VEB vehicle accessories factory in Meissen

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VEB vehicle accessories factory in Meissen
legal form publicly-owned business
founding 1949
Seat Meissen , German Democratic Republic
Branch Mechanical engineering , metal processing

The state-owned company VEB Kfz-Zubehörwerk Meißen was founded in 1949 and subordinated to the IFA combine. Its origins, however, go back to an industrial area made up of metal processing companies in the Niederfähre district of Meißner from 1912, which is located on the present-day site of UKM Meissen and Silgan Metal Packaging Meissen GmbH (formerly Vogel & Noot Meissner Metallverpackungen , the former VEB Blechverpackung Meissen ). and the Unfallkasse Sachsen found.

Location

The site comprised the triangle between Ringstrasse, Zscheilaer Strasse and Goethestrasse. On the site there was an office and administration complex, several production halls, a hardening shop, warehouses, barracks for apprenticeship training and toolmaking as well as a dispatch building. In the early 1980s, there was also a three-storey multi-purpose hall that housed shipping and toolmaking as well as the social wing with changing rooms, showers and a sauna.

In the first years of production, parts such as gear boxes , drive shafts and quick-release axles were manufactured. However, the product range expanded very quickly, in particular to include the mass-produced piston pin . In the 1970s it became necessary to expand the classic technology of the salt bath hardening shop to include newer multi-chamber penetration hardening systems. This led, in particular with the almost simultaneously introduced cold forging / cold extrusion (KFP) technology, to significantly higher production numbers and to a considerable improvement in quality, especially with regard to process stability. The pressing tools required for this were made exclusively by the company's own tool shop . Process preparation and follow-up operations such as chemical treatment and stress- relieving annealing were also integrated into the existing factory halls. At the same time it became necessary to put a wastewater treatment plant into operation. Since environmental protection was not of great importance in the GDR era, it was limited to discharging the wastewater from the chemical department at least free of floating and heavy metals and pH-neutral into adjacent waters through evaporated salts and filter systems .

Products and manufactures

Passenger car piston pins were prefabricated in enormous numbers using the KFP process in order to finish them in the soft state with interlinked ball indexing controlled lathes . Truck and diesel piston pins were manufactured exclusively on multi-spindle automatic lathes . The customers of the company in the Comecon area included mainly Czech companies such as Skoda and Tatra . In “ non-socialist countries ”, Volkswagen and Opel were the main buyers of piston pins.

The product range of the Meißen plant for the domestic market included brake drums for the Wartburg car until its production was discontinued. Another mass product that was delivered in a fully assembled and operational state was the load-dependent pressure limiter (LAD), a purely mechanically controlled brake force distribution for IFA vehicles such as Multicar and Progress combine harvesters. This production took place on the ground floor of the administration building. Another product was the valve train for diesel engines like the 4 VD 14.5 / 12-1 SRW (truck W50 , tractor series ZT 300 ), which consisted of rocker arms , bearing axles and rocker arm brackets. This assembly was preset and delivered ready for installation.

The degree of automation was very high for GDR standards. So come along with several Robotron - Industry Roboteren also pneumatic controlled linking systems between machines (workstations) in the area of the piston pin manufacturing used. There was also a very high number of CNC lathes and milling machines with Robotron CNC 600 and CNC 645 controls in the company.

As in any Kombinat operating many side like electric workshop, masonry, painting, injection molding, metal, Scharfschleiferei (tooling, manufacturing, regrinding of were HSS - cutting tools ) and a sandblasting plant operated on the premises. There was also an in -house fire brigade .

Like every combine enterprise, the motor vehicle was obliged to manufacture so-called consumer goods due to the planning of the SED . In this production area, in addition to foot air pumps, model internal combustion engines and hand hacksaws were manufactured as consumer goods.

Thus the company was one of the largest employers in the city of Meissen, along with the cable works , the turbo works and the plate works . The number of employees fluctuated between 1,800 and 2,700 at the site, with additional employees working in the branch offices. In addition, the accessories factory was the central point of contact for the fighting groups of the working class . The privatization and division of the IFA-Kombinate that followed with the reunification, at the same time as the collapsing export market in the Comecon area, ensured that productions (brake drums, rocker arms) were completely stopped and that the number of employees was initially 780 and until the final privatization to around 350 Workers fell. Due to this shrinking process, buildings such as the administration (now houses the community accident insurance) and the Zaschendorf sub- camp were sold.

After privatization by the Treuhandanstalt to a private investor from Nuremberg , the company was renamed UKM Meissen .

More locations

Another workshop was located across from Zscheilaer Straße on the current site of Silgan , which had started rocker arm production for the IFA W50 truck and housed a training center and construction department.

In the area of ​​the Alte Zaschendorfer Straße there was another hall, which had been put into operation around 1986. This hall served, among other things, as a warehouse. There was also a department there that dealt with robotics and rationalization . After the fall of the Wall there was a wholesale store in this hall.

The workshop of the Torgau correctional facility can be seen as a further branch . In this part, prisoners carried out “dirty” work such as plastering the cast.

supporting documents

  • Company newspaper of the car: "Crankshaft" in different editions
  • Sächsische Zeitung (GDR edition), business section
  • Company history UKM Meissen www.ukm-gruppe.com