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In memoriam: Franz Peter Zimmer

News, People | March 8, 2022 | By:

Franz Peter Zimmer, a visionary pioneer of modern textile printing technology, passed away in Kufstein, Austria, on February 12, 2022. He died only a few days after celebrating his 98th birthday with family and friends.

Zimmer dedicated more than 70 years of his life to developing new and revolutionary ideas for textile printing, thereby significantly altering production methods and machinery in the printing sector.

He spent his career in his parents’ company in Kufstein, where his family had relocated after having been expelled from Bohemia in the aftermath of the Second World War. In Kufstein, the family machinery business had to be rebuilt from nothing. Zimmer joined the efforts after having spent time away at school, acting and in the mountains, which helped him to process and overcome the horrors of his time as a soldier.

Introduction to the market of sweeping technological advances, evidenced by numerous patents, helped the company to strive and prosper within a very short period. Rotary screen printing, the magnetic roll rod system, directly patterned galvanic screens, rotary screen carpet printing with widths of up to 5 meters and repeats of over 3 meters, as well as the first digital carpet inkjet printer, the Chromotronic, are associated with the name of Peter Zimmer.

On top of being a gifted and dedicated technology developer, Zimmer also earned a reputation as a knowledgeable and personable salesman and consultant. He is to this day remembered and admired especially in the regions of the Middle East, as well as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

In the last decade of his life, Zimmer immersed himself with great energy and devotion into developing a digital printing/dyeing system for fiber strands and sliver. This system enables the reproducible in process color creation by means of additive color. This technology is his legacy.

No problem too hard, no mountain too high – the core of Peter Zimmer’s life!

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