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Extrusion International 5/2016
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Mastering
and the world of plastics
Hellmut Tenner is the senior partner of the Noris Plastic GmbH & Co. KG. He founded the company
in 1969 – and he is yet one of these engineers who started his professional life with a practical
apprenticeship. Noris Plastic started manufacturing pipes, plates and profiles by means of extrusion,
before subsequently developing its own machines. Today the company is run by his sons Axel and
Ralf Tenner. We at the EXTRUSION Team believe that Hellmut Tenner’s career will give our readers an
excellent and interesting insight into an entire era of plastics technology.
Hellmut Tenner
Mr. Tenner, you celebrate your 84th birthday this year –
and you can look back on an exciting life in the world
of plastics. How did you get into this business?
Hellmut Tenner:
My professional career began with a tool-
maker apprenticeship (nowadays the title is “industrial me-
chanic”) at the Loewe Opta Company in my hometown of
Kronach in Upper Franconia. My personal professional expe-
rience started in February 1947, even before the currency re-
form of 1948. That was a time marked by the events of the
postwar period. I had learned my trade for two years at
Loewe, which had more or less been destroyed during the
war, so I couldn’t say no when they asked me to help rebuild
it. I finished my apprenticeship in 1950.
To earn money for my later studies, I stayed at Loewe Opta
for four years after which I started my mechanical enginee-
ring studies in Friedberg in Hesse, graduating successfully in
1959.
Getting to know extraordinary people is also a part of my ca-
reer that shouldn’t go unmentioned. I met the world famous
singer Elvis Presley, for example. He was doing his military
service in the Armored Division in Friedberg. We met in ne-
arby Bad Nauheim where my colleagues and I taught Elvis
how to play cards and we spent many evenings together
there.
After finishing my studies and my time at Loewe Opta, I was
hired as a consulting engineer with Mobil Oil Germany. In
Hellmut Tenner looks back in time