Friedrich Deckel Praezisions Mechanik und Maschinenbau specialized in milling machines and tool & cutter grinders.
The precision mechanic Friedrich Wilhelm Deckel (1871-1948) from Jungingen, Baden-Württemberg worked as a laboratory mechanic at Zeiss in Jena from 1889 under the personal guidance of Ernst Abbe, one of the company's co-founders. At the end of 1898, Deckel set up his own mechanic's workshop and founded the company Bruns & Deckel in Munich in 1903 together with the inventor Christian Bruns. The company developed shutters for cameras. Bruns left the company in 1905, Friedrich Deckel thus became the sole owner of the company, now trading as Friedrich Deckel GmbH.
Friedrich Deckel's own requirements for high-precision machine tools for precision mechanics and mold making were largely covered by Deckel himself. Such special machines were almost impossible to buy at the time and were therefore designed and manufactured by Deckel himself. In 1911, this led to the decision to offer the machines manufactured by Deckel itself to the companies in the camera and optics industry in Munich which were closely linked to Deckel. Deckel increasingly supplied machines and shutters to other well-known camera manufacturers, such as Agfa Camerawerk in Munich. Over the years, the ancillary business of special machine construction became the company's core business.
In 1953, the company employed 3000 people and, from the end of the 1950s, increasingly focused on machine tool construction. The FP series of milling machines in particular, especially the FP1, achieved worldwide fame as universal, high-precision and excellently manufactured machines.
In 1961, the company changed its name to Compur-Werk GmbH & Co.
By 1972, the company, now trading as Friedrich Deckel Präzisionsmechanik und Maschinenbau KG, was the fourth largest manufacturer of machine tools in West Germany. In the same year, the company was transformed into Friedrich Deckel Aktiengesellschaft.
In 1993, Deckel AG merged with Maho AG to form Deckel Maho AG.
In 1994, Gildemeister took over the bankrupt Deckel Maho AG, continued its milling machine concept and then traded under the name DMG (Deckel Maho Gildemeister).
From 2009, a cooperation and cross-shareholding with the Japanese machine tool manufacturer Mori Seiki led to the company being renamed DMG Mori AG. In 2015, Mori Seiki acquired the controlling majority of DMG Mori AG.
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