Kraus & Naimer

Kraus & Naimer Produktion GmbH
GmbH
Industry Electrical components, Machine Industry, Toolmaking
Predecessor Hubert Laurenz Naimer (1922-2004)
Founder Franz Kraus (1877-1962) and Lorenz Naimer (1868-1944)
Headquarters Vienna, Austria
Products Rotary Cam Switch, Control and Load Switch
Owner Joachim (Ted) Laurenz Naimer leads the company in the third generation (since 2004)
Number of employees
 1100
Website www.krausnaimer.com

The specialty of Kraus & Naimer are load and disconnect switches as well as modular cam switches, where the company is world market leader.[1] Kraus & Naimer is a supplier of switchgear for industrial customers in the fields of transport (railways, vehicles, ships, etc.,), conveyor systems, lift systems, mechanical engineering and power generation and power distribution systems.

The parent house of the Austrian family business Kraus & Naimer is located in Vienna, Austria. It is currently active with six factories in Europe (Germany, Austria, Hungary), North – and South America (USA, Brazil) and Oceania (New Zealand) and 18 worldwide company owned sales – and customer consultation subsidiaries. It holds 10 of those subsidiaries in Europe (Austria, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Finland, Sweden, UK, Norway, Netherlands), 2 subsidiaries in North America (USA, Canada), 2 subsidiaries in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand), 1 subsidiary in South America (Brazil), 1 subsidiary in Africa (South Africa) and 2 subsidiaries in Asia (Japan, Singapore). It employs globally around 1.000 employees worldwide, who produce almost 4.3 million switches of different types annually. Kraus & Naimer is specialized in the field of switchgear in the course of its history and supplies its products to leading industrial companies worldwide.

History

The company was founded in Vienna in 1907 in Wattgasse 53 within the 16th district Ottakring. The company's history began in the era of emerging electricity. Lorenz Naimer, founder and financier of the company as well as his partner Franz Kraus, who was responsible for the technical development and implementation, researched in the field of electrical special machines. On September 28, 1909, the company was officially renamed Kraus & Naimer. In 1912, the company relocated to Schumanngasse 35 in the 18th district Währing, which was extended in the years 1947-1961. Between 1968 and 1970 an additional production facility was built close to Vienna in Weikersdorf in Lower Austria. This was supplemented by an assembly plant from 1989 - 1990 and expanded to almost double the size in 2013. In 1947, Hubert Laurenz Naimer took over the management of the company from his father Lorenz Naimer, which he developed into a global corporation through innovations and global business drive until his death in 2004. In 1981, his son Joachim Laurenz Naimer joined the management of the company, who leads currently the family enterprise since 2004.

Products

The foundation stone of the company was laid in Vienna in 1907 in the Wattgasse 53 in the 16th district Ottakring. The company initially produced knife switches, the forerunners of today's disconnectors, which are counted from construction to the simplest and the first electrical switches towards the end of the 19th century. The other main products in the first four decades of the company's existence were lever and roller switches. At the end of the 1920s the new plastic material bakelite was used in switch construction. Kraus & Naimer is the patent owner of numerous innovations in switchgear technology. For the first time, the company introduced a cam switch in the modular design (model C15) to the market in 1948, whereby customer-specific switches can be manufactured. The method of mass production of individual products is generally known in the industry also under the term mass customization.[2]

Another milestone in the company's history was the development of the world smallest cam switch (model CA4N),[3] which has been available since 1994.

At the beginning of the 50s, Kraus & Naimer was one of the first industrial companies to use thermoplastics, especially polyamides, in the switchgear technology. The entire value-added chain from research and development to sales is handled by the company itself with specially founded logistics and dispatch centers as well as worldwide dispatch cooperation partners.  As one of the world's leading manufacturers of rotary cam switches which uses a small amount of gold and tin, Kraus & Naimer took necessary steps to avoid the use of materials from illegal and unethical sources in their products. They purchase their needed raw material from companies, that are listed on the CFSI Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative CFSI. [4]

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Die Schalter fürs Weltall" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  2. ↑ "G20 (S) DC switches with knife contacts from Kraus & Naimer". Ferret. February 3, 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  3. ↑ "Company History". Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  4. ↑ "Conflict Materials" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-11-25.
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