Zollern GmbH & Co. KG
"Solid Metals. Fine Solutions."
German 300-year-old family-owned industrial group manufacturing gearboxes, drives, castings, and automation systems for robotics and heavy industry.
Zollern GmbH & Co. KG is one of Germany's oldest family-owned industrial companies, founded in 1708 by Prince Meinrad II of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in Laucherthal, Baden-Württemberg, where the group's headquarters remain today. Now in its eleventh generation of Hohenzollern family ownership, Zollern has evolved from a princely ironworks into an internationally active metal processing and drive technology group with more than 1,800 employees across plants and subsidiaries in Europe, North America, and Asia.
The ZOLLERN Group is organized into four business areas: Drive Technology, Investment Casting, Sand Casting and Forging, and Steel Profiles. Within drive technology—the division most relevant to robotics and industrial automation—Zollern produces slewing gearboxes, travel drives, winch gearboxes, industrial gear units, tunnel boring drives, shredder gearboxes, electric drive systems, and torque motor kits. These components are used as core actuator elements in industrial robots, mobile robots (AGVs/AMRs), construction machinery, and heavy-duty handling equipment.
Zollern's automation and special systems division manufactures linear units, linear modules, robot traverse axes, jig axes, gantry systems, rotary tables (including hydrostatic and aerostatic variants), and grippers—directly serving robot integrators and machine builders. The company's slewing gearboxes are widely used in robotic arm joints, crane slewing rings, and heavy rotating machinery requiring high torque density and long service life.
In the metals and shaping segment, Zollern offers vacuum investment casting, sand casting, centrifugal casting, and forging services, producing precision components in steel, copper alloys, and aluminium for demanding mechanical applications. Special steel profiles and finished bars are produced for machinery structural components.
Zollern operates plants in Germany (Laucherthal, Herbertingen, Braunschweig, and others), Portugal, China (Tianjin), Slovenia, and Brazil, and maintains sales and service networks globally. The company has held ISO quality certifications and supplies customers in automotive, construction machinery, maritime, energy, and medical technology sectors. Managing directors are Dr. Jerry Mackel and Mario Zirn, with H.H. Karl Friedrich Prince of Hohenzollern serving as chairman of the advisory board.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Contact Zollern GmbH & Co. KG
WEBSITE
https://www.zollern.comPHONE
+49 0 7571 70 0HEADQUARTERS
Germany
Company Facts
Founded
1708
Primary Role
Component Supplier
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Europe
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Bootstrapped / Self-funded
Funding Total
-
Keywords
- Zollern GmbH & Co. KG
- gearbox
- drive technology
- investment casting
- slewing gearbox
- torque motor
- linear unit
- rotary table
- gearboxes
- slewing drives
- travel drives
- torque motors
- automation systems
- robot traverse axes
- rotary tables
- industrial gears
- Component Supplier
- Manufacturer
- Industrial Robot
- Mobile Robot (AGV/AMR)
