Factory management in experienced hands

The facade manufacturer Tonality is expanding its management. Since August 1, Ralf Fichtner has been responsible for factory management. The terracotta engineer has many years of professional experience in the terracotta sector – as laboratory, production and plant manager in renowned companies. With his many years of expertise, Fichtner is now returning to Tonality, so to speak. For nine years up to 2015, he was already successfully responsible for production engineering and development, and thus for quality assurance of the Tonality product line.

Ralf Fichtner has been working with terracotta materials for almost 30 years: The terracotta engineer worked in raw materials sales, held leading positions in well-known companies in the industry and repeatedly made significant advances in relevant production processes for terracotta building products. From 2006 to 2015, Fichtner was already active for the Tonality product line. At that time, he was responsible, among other things, for the introduction of rapid drying in the field of facade production. Until then, the process had been used only in tile production. “In the field of facades, we in Weroth were the first in Germany to adapt and adopt this technology,” explains Fichtner. The graduate engineer also established robot palletizing – at that time also uncharted territory for the industry. From then on, it provided for significantly simplified production processes. Many work processes at Tonality still bear his signature today, so to speak. “The production of terracotta facades is one of the most interesting and varied fields in the field of sophisticated architecture. We create custom-made suits for buildings, so to speak,” says Fichtner. In the management of Tonality GmbH, he assumes the function of factory manager and is thus responsible for all activities at the Weroth site. This also includes reviving, checking and, if necessary, adapting proven processes. Apart from increasing production volumes, the graduate engineer is also aiming to establish storable products. At the same time, new, more complex geometries and accessories for the facade are to be created. Fichtner joins the management team with Thomas Bader and Wolfgang Häußler.