Franz Brozincevic (vehicle manufacturer)
The Franz Brozincevic & Cie. ( FBW ) in Wetzikon was one of the most important truck , bus and trolleybus manufacturers in Switzerland .
history
The Croatian Franz Brozincevic , who immigrated to Switzerland in 1892 , built his first truck in Zurich in 1910 , which he named Franz . This was used as a post bus by the Swiss Post. He achieved an international pioneering achievement in 1911 with the first five-ton truck with a cardan drive . In 1916, the Wetzikon engine factory was taken over. From 1918 trucks and buses were manufactured in Wetzikon under the brand name FBW .
In 1925 FBW issued a license to Henschel & Sohn in Kassel for the manufacture and sale of FBW constructions abroad. The company did well; after the death of Franz Brozincevic in 1933 his son Franz jun. the management, two other brothers worked in the company. Vehicles were produced for the Swiss Army during the Second World War .
FBW was a very innovative company. FBW presented the semi-automatic planetary gearbox as early as 1954, which was way ahead of its time. Constant coupling was no longer necessary for the drivers. This is why FBW buses were particularly popular with urban transport companies. A further development of this gear was then also used in the Saurer 6 DM and 10 DM, which were built for the Swiss Army in the 1980s.
1972 began the cooperation with Mitsubishi Motors and the sale of Mitsubishi vehicles in Switzerland . In 1974 the company presented the VST standard trolleybus in cooperation with the Association of Swiss Transport Companies (VST) . As early as 1957, FBW also produced the first articulated trolleybus in Switzerland, the GTr51 .
After the oil crisis , sales of commercial vehicles declined from 1974, and in 1978 FBW was taken over by the Oerlikon-Bührle group. At about the same time, 22 FBW 40VH buses were built for Swiss Post and the FBW 50U .
In 1982 FBW was finally merged with Adolph Saurer AG to form the commercial vehicle company Arbon & Wetzikon (NAW), in which Daimler-Benz held a 40 percent stake. The last FBW left the factory in 1985. Overall, FBW produced in the course of its existence:
- 16 tractors
- 18 gyrobuses
- 498 trolleybuses
- 1012 followers
- 1263 buses
- 3878 trucks
photos
FBW 50 ON-CH from 1951
FBW classic cars
FBW L 50 ED of the ZVB
FBW front handlebars
FBW C40U "Shark Mouth"
Automobilverkehr Frutigen-Adelboden AG (AFA) Bus 9
FBW PC35-U, built in 1962, 150 HP
A former Biel trolleybus in Sibiu, Romania
FBW 40VH, built in 1978, 255 hp
FBW 71U with body by Ramseier & Jenzer, built in 1983, one of the last city buses built by FBW
FBW L50V-E3 4x2 aircraft tanker, civil use
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