Primary equipment manufacturer KraussMaffei, Munich, has announced that Erwin Bürkle, the company’s longtime head of policy and technology development, died on July 29, 2024, in Penzberg, Germany. He was 82.
Described in a company intranet post as “an exceptionally accomplished engineer, a highly valued project and discussion partner and a down-to-earth, modest and engaging personality,” as well as a “particularly likeable person,” Bürkle trained as a toolmaker and mechanical engineering technician, and joined KraussMaffei as a mold designer in the 1960s. Then, for a brief time, he worked as an extruder designer at another company, before returning to KraussMaffei in 1968 as an injection molding machine designer. He obtained his doctorate in engineering in 1988.
The holder of numerous patents, “he shared his wealth of knowledge with anyone who was interested,” according to the company’s post. He was especially interested in medical products, medical technology and clean-room technology for injection molding.
Among other memberships, he was head of the injection molding advisory board and member of the board of trustees of the IKV (the Institute for Plastics Processing, in Aachen, Germany), and an advisory board member at the SKZ (the German Plastics Center) in Würzburg.
He was named a Knight of Plastics Technology by the VDI Society for Plastics Technology and received the Richard Vieweg Medal of Honor by the VDI, the Dr. Richard Escales Prize from Carl Hanser Verlag for knowledge transfer in the plastics industry and the Georg Menges Prize from the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association and Plastics Europe Germany.
He continued to support KraussMaffei in matters relating to new technologies and future developments, even after officially retiring.
He is survived by his daughter, Bernadette, and his two grandchildren.
