Dipl.-Ing. Anett Fischer

Braun can do more than just put “your ideas into shape”!

»1 Aerial photo of the Braun company site – here 160 employees work on an area of 10 000 m²

»2 The entrance to the company headquarters in Friedrichshafen/Kluftern is an outstanding advertisement for the clay brick products made with Braun dies

»3 Markus Rank, Managing Director Horst Rank and Harald Berger, Technical Ceramics and Export, standing in front of a wide range of reference bricks

»4 View into the production hall

»5 The Heller MCP-H 250 is used to cut the cores

»6 At Braun, a large number of different cores are made

»7 Braun manufactures highly complex dies for catalytic converter manufacture

»8 In contract manufacturing, a wide range of metal parts can be machined

»9 A selection of the dies so far supplied by Braun …

»10 …and the products made with these

»11 State-of-art technologies are used for design, the 3D-based models being transferred direct to the machining centres

»12 In the Braun laboratory, various extruders are available for tests

»13 The MRG5 die cleaning device for efficient time- and cost-saving cleaning

»14 At the Clemson Forum, Berthold Mueller, ZMB Braun Inc., presented a stiff-mud pressed clay block with 46-% perforations

For over 80 years now, the company Ziegelmundstückbau Braun GmbH has been involved in the supply of shaping equipment to the ceramics industry. The know-how built up over these years forms the broad basis for competent customer consultation, service and innovation. Braun – a brand name known throughout the world for clay shaping – can do much more than “just” make dies. We report on the diverse range of possibilities offered by this family business based in the Lake Constance district of Germany.

1 Past and present

In 1926 machine fitter Josef Braun, who had amassed extensive experience as a works manager in several brickworks, founded the company Ziegelmundstückbau Braun in Friedrichshafen-Kluftern. Despite severe setbacks caused by the Second World War, Josef Braun rebuilt the business after the war. In 1964, his grandson Horst Rank joined the company and has managed it since then. In 1972 the company moved from Bahnhofstrasse in Kluftern to its current site on Markdorfer Strasse. This enabled Braun to expand extensively, which was reflected in a steady increase in the workforce. The...