“Our pioneering spirit is part of our DNA.”

The inception: 1960. Brückner Maschinenbau was founded in the Bavarian town of Tittmoning, evolving into a company specializing in stretched films within a short space of time. The underlying principle: To make the films thinner, lighter, and more robust – properties that represent real progress in the industry. “Our pioneering spirit is firmly embedded in our DNA,” explains Karlheinz Weinmann, Head of Corporate Communications at Brückner Maschinenbau. Ever since the company was founded, it has pursued the strategy of being at the cutting edge of technology. Then there is the strict focus on exports from the outset: 

Four companies. Around 2,700 employees worldwide. One shared aim: To make the plastics and packaging industry ever more effective and sustainable. The four specialized business units possess leading expertise in film production, service, thermoforming, and packaging technology.

Brückner Maschinenbau supplies high-quality production lines for manufacturing flexible films that are used as packaging materials or in special technical applications, such as capacitors, battery separators, or screens. 

In 2003, Brückner Servtec was added to the portfolio of Brückner Maschinenbau. Brückner Servtec provides comprehensive after-sales services, upgrades systems, and modernizes film stretching lines, using the digital service platform Brückner ONE, among other things, which makes customer service much more efficient.

Kiefel in Freilassing (Bavaria) became part of the Brückner Group in 2007. The company, which was founded in 1945 by Paul Kiefel as a simple bicycle workshop, is now a technology leader in the field of thermoforming and high-frequency welding machines. Thermoforming uses heat to precisely mold polymer films – to produce polymer cups, for example. High-frequency welding is a polymer processing technique which involves heating plastics by means of an electromagnetic field, in a similar way to a microwave oven, before welding them.

The next key step was taken in 2011 in the form of the merger with PackSys Global. The Swiss company develops complete systems for extruded tubes and laminate tubes as well as individual packaging solutions for tubes, cans, cartridges, and containers. “PackSys Global emerged from KMK Maschinen AG in 2003,” recalls Beat Rupp, CEO of PackSys Global AG.

Extraordinary technological expertise and the will to break new ground have made the Brückner Group a driver of innovation in the industry for many decades. Here are some examples of how the four companies have made an impact in their respective fields of expertise.

KMK Maschinen AG (later renamed PackSys Global) develops the famous Signal toothpaste tube with the characteristic five stripes.

Brückner Maschinenbau constructs the world’s first ten-meter-wide film production line for efficiently manufacturing high-quality biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film.

The ASC polymer riveting process is invented by Kiefel and later used by well-known automotive suppliers. It is used in vehicles built by Audi, BMW, Porsche, and VW, among others. 

Alternately heating and cooling during the riveting process achieves significantly higher rivet strengths compared to conventional processes such as ultrasound or hot air.

The Kiefel Technology Center opens. “That was really another quantum leap in terms of our development achievements,” recalls Rupert Gschwendtner. The big advantage is that the research team has machines available solely for test purposes and can thus optimize processes faster and more effectively. This in turn takes production quality to an even higher level. 

PackSys Global demonstrates its technological leadership in the laminate tube sector with the 500-tube line. The new system can manufacture 500 high-quality tubes within the space of a minute.

“Undoubtedly one of our largest projects,” says Christian Aigner, Director of After-Sales and Service at Brückner Servtec. “We modernized the 30-year-old plant of a well-known film manufacturer in Colombia to enable it to produce special films for food packaging.” This comprehensive upgrade has taken the South American production site to a new level and it is now ideally equipped to meet global demand.

Brückner’s in-line coating (ILC) technology is a wet chemical coating technique for films, applied in an intermediate step during the film manufacturing process. The technology optimizes the surface properties of the film and improves the recyclability of the final film.

The Brückner Group’s biggest asset is its many highly qualified employees. Their expertise represents the ideal basis for adding many more chapters to the story of innovation that has been written over the course of the decades. The Group continues to base its market and technology leadership in pioneering niche markets on ongoing research and development.

To this end, a total of five “Innovation Centers” and “Material R&D Centers” have been created. Whether for polymers, natural fibers, or recycled or bio-based materials, these centers develop and test innovative solutions and environmentally friendly technologies for various industries. This considerable expertise will enable the Brückner Group to keep on extending its technological lead. Another key success factor is the global network of platform companies that the Group has established over decades.

From China to the USA, from Slovakia to India, from Colombia to Thailand, regional customers can rely on getting the best support from the Brückner Group’s expert team at local level. 

Dr. Axel von Wiedersperg, Managing Director and CEO of Brückner Group SE, sees many reasons to be optimistic about the future: