Adolf Föhl Group

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Adolf Föhl GmbH + Co. KG
legal form GmbH + Co. KG
founding 1958
Seat Rudersberg-Necklingsberg, Germany
management Frank Kirkorowicz, Boris Langer, Ulrich Schwab
Number of employees 700 (2017)
sales approx. 110 million EUR (2017)
Branch Automotive industry , fastening technology , household appliances
Website www.foehl.de

The Adolf Föhl Group, with Adolf Föhl GmbH + Co. KG as the parent company, usually referred to as Föhl for short , is a company that is active in zinc die casting and plastic injection molding.

The company's headquarters are in Rudersberg- Necklinsberg in Baden-Württemberg , further production facilities are located in Haubersbronn and Rudersberg-Michelau (both in the Stuttgart area ) as well as through the subsidiary Föhl China in Taicang and a North American sales office in Windsor , Canada .

Products

The company develops and produces components made of zinc and plastic. The main customers for Föhl products include the automotive , connector and sensor technology , communication and fastening technology , window and furniture fittings, as well as household appliances , satellites and antenna technology, electrical automation and drive components. The product range includes around 1,100 different components, with weights ranging from a few grams to around one and a half kilograms. Approx. According to the company, five million parts and assemblies leave the plants every day. 60 zinc die casting machines and 30 plastic injection molding machines are used.

Key figures

The group of companies has an annual turnover of almost 110 million euros, and the export share is around 60%. Around 400 people work in the German locations, another 300 in the Taicang plant. In 1987 the first apprentices were trained in mold making, in 2018 37 industrial and commercial apprentices were employed in the German locations.

history

In 1958, Adolf Föhl, then a toolmaker at the die casting machine manufacturer Oskar Frech , founded the company with a Frech plastic injection molding machine . Two years after founding the foundry , he also got into zinc die casting. The path to becoming a service provider began in 1968 with the company's own mold construction and the establishment of its own design department.

In the decades that followed, the company continued to develop: in 1983, another production area of ​​650 square meters was inaugurated with a warehouse, mechanical parts processing, slide grinder, mold construction and maintenance as well as construction. The purchase of the building of the Haubersbronn company Solo resulted in the opening of Plant 2 as a further branch in 1989. The entire injection molding production was relocated here.

After Adolf and Reinhold Föhl, Frank Kirkorowicz, the third generation, has been running the family business since 1996. In the same year, Föhl acquired a plot of around 31,000 square meters in Michelau as a commitment to Germany as a location, which then resulted in Plant 3, one of the most modern die-casting companies in Europe. In 2000, production was carried out there in three shifts, initially with eleven automatic die casting machines.

In order to expand the company's international presence, the Föhl China plant in Taicang near Shanghai went into operation in 2005. Ten years later, a newly built factory was moved into at this location.

Innovations

With the hot runner technology, the company Ferrofacta GmbH has developed a process for zinc die casting in cooperation with Föhl. The technology enables casting without a sprue , the machine presses the molten zinc directly into the cavity, which ultimately forms the desired component, eliminating the need for sprue. As a result, there are fewer air pockets, which improves the quality of the cast parts. The new shapes are smaller, which increases the capacity of the machines. In addition, the lack of the sprue eliminates the energy required for remelting.

Hybrid technology proves that zinc and plastic create a strong combination. Here, cast inserts are overmolded or back-molded with plastic or mechanically connected. This process enables the implementation of technically demanding concepts and increases the number of variants in terms of construction, design and feel.

Another innovation is the nano-coating (Föhlan) with a total layer thickness of 2 to 3 µm. It represents an economical alternative to galvanic coatings with the same or better corrosion protection. The nano-coating can be integrated after the casting process and thus simplifies logistical processes.

Awards

  • European zinc die-casting competition 2010 of the International Zinc Association (IZA) in the category "Construction": 1st prize for an insert with a thread as an element of a compressed air distributor
  • Zinc die-casting competition 2010: 3rd prize for a housing for video and television electronics in automobiles
  • Zinc die-casting competition 2014: 1st prize for gear housing for a high-pressure cleaner
  • Stabilus Supplier Award 2015: Award as the best supplier
  • IZA European zinc die-casting competition 2016: 1st prize in the "Substitution" category for the Autolive Shift Lever
  • Innovation Prize Rems-Murr 2016: 1st prize for the developed process of hot runner technology
  • Zinc die-casting competition 2018: 2nd prize for window technology component

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.foehl.de/de/impressum. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  2. ↑ https://www.foehl.de/de/unternehmen/standorte/. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  3. ↑ https://www.foehl.de/de/unternehmen/. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c d https://www.giesserei.eu/magazin/fachartikel/2018/foehl-globalisierung-auf-schwaebisch/. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  5. ↑ https://www.foehl.de/de/unternehmen/historie/. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  6. ↑ [1]
  7. ↑ http://effguss.bdguss.de/?wpfb_dl=168. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b c https://www.foehl.de/de/technologien/#to-section-119. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  9. ↑ a b https://www.region-stuttgart.de/. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  10. ↑ https://www.initiative-zink.de/presse/pressemitteilungen. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  11. ↑ https://www.initiative-zink.de/presse/pressemitteilungen. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  12. ↑ https://www.initiative-zink.de/presse/pressemitteilungen. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  13. ↑ https://www.foehl.de/de/aktuelles/ Lieferzeiten. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  14. ↑ https://www.foehl.de/de/aktuelles/internationale-zinkdruckgusstagung. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  15. ↑ https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.innovationspreis-rems-murr-kreis-weltneuheit-aus-dem-wieslauftal. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  16. ↑ https://www.wotech-technical-media.de/. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  17. ↑ https://industrieanzeiger.industrie.de/allgemein/zink-an-der-schwelle-zum-folienguss. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .