufacturers of electrical and electronic products and household appliances. These companies use the machines and systems supplied by KraussMaffei to manufacture everyday products such as PET bottles, packaging for foodstuffs, automotive parts such as dashboards, door inner panels and fenders, medical utensils such as pipettes and syringes, or even LED lamps.