Krauss-Maffei
KraussMaffei Group is a German manufacturer of injection molding machines, machines for plastics extrusion technology, and reaction process machinery. It was acquired by ChemChina in 2016.History
Krauss-Maffei was formed in 1931 from a merger of the two Munich firms of Maffei and Krauss & Co.. Both belonged to the leading German makers of locomotives of various types. Maffei also built other steam-operated vehicles and, later, manufactured vehicles with combustion engines, including locomotives, trolleybuses and buses until the 1950s.
In the 1960s, Krauss-Maffei built several examples of the ML 4000 C′C′ diesel-hydraulic locomotive for demonstration and testing on American railroads. Southern Pacific Railroad and Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad participated in the tests, but both found the locomotives unsuitable for service in the rugged Rocky Mountains through which the two railroads ran. 1963 the company started production of the Leopard tank, 1973 production of Leopard 2. In the seventies they were involved in the development of the Transrapid magnetic levitation train. In 1999 the company merged with Mannesmann DEMAG.
Krauss-Maffei's defense and locomotive component was later spun off and merged with Wegmann and became the present-day company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, which is independent of KraussMaffei Group.
In November 2018 Krauss-Maffei was the victim of a ransomware attack, leading to severe drawdown in the production.
