Berna (Olten)

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Radiator emblem

Berna was a Swiss manufacturer of trucks , buses and trolley buses .

history

founding

Motor-Werke Berna shares on August 1, 1906 for over 500 francs

In 1902 Joseph Wyss started manufacturing motor vehicles with the brand name Berna in Bern .

In 1904 the premises needed to be expanded and the company moved to Olten . The brand name Berna was retained.

In 1905, Berna began producing trucks. Customers were the private industry, public and private transport companies, fire brigade corps in many municipalities and armies in several countries. Already in 1906 the company exported to Great Britain , for example , where it was sold by Straker and MacConnell (1906) Ltd , 44, Pall Mall , London W. together with the Italian brands Rapid (automobiles) and Bianchi (bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles) and the French Manufacturer Lacoste & Battmann ( Voiturettes ). There is no relation to straker squire . After the rapid collapse of this partner, the import into the kingdom was organized from Switzerland.

First and Second World War

In 1913 British Berna Motor Lorries, Ltd. was founded with British capital . founded in West Kensington , London W., which built slightly modified Berna trucks under license. The British Berna had larger coolers and were available with 2.5 and 5 tn payload . The British army sat in the First World War one of Olten and about 300 British Berna next 591 Berna. After the war, British 3½ and 4½ ton trucks were available for a short time. English production ended around 1920, likely in favor of the Watson .

During the inter-war period, the Swiss company was in English hands for a few years before it was taken over by Swiss investors again.

In 1929, Adolph Saurer AG in Arbon , then the market leader in Swiss truck production, acquired the majority of shares in Berna. Under the leadership of Saurer, the Olten vehicles were developed together with the Arbon trucks, and synergies were also used in the production of the components.

1944 Construction of the melee cannon 1 . However, it stayed with a prototype.

post war period

From 1974 onwards, vehicle assembly took place exclusively at Saurer in Arbon. Only components were produced in Olten. The Berna brand continued to be marketed independently. Up to the end, each type could also be ordered with the bear logo and Berna logo.

1982: When the previously protected Swiss truck market was opened to foreign suppliers towards the end of the 1960s, the comparatively small Swiss manufacturers came under pressure. As a result, Saurer finally announced the end of commercial vehicle production in 1982. The newly founded NAW under the leadership of Mercedes still produced the private trucks that had already been ordered as well as the 1,200 units of 6DM and 10DM recently commissioned by the Swiss Army .

In 1983 the last truck built for civilian use was delivered.

In 1987 the last Saurer 10DM was handed over to the Swiss Army.

End of vehicle production

During the phase of the opening of the truck market, the management of Berna realized that truck production in Switzerland could not be sustained in the long term. The company was therefore rebuilt. Surface metallurgy has become a core business. Two areas were created, a so-called thin-film and a thick-film section. Systems for coating surfaces with metals using the PVD process were developed and built for thin layers. For the thick layers, plasticizing cylinders were protected against wear and corrosion using a special centrifugal process.

Both divisions developed independently and were sold as two independent companies in 2003 by the Saurer Group, which until then continued to hold the shares in Berna. IonBond emerged from the thin film division, a company that builds CVD and PVD coating systems and offers these coatings in numerous service centers as a contract coater. Bernex-Bimetall AG, the coated plasticizing cylinders and plasticizing screws (new plant in the Czech Republic) was produced from the thick-film division.

photos

literature

Web links

Commons : Berna  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Grace's Guide: Straker-MacConnell
  2. Georgiano / Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles (1979) 108
  3. Grace's Guide: Advertisement in The Commercial Motor from January 27, 1920: British and Swiss Berna ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gracesguide.co.uk
  4. www.saureroldtimer.ch History according to the homepage of the Oldtimer Club Saurer (shortened)