Our Company
Franz Eckert GmbH is engaged in marketing and processing of precision fabrics for screen and filter technology.
Our customers typically work in the fields of food technology, motor equipment, water treatment, acoustics, semiconductor technology, automotive, medicine and pharmaceuticals. We also supply institutes, laboratory facilities or private end customers.
As a small, owner-operated enterprise we offer flexible solutions, favorable prices and short delivery times.
Your vision is our aspiration
Franz Eckert GmbH sees its market segment in the manufacture of high-quality filter products. Our goal is to constantly optimize the quality of our products and services for your benefit, oriented to the technical, ecological and economic requirements of the market.
In partnership with our customers and suppliers we attach great importance to fairness and transparency. Environmental protection and a conscious use of resources is also an important component of our actions.
The history of Franz Eckert
2021 - 160 Jahre Franz Eckert
160 years of eventful company history here in Waldkirch. An eventful time, during which Franz Eckert focused mainly on wire cloth.
As far as possible at present, we want to pay tribute to this special year both internally and externally.
For this occasion, this new homepage went online on May 21, `21.
2021 - Company history in book format
In the last 160 years, we have accumulated a lot of pictures, business documents and memories, which we have recorded in a small book.
This was published in December 2021 and shows exciting details from long ago. Available at the Augustiniok bookstore in Waldkirch.
1861 - Franz Eckert & Cie.
In 1861, the farmer's son Franz Eckert from Etzwyhl near Albbruck founded the company Franz Eckert & Cie. for the production of traditional costume ribbons in Tiefenstein in the Hotzenwald.
In Waldkirch, he acquired a plot of land on the industrial canal shortly afterwards and built a factory building there. Here he began producing miller's gauze from pure silk in 1875.
Structure and growth
The company developed rapidly and soon supplied the fabric produced to customers at home and abroad, and even overseas. A weaving branch was operated in Lutzenberg, Switzerland.
Franz Eckert worked in the company himself until 1911, when he handed it over to his son-in-law Alexander Fries. During this time, the production and office buildings were erected.
1929 – Franz Eckert & Cie. AG
After the death of Alexander Fries, his wife Sophie and his son Walter continued to run the business for a few more years before they converted it into a stock corporation and sold the AG shares to Switzerland.
Walter Fries first took over the management of the AG and handed it over to the authorized signatory Emanuel Gerzabek in 1939.
Company operation in historically eventful times
The world economic crisis did not spare Franz Eckert. In 1933, the Lutzenberg branch had to be closed. With the beginning of the war, the procurement of raw materials became the biggest problem. But the company profited from the new market situation and the export bans imposed by the Swiss weaving mills. However, since they held the shares of the Franz Eckert company at the same time, they came to an arrangement and supported each other.
Towards the end of the war, the business situation became increasingly confusing and sales figures collapsed.
From weaving mill to sales subsidiary
After the war, the business situation recovered. But new technologies in weaving were not introduced in Waldkirch. Instead, Franz Eckert & Cie. AG was successively transformed into a sales subsidiary of Schweizerische Seidengazefabrik AG.
Since 1965, Helmut Kammerer was the new AG board member. At the beginning of the 1970s, his task was to scrap all the looms at Franz Eckert. The end of Franz Eckert & Cie. AG was a done deal in 1983.
1983 - Franz Eckert GmbH
In 1983, AG board member Helmut Kammerer and his wife Brigitta founded Franz Eckert GmbH out of Franz Eckert & Cie. AG.
Initially continuing to operate as a sales company, techniques for further processing of the fabrics were later introduced in the company. These included die-cutting technology, ready-made clothing and screen-stretching technology. Later, injection molding technology was also added.
The 1990s
In 1994, the first laser cutting system for hot cutting of screen cloth was installed. This opened up completely new production possibilities and thus further areas of application.
Due to the great flexibility with the highest quality standards, the laser cutting technology was soon expanded to the largest business area of Franz Eckert GmbH, so that already in 1996 the second plant was put into operation.
The 2000s
In 1996 Dirk Rautenberg and in 2002 Roswitha Friedrich were appointed to the management. The company founders Helmut and Brigitta Kammerer had retired in the meantime.
Just in time for the millennium, the first Franz Eckert GmbH website went online. In 2004, a new generation of CO2 lasers was put into operation and in 2005, Franz Eckert GmbH was certified for the first time according to DIN ISO 9001. In 2006, another swiveling spraying machine with a graphical user interface was installed.
The 2010s
With the first high-frequency welding system in 2011, another new conversion technology was established at Franz Eckert GmbH. A major modernization program was started. Not only in the sewing shop, but also in the die-cutting shop, most of the machines were replaced by new, computer-controlled equipment.
Most recently, a new, large-format laser cutting system was put into operation, before the last machine from the 90s was also replaced in the injection molding shop by a modern vertical injection molding machine in 2019.