History

The history of the company began in 1949 when Dr. Rudolf Klepsch Sen. – an exiled Sudeten German from Aussig, Czechoslovakia – ventured in Zell am See to start a new life and leased the Brandstätter bronze foundry. At that time, the main business of the company ZELL-Metall was the production of bronze semi-finished products.

When Dr. Rudolf Klepsch sen. travelled to Holland in 1951, he became aware of the new material polyamide and immediately recognised that this would be competition to bronze and other non-ferrous metals. Then in 1955 Zell-Metall became the second company in Europe to start up extrusion and injection moulding of polyamide. Five years later the company moved to the current location in Kaprun. Since then the product range has continuously increased, for example with POM in 1964, PET ten years later and PEEK in 2001. Several pioneering innovations, such as the first functioning oil filled cast polyamide (1974) or the first nano-particle filled POM and polyamide semi-finished products came from the company Zell-Metall.

The original core business, the production of bronze semi-finished materials became over the course of time ever less important and was finally ended in 1986. In addition the injection moulding department was transferred and from this, our associated company Seletec arose and is today located in Uttendorf.

Continuing growth led to the founding of many subsidiary companies in other countries. In 1960 the second production location of Zell-Metall in the form of Tecnoplast in southern Italy was founded. At the end of 2012 our subsidiary company ZL Engineering Plastics in Lenexa, Kansas was commissioned and this is our most recent production location. Further subsidiaries and logistics centres are in Zagreb and Los Angeles.   

In 2024, Zell-Metall became Zell Materials. The name change was part of the company's strategic realignment.