INDUSTRY NEWS / 行业新闻
Franken Guss Gmbh & Co. Kg - from Battleship to Frigate
弗兰肯古斯公司——从战舰到护卫舰 The successful mutation from a stock corporation to family business Franken Guss will be 100 years old in 2022. In an interview with Wirtschaftsforum, managing director and shareholder Josef Ramthun talks about the "road to freedom" and how his company is adapting to the change in the automotive industry towards e-mobility. Nowadays, medium-sized family businesses are usually incorporated into a corporate group in the course of their existence, but at Franken Guss GmbH & Co.KG it was just the other way round. Iron casting and aluminium die casting for customers all over the world The company was founded in 1922 as Metall- und Schrott AG. After that, it was inseparably linked with the name Sachs, now ZF Friedrichshafen, as a foundry for that company for many years. The forging and casting division was spun off in 2004 and taken over by the American company Metal Technologies. In 2009, the foundry went bankrupt in the wake of the Lehman Brothers crisis. In the same year, Ramthun bought it in a management buyout and continued to run it under the name Franken Guss Kitzingen. "We were able to shed the corporate burden as a result and mutated from a battleship to a frigate, so to speak. Since 2013, we have had a second location in Chemnitz, Sachsen Guss. It is the former foundry of the Siemens Group," says Josef Ramthun in the interview. Today, Franken Guss has iron and aluminium castings under one roof. For the most part, the company is a supplier to the automotive industry and supplies OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and end customers worldwide, whereby everything is possible from batch size 1 to series production. The foundry processes punching waste in iron casting, which is sand casting and secondary aluminium in die casting. In the company's technology centre, all possibilities are available to create functioning castings from ideas. Close cooperation between the customer's developer and the foundry enjoys the highest priority. Under the motto "in dialogue to the solution", Franken Guss also offers subsequent finishing, machining and coating as well as partial assembly. The transformation in the automotive industry becomes clear - High vertical range of manufacture in the company After the COVID-related lockdown and the associated production losses, things are now gradually picking up again and the order situation is so positive that extra shifts are being run in some cases. The company has taken advantage of the Corona period to acquire new parts for e-mobility and enquiries are increasing in this environment. Franken Guss supports its customers in the transformation and benefits from the high
弗兰肯古斯公司将在 2022 年迎来 100 岁生日。在接 受经济论坛采访时，股东、董事总经理约瑟夫·拉姆图恩谈 到了“通往自由之路”以及他的公司如何适应汽车行业向电 动汽车的转变。 如今，许多中型家族企业大多为了生存和发展，在逐步 转入股份制集团机制，但在弗兰肯古斯公司情况却正好相反。 公司成立于 1922 年，当时名为 Metall-und Schrott AG。之后，它与 Sachs，现为名为 ZF Friedrichshafen 的公司紧密合作，多年来一直是该公司的铸造工厂。接下 来在 2004 年，锻造和铸造部门被分拆出来，由一家名为 Metal Technologies 的美国公司收购。2009 年，该铸造 厂受到雷曼兄弟危机波及破产。同年，拉姆图恩先生通过 收购管理层的方式将其买下，随之开始以 Franken Guss Kitzingen 的名字经营。“我们自此以后得以摆脱企业化 的负担，可以这样概括，我们实现了从战舰到护卫舰的突 变。2013 年我们在萨克森古斯的开姆尼茨设立了第二家 工厂，它原是西门子集团的铸造工厂。”约瑟夫·拉姆图 恩在采访中说。 如今，弗兰肯古斯公司将铸铁和铝合金铸件的生产集 中在一起。公司最主要的产品是为汽车行业做配套服务， 为全球的 OEM 制造商、一级供应商和最终客户提供产品， 从单件小批量生产到大批量生产，所有产品都可生产。铸造 工厂的砂铸铸铁件可使用冲压废料，压铸生产使用再生铝。 在公司的技术中心，大家发挥创造力，设计出符合各种客户 需求的功能性铸件。公司还将客户的开发人员和铸造车间之 间的密切合作作为合作的重中之重，将“与解决方案对话” 这句话作为公司指导方针；弗兰肯古斯公司还提供后续清 理、机加工和涂层以及部分组装和集成服务。 近年受到新冠疫情影响，停产和减产时有发生，而现 在情况正在逐渐好转，订单情况变得较为乐观，甚至于在某 些生产领域开始安排额外的加班来保障生产进度。公司充分 运用疫情时期，为电动汽车生产购置了新的零部件，在疫情 环境下，询盘正在增加。弗兰肯古斯公司支持其客户进行汽 车行业的转型，并从公司高度的垂直制造范围中大大受益。 近年来，为了将有价值的生产环节整合到一起，公司已经
28 CHINA FOUNDRY ASSOCIATION | FOUNDRY-PLANET.COM APRIL 2022
