CONSTRUCTION FIXINGS Bossong
celebrates fiftieth
birthday
At the International Hardware Fair in Köln, the management of Bossong received a special presentation marking the Italian fixings specialists fiftieth year in business. In fact, 2012 marks both a fiftieth and seventy-fifth anniversary for Bossong, as the company recounts.
Beginnings in Bavaria The story actually started in 1937 when Carl Bossong founded
Bossong-Werk GmbH in Bavaria. The factory, which moved in 1944 to Lintorf, near Düsseldorf, specialised in the production of automotive components. Born in 1909 Carl Bossong was a racing driver during the Forties, steering his Veritas RS car, powered by a two litre BMW engine, to podium places at the Nürburgring and Kölner Kurs circuits as well as a fourth place at Hockenheim in 1949.
After the
Second World War Bossong, following a trip to the USA where he saw a nail gun and realised its potential in Germany, transferred his business from the automotive sector into the field of nail machines and fasteners. The major phase of development for the business was during the reconstruction years in Germany,
when Bossong, at a time of great turmoil for the building industry, used the operational system of a pistol to drive a nail into concrete, as well as to fix steel bars and wooden planks. In 1951, thanks to the support of technician Max Skuwawiz,
a nail gun was developed that, because it was made up of less elements, was more efficient and economical. On 5th
April 1955
patent number 2,705,323 was registered for “gun for fastener projectile” at the United States Patent Office. In the meantime however, due to large debts, Carl Bossong was
forced to sell part of his company to the Burkhardt-Bank of Essen and to the American company Ramset. The high quality of production achieved at the factories of Carl Bossong were maintained for the Tornado production (the Lintorf company changed its name in 1954 to Tornado-Ramset GmbH + Co), ensuring several decades of success for nail gun tools, exported all over the world.
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The move to Italy Carl Bossong finally left Bossong Werk GmbH in 1952 and
moved to Italy where he founded Bossong SpA. Production was carried out in northern Italy, where it was most economical at the time - in Ponte San Pietro, in the province Bergamo. Even in those years the nails were being produced with
innovative technology in comparison to the normal cut of common use nails. The tip of the Bossong nail was ‘hammered’, which concentrated the metal fibres rather than using the normal cutting system. This technology made the Bossong nail unique in its genre in terms of resistance, able to withstand the explosion and penetration into steel and concrete. In 1956 Carl Bossong pursued the positive growth of the
construction market, expanding his activity with ‘Bossong Gesellschaft’, through which he began to market construction products. There were then two types of activity, the productive ‘Bossong Werk’ and commercial ‘Bossong Gesellschaft’, which would continue side by side and distinguish the entrepreneurial soul of Bossong over the entire course of its history, up to today.
Galvanising nails in Bergamo Bossong nails had to be protected from corrosive agents
and the elements and were therefore galvanised. A company specialising in high-resistance galvanisation was required - to withstand the explosion when the nail was fired and once it has fixed ensure galvanic protection. It was this requirement that led Carl Bossong, in the late Fifties, to meet with the Taddei family, owners of the Industria Elettrochimica Bergamasca srl company from Longuelo (Bergamo), which specialised in galvanisation. At the time the company was managed by its founder, Dr
Emilio Taddei, who had started as a steel technician in Leghorn before the Great War. During the Twenties he was headhunted to become technical director of the Dalmine Steel plants by the engineer Agostino Rocca, whose cousin Elina he would marry. The connection with Dalmine, today Dalmine-Tenaris, was then handed down to their son Luciano who from 1996 to 2003 was a member of the board of directors and from 1998 to today has been advisor to the Fondazione Dalmine. After the war, in the Fifties, Emilio Taddei founded Industria Elettrochimica Bergamasca srl with his two sons Marco and Luciano; its headquarters located in the family farm, converted into a chemical works.
The Sixties: Taddei family buys Bossong In the early Sixties, due to his advancing years, Carl Bossong decided to sell the company, despite having opened an office
Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 74 March 2012
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