[rollei_list] A visit to Franke und Heidecke GmbH in Braunschweig, March 2006
- From: bigler@xxxxxxxx
- To: RUG List <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:01:58 +0200 (CEST)
Dear friends of the Rollei list
Dirk-Roger Schmitt and myslef are delighted to submit you a report of
a visit we made at Franke und Heidecke GmbH in Braunschweig
(Brunswick), Germany in March 2006.
For those who dit not follow the history of the firm recently, we'll
briefly say that the Rollei brand is now operated by two separate
German firms, Rollei GmbH in Berlin for consumer products and Franke
und Heidecke GmbH for professional products, including of course the
line of TLR cameras plus the slide projector product line.
I have uploaded to the rollei gallery some scanned images I have taken
with my hand-held, no-flash, rollei 35 during this visit:
visit-at-f-h-dias (6 photos)
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8810.html
visit-at-f-h-negs (6 photos)
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8811.html
visit-at-f-h-strasse (2 photos)
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8812.html
visit-at-voigt (6 photos)
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8813.html
Enjoy !!
----------------------------------------------------
A visit to Franke und Heidecke GmbH in Braunschweig
March 2006
By Emmanuel Bigler and Dirk-Roger Schmitt
------------------------------------------
Internet communities are supposed to link people sharing the same
interests virtually. Sometimes the virtual world becomes real. I had
the pleasure to experience this at the end of March 2006 when I was
invited for a factory tour at the Rollei facilities, now officially
named Franke & Heidecke GmbH, located at 196, Salzdahlumer Straße in
Braunschweig, Germany, the same location since 1929.
The visit was made possible thanks to Dirk-Roger Schmitt, who lives in
Braunschweig, a Rollei enthusiast and regular participant to Marc
James Small's Rollei Discussion List on the Internet. Dirk-Roger was
able to arrange the tour thanks to courtesy of Herr Dietmar Kanzer,
the sales manager at Franke und Heidecke GmbH.
The Rollei factory is located within walking distance of the main
train station, south of the old city centre. Soon after the company was
started by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke, new facilities were
established at the present location. During the Second World War, the
Rollei factory suffered like many other buildings in Braunschweig, but
soon after reconstruction, the factory expanded in the fifties to
incorporate two new buildings designed by the local architect Kraemer.
Those two buildings are still there and either are rented by other
companies or just after renewal are waiting for a new life. Actually
very few buildings have been removed from the times of the maximum
expansion of the factory, in the seventies, at least as far as we can
judge from a view from the air published in Claus Prochnow's "Rollei
Report Volume 2".
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8810.html
But let us start the visit. After a friendly welcome by Herr Kanzer,
we start by one of strong tradition and expertise of F&H : fine
mechanics. Nowadays, computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines
have, for a long time, replaced rows of manually-operated or
semi-automated machine tools. Precision is better, shapes that would
have been impossible to fabricate are now directly carved into the
metal directly from a computer file. The characteristic smell of
cutting oil is familiar to those who sometimes enter into a fine
mechanics workshop; we can see the stock of die-cast bodies for
cameras and projectors, waiting for the machining operations.
Then we step up to the mounting/assembly hall were most of the
operations are done manually. We have the pleasure to see one of the
employees working on one the the new Rollei TLR accessories, already
available from specialised dealers: the swap-type twin-lens filter
holder. The device, based on the principles of the movable
parallelogram, allows to switch a regular threaded filter between the
viewing lens and the taking lens. We remember then that the Rollei 2.8
GX and FX TLR are the only cameras where continuous light measurement
is "TTLV", i.e. : Through The Viewing Lens. We can see real leather
panels waiting for cutting and mounting on the 2.8 FX.
For a Rollei enthusiast, it is not necessary to describe the pleasure
of manipulating a TLR body before the final mounting and try and
understand the secrets of the famous twin-cam focusing system !
This is was good opportunity to ask Herr Kanzer about the
re-introduction of the tele-Rolleiflex. The new twin-lens Tele-Rollei
was already officially shown at the PMA, Las Vegas in Feb 2006, but
there is something all rolleiphiles want to know : did you solve the
problem of the minimum focusing distance ? Yes ! he answer with a
mysterious smile. We do not want to push him, this year is Photokina
Year ! Let us be patient until the official specifications are
presented on the final series model !
We can silently watch a lady working on the final quality control of a
6008 camera and we understand the commitment of F&H people to their
products. One of the symbols of precision optical and mechanical
adjustments are the collimator machines, that all readers of
Prochnow's books have seen; the sturdy apparatus are still there,
freshly re-calibrated, ready to fine-tune the position of lenses on
camera bodies. Various optical test targets (including a very peculiar
"in-depth" 3-dimensional target), rolls of test-film that are run into
each film magazine, give us an idea of the different operations in
quality control.
In another room, we can watch an automated FTM test; this reminds us
the second business of F&H: fine optics. Since Rollei bought the
Voigtländer assets in 1972, Rollei-F&H have acquired a complete lens
fabrication know-how. We can also see through a window the modern
computer-controlled polishing equipment, in a clean room environment.
The last part of the visit was devoted to lacquer and painting,
another important operation in the manufacturing of lens and camera
equipment.
We thank Herr Kanzer for his friendly welcome and continue our visit
outside the building.
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8811.html
In the backyard we can see the famous brick wall test target used for
the calibration of Rolleimetric cameras. One of the famous Rollei
buildings, the Kraemer machine shop, has been totally renewed and is
waiting for new activities. The main Kraemer Bau building is now
rented to several independent companies, including a department of
Microtechnology of the Technical University Braunschweig. High
precision still rules over there !!
No photographic pilgrimage to Braunschweig would be complete without a
quick tour to the former Voigtländer factory. Just before visiting
Rollei, we had placed a short visit to Campestraße, downtown, the
historical place where the Voigtländer company started in Braunschweig
in 1849. Before going to the former main Voigtländer factory built in
1915, Dirk-Roger Schmitt wants to show me the place where his family
lived, near the Franke und Heidecke Straße, within cycling distance
from the Rollei factory. After the war, the company had bought an
estate and had built several homes for Rollei employees. The situation
is quite similar to what existed in many industrial cities in Europe
where families spent all their lives working for the same company
living in in homes that were built by the company.
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8812.html
Then we proceed to the former Voigtländer factory located in
Gliesmarode, a suburb of Braunschweig. The building is still there,
occupied by different companies including a car repair shop and a
mechanics workshop. Nearby, in Petzvalstraße you can find a
specialised camera repair shop. In a restaurant nearby, probably the
former Voigtländer canteen, there is a small Voigtländer museum,
reminding all the cameras that were manufactured there in one of the
biggest German photographic company, as we can see of a vintage view
of the factory from the air.
http://www.rollei-gallery.net/e-bigler/folder-8813.html
That was the end of the tour. Many thanks to Dirk-Roger... and many
thanks to the Rollei List for dream made true !!
References and suggested readings :
A report by Ferdi Stutterheim: Rollei Braunschweig factory visit on
May 10-11, 2001
http://www.galerie-photo.com/une-visite-a-l-usine-rollei-us.html (original
English version)
http://www.galerie-photo.com/une-visite-a-l-usine-rollei-fr.html (translated
French version)
Claus Prochnow's Web site; information on his books, a
comprehensive survey of Rollei and Voigtländer history and products
http://www.rollei-report.com
A visit to Franke und Heidecke GmbH in Braunschweig
March 2006
By Emmanuel Bigler and Dirk-Roger Schmitt
------------------------------------------
Internet communities are supposed to link people sharing the same
interests virtually. Sometimes the virtual world becomes real. I had
the pleasure to experience this at the end of March 2006 when I was
invited for a factory tour at the Rollei facilities, now officially
named Franke & Heidecke GmbH, located at 196, Salzdahlumer Straße in
Braunschweig, Germany, the same location since 1929.
The visit was made possible thanks to Dirk-Roger Schmitt, who lives in
Braunschweig, a Rollei enthusiast and regular participant to Marc
James Small's Rollei Discussion List on the Internet. Dirk-Roger was
able to arrange the tour thanks to courtesy of Herr Dietmar Kanzer,
the sales manager at Franke und Heidecke GmbH.
The Rollei factory is located within walking distance of the main
train station, south of the old city centre. Soon after the company was
started by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke, new facilities were
established at the present location. During the Second World War, the
Rollei factory suffered like many other buildings in Braunschweig, but
soon after reconstruction, the factory expanded in the fifties to
incorporate two new buildings designed by the local architect Kraemer.
Those two buildings are still there and either are rented by other
companies or just after renewal are waiting for a new life. Actually
very few buildings have been removed from the times of the maximum
expansion of the factory, in the seventies, at least as far as we can
judge from a view from the air published in Claus Prochnow's "Rollei
Report Volume 2".
But let us start the visit. After a friendly welcome by Herr Kanzer,
we start by one of strong tradition and expertise of F&H : fine
mechanics. Nowadays, computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines
have, for a long time, replaced rows of manually-operated or
semi-automated machine tools. Precision is better, shapes that would
have been impossible to fabricate are now directly carved into the
metal directly from a computer file. The characteristic smell of
cutting oil is familiar to those who sometimes enter into a fine
mechanics workshop; we can see the stock of die-cast bodies for
cameras and projectors, waiting for the machining operations.
Then we step up to the mounting/assembly hall were most of the
operations are done manually. We have the pleasure to see one of the
employees working on one the the new Rollei TLR accessories, already
available from specialised dealers: the swap-type twin-lens filter
holder. The device, based on the principles of the movable
parallelogram, allows to switch a regular threaded filter between the
viewing lens and the taking lens. We remember then that the Rollei 2.8
GX and FX TLR are the only cameras where continuous light measurement
is "TTLV", i.e. : Through The Viewing Lens. We can see real leather
panels waiting for cutting and mounting on the 2.8 FX.
For a Rollei enthusiast, it is not necessary to describe the pleasure
of manipulating a TLR body before the final mounting and try and
understand the secrets of the famous twin-cam focusing system !
This is was good opportunity to ask Herr Kanzer about the
re-introduction of the tele-Rolleiflex. The new twin-lens Tele-Rollei
was already officially shown at the PMA, Las Vegas in Feb 2006, but
there is something all rolleiphiles want to know : did you solve the
problem of the minimum focusing distance ? Yes ! he answer with a
mysterious smile. We do not want to push him, this year is Photokina
Year ! Let us be patient until the official specifications are
presented on the final series model !
We can silently watch a lady working on the final quality control of a
6008 camera and we understand the commitment of F&H people to their
products. One of the symbols of precision optical and mechanical
adjustments are the collimator machines, that all readers of
Prochnow's books have seen; the sturdy apparatus are still there,
freshly re-calibrated, ready to fine-tune the position of lenses on
camera bodies. Various optical test targets (including a very peculiar
"in-depth" 3-dimensional target), rolls of test-film that are run into
each film magazine, give us an idea of the different operations in
quality control.
In another room, we can watch an automated FTM test; this reminds us
the second business of F&H: fine optics. Since Rollei bought the
Voigtländer assets in 1972, Rollei-F&H have acquired a complete lens
fabrication know-how. We can also see through a window the modern
computer-controlled polishing equipment, in a clean room environment.
The last part of the visit was devoted to lacquer and painting,
another important operation in the manufacturing of lens and camera
equipment.
We thank Herr Kanzer for his friendly welcome and continue our visit
outside the building.
In the backyard we can see the famous brick wall test target used for
the calibration of Rolleimetric cameras. One of the famous Rollei
buildings, the Kraemer machine shop, has been totally renewed and is
waiting for new activities. The main Kraemer Bau building is now
rented to several independent companies, including a department of
Microtechnology of the Technical University Braunschweig. High
precision still rules over there !!
No photographic pilgrimage to Braunschweig would be complete without a
quick tour to the former Voigtländer factory. Just before visiting
Rollei, we had placed a short visit to Campestraße, downtown, the
historical place where the Voigtländer company started in Braunschweig
in 1849. Before going to the former main Voigtländer factory built in
1915, Dirk-Roger Schmitt wants to show me the place where his family
lived, near the Franke und Heidecke Straße, within cycling distance
from the Rollei factory. After the war, the company had bought an
estate and had built several homes for Rollei employees. The situation
is quite similar to what existed in many industrial cities in Europe
where families spent all their lives working for the same company
living in in homes that were built by the company.
Then we proceed to the former Voigtländer factory located in
Gliesmarode, a suburb of Braunschweig. The building is still there,
occupied by different companies including a car repair shop and a
mechanics workshop. Nearby, in Petzvalstraße you can find a
specialised camera repair shop. In a restaurant nearby, probably the
former Voigtländer canteen, there is a small Voigtländer museum,
reminding all the cameras that were manufactured there in one of the
biggest German photographic company, as we can see of a vintage view
of the factory from the air.
That was the end of the tour. Many thanks to Dirk-Roger... and many
thanks to the Rollei List for dream made true !!
References and suggested readings :
A report by Ferdi Stutterheim: Rollei Braunschweig factory visit on
May 10-11, 2001
http://www.galerie-photo.com/une-visite-a-l-usine-rollei-us.html (original
English version)
http://www.galerie-photo.com/une-visite-a-l-usine-rollei-fr.html (translated
French version)
Claus Prochnow's Web site; information on his books, a
comprehensive survey of Rollei and Voigtländer history and products
http://www.rollei-report.com
--
Emmanuel BIGLER
<bigler@xxxxxxxx>
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