He left us last April 18, a great protagonist of the international aluminium world, who marked the development of the modern foundry casting in light alloys in a decisive way<\/p>\n
by Mario Conserva<\/em><\/p>\n We mourn the death of Dr Alois Franke, the founder and partner of\u00a0Aluminium Rheinfelden, and one of the founders in 1999 (and until his demise Vice President) of FACE, the Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe.\u00a0He died a few days ago at the age of 78 following a prolonged period of illness. With his death, we are losing an exceptional entrepreneur, a pioneer, an energetic top manager who has left a strong\u00a0impression on the development of the global aluminium industry and his region. For this, we all owe him our recognition \u2013 the accomplishments of his lifetime deserve our profound respect. He left us last April 18, a great protagonist of the international aluminium world, who marked the development of the modern foundry casting in light alloys in a decisive way by Mario Conserva We mourn the death of Dr Alois Franke, the founder and partner of\u00a0Aluminium Rheinfelden, and one of the founders in 1999 (and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2329],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archivio"],"openstation_lock":null,"openstation_contributors":[],"openstation_attached_media":[1625],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAlois was an exceptional character in more than just one respect. First and foremost, he was a courageous, bold entrepreneur. He was of the rare breed of middle-class doers who, on the\u00a0basis of\u00a0his\u00a0high specialist abilities,\u00a0had a keen feel\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0wishes\u00a0and\u00a0needs of his customers \u2013 and how he could fulfil them and thereby become successful.\u00a0The greatest proof of his courage was when he purchased the promising parts of the Alusuisse site in Rheinfelden in a management buyout in 1994, not least saving about 300 jobs in the process. Since 1982, Dr Franke had been a member of the management of Alusuisse Rheinfelden, and from 1988\u00a0onwards its chairman.\u00a0He simply could not bear the thought of\u00a0shutting\u00a0down the site.\u00a0In\u00a0hindsight,\u00a0when\u00a0success has\u00a0set in,\u00a0this sounds fairly straightforward.\u00a0But in\u00a0the\u00a0actual situation\u00a0at that time, when nothing could be taken for granted, risks were everywhere.\u00a0The\u00a0Land\u00a0of\u00a0Baden W\u00fcrttemberg provided a\u00a0guarantee of millions, which however never had to be used.\u00a0Dr\u00a0Franke was prepared to take such risks.\u00a0And\u00a0in everything he did, his purpose was first and foremost to serve\u00a0the\u00a0company \u2013 all the profits were always left to the organisation.\u00a0Everyone knew:\u00a0he would have given away his last shirt for\u00a0his \u201cAlu\u201dand its workforce. This entrepreneurial approach\u00a0of Alois\u00a0was associated with his\u00a0long-term strategic\u00a0view: decades ago, he\u00a0had\u00a0realized that\u00a0the\u00a0future of aluminium also depended on speciality alloys and\u00a0semi-finished products, and his vision was to align the requirements of processing and end products with a tailor-made\u00a0alloy in order to achieve top efficiency and unrivalled quality – occasionally enabling a specific\u00a0application in the first place.
\nIn numerous pioneering accomplishments, Dr Franke and Aluminium\u00a0Rheinfelden came close to this vision. Just a few corporate history highlights\u00a0are enough to demonstrate this\u00a0role as a forerunner.\u00a0In\u00a01992,\u00a0the company developed\u00a0the Silafont-36 alloy,\u00a0the\u00a0first die casting raw material\u00a0for\u00a0light-weight\u00a0automotive engineering in the marketplace\u00a0\u2013\u00a0just a few years later, the Audi A8 spaceframe marked the breakthrough\u00a0of this application. In 2004, Castasil-37 was launched, an alloy for\u00a0manufacturing\u00a0large structural components in car-making that eliminates the need for thermal treatment. Then, in 2009, Castasil-21 for the first time ever enabled high electrical conductivity of aluminium components. But Dr Franke achieved success with his company not only in the field of aluminium alloys. Since its rebirth, Aluminium Rheinfelden tripled the output and boosted\u00a0the market share of the slugs used especially in packaging applications for making cans, tubes or bottles. At the same time, in connection with Soderberg masses, the transformation was managed from anode producer to innovative manufacturer of environmentally-friendly electrode and ramming materials.\u00a0These various successes not only prove his long-term strategic orientation, but also his keen executive skills and attention to details.
\nIt was not only the technological capabilities that made his company attractive for business partners, it was also Alois\u2019s very personal nature, the open and at all times helpful\u00a0and\u00a0energetic way\u00a0with\u00a0which he won over customers and business partners for\u00a0his\u00a0cause\u00a0and\u00a0tied them to his own person\u00a0and\u00a0his company. He was fully committed to his customers,\u00a0establishing a culture that today has become characteristic of Aluminium Rheinfelden.\u00a0Such a personality with his\u00a0powerful urge to shape things is never limited to his own narrow sphere of activity. Wherever Dr Franke put out his feelers, his aim was to shape things. And thus, also the region around Rheinfelden ultimately benefited from\u00a0this impulse in the form of nursery schools, parks, family promotion programmes \u2013 and a Dual University (together with Duale Hochschule Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg) that integrates academic studies and hands-on training. All this costs energy and power. And this Dr\u00a0Franke drew from his Christian self-understanding, the pleasure he took\u00a0in art and music as well as his family and grandchildren.
\nAlois Franke was a man of energy, a creator, a lover of life, we shall remember him with affection and gratitude for his extraordinary humanity and the natured vigour with which he stated his rules as a man and as an entrepreneur. With Aluminium Rheinfelden, he is leaving us a heritage that still has much potential for development. It does not come as a surprise that he placed this heritage in the hands of the second generation, his children Erika Zender, today Managing Director of Aluminium Rheinfelden GmbH, and R\u00fcdiger Franke, even during his lifetime. There is no doubt that this generation will make every effort to lead the company into a prosperous future \u2013 quite in the sense and in honour of its founding father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"