“The Gustav Neumann felt production facility, which has been in existence in Braunschweig since 1874, produces and processes felts of all types for every conceivable purpose. The company specialises in technical felts such as sealing rings, sealing strips, felt strips for seal grooves, felt wicks, felt tubes, felt sleeves and other mass-production articles, whether punched, wrapped or cut.” – this is an excerpt from a special edition of the ‘Braunschweigische Landeszeitung’ newspaper from 1930.

This quote could still be used today in the same or similar form in a press release about technical felts and felt products. Felt is not necessarily a very well-known material, but it is used in many different sectors and applications.

Before 1960 In the 1950s, Filzfabrik Gustav Neumann GmbH was bought by Klaus Brand and has been a family-owned business since then. The company’s history is characterised by continual change. Our success over the years is largely due to the contributions of many dedicated employees, including the present generation of staff.

1960 – 1980 The initial steps in a “new” market segment were taken. The first supply arrangements for Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg came into being in the early 1970s – a case of being close to our customers in all senses of the phrase! In particular, we produced and supplied insulation materials in both sheet and roll form for the VW Beetle.

1980 – 1990 Successful engineering developments achieved by automobile manufacturers helped to make vehicle interiors less noisy. So-called buzz, squeak and rattle (or BSR) sounds that used to be drowned out by other noises now came to the fore and were regarded as annoying by customers. This made it necessary to use self-adhesive felt components in vehicle interiors. Sticking became established as a bonding method, and remains so to this day! The use of the same parts on a number of vehicle models led to standardisation and to increases in piece numbers. Accordingly, the production systems at Filzfabrik Gustav Neumann GmbH were improved and automated to deal with these greater piece numbers.

1990 – 2000 The processing of electronically transmitted data within our ERP system was expanded using a standardised EDI interface. This was initially used for just a few clients, but was further expanded by the end of the 1990s. This service continues to guarantee quick delivery times and deliver a high level of flexibility to this present day.

2000 – 2010 The global networking of our clients created new challenges for our company. New markets for our clients and increasing product diversity with SUVs, convertibles, city cars, hybrid technology and the potential for vehicle individualisation in the area of features all led to an increase in product diversity and higher piece numbers in our market sector too. Our company was shipping well over 100 million individual parts each year.

2010 – present With our engineering and commercial teams, we are able to face up to challenges in various sectors and in new markets. The ongoing modernisation of our machinery has also kept pace with these developments. Today, Filzfabrik Gustav Neumann GmbH has an excellent international network and is an expert point of contact for problems with applications. Thanks to our many decades of experience, the knowledge we have acquired about various materials and the diverse range of processing methods that we offer, we can deliver sustainable technical solutions – even for clients who have not used felt before.