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The Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG (KMW) or simply Krauss-Maffei is an injection molding machine manufacturer and defence company based in Germany. The company produces various types of equipment as well as railroad locomotives, tanks, self-propelled artillery and other armoured vehicles.

[edit] Overview

Krauss-Maffei was formed in 1931 from a merger of the two Munich firms of Maffei (founded 1838) and Krauss & Co. (founded 1860). Both belonged to the leading German makers of locomotives of various types. Maffei also built other steam-operated vehicles and, later, manufactured vehicles with combustion engines, including locomotives and buses until the 1950s.

In the 1960s, Krauss-Maffei built several examples of diesel-hydraulic locomotives for demonstration and testing on American railroads. Southern Pacific Railroad and Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad participated in the tests, but both found the locomotives unsuitable for service in the rugged Rocky Mountains through which the two railroads ran. 1963 the company started production of the Leopard tank, 1973 production of Leopard 2. In the seventies they were involved in the development of the Transrapid magnetic levitation train. In 1999 the company fused with Mannesmann DEMAG. The production of armored vehicles was joined with the company Wegmann to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.