Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes. Human intervention is reduced by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions — and embodying those predeterminations in machines.
Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG).
Carl Paul Gottfried Linde was a German scientist, engineer, and businessman. He discovered a refrigeration cycle and invented the first industrial-scale air separation and gas liquefaction processes, which led to the first reliable and efficient compressed-ammonia refrigerator in 1876. These breakthroughs laid the backbone for the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics that was awarded to Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Linde was a member of scientific and engineering associations, including being on the board of trustees of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Linde was also the founder of what is now known as Linde plc, the world's largest industrial gases company, and ushered the creation of the supply chain of industrial gases as a profitable line of businesses. He was knighted in 1897 as Ritter von Linde.
The MC14500B Industrial Control Unit (ICU) is a CMOS one-bit microprocessor designed by Motorola for simple control applications in 1977.
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, originally Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, and commonly abbreviated to ZF, is a German American car parts maker headquartered in Friedrichshafen, in the south-west German state of Baden-Württemberg and Livonia, Michigan, United States.
KUKA is a German manufacturer of industrial robots and systems for factory automation. It has been owned by the Chinese company Midea Group since 2016.
Arburg GmbH + Co KG is a German machine manufacturing company. It is owned by the Hehl and Keinath families and, with its electric, hybrid and hydraulic plastic injection moulding machines, turnkey systems and its industrial additive manufacturing system, is among the industry leaders worldwide. With approximately 2,500 employees in Germany and a further 500 worldwide, Arburg serves sales markets for machines with clamping forces ranging from 125 to 6,500 kN.
MAHLE GmbH is a German automotive parts manufacturer based in Stuttgart, Germany. It is one of the largest automotive suppliers worldwide. As a manufacturer of components and systems for the combustion engine and its periphery, the company is one of the three largest systems suppliers worldwide for engine systems, filtration, electrics, mechatronics, and thermal management. In 2018, Mahle GmbH sales amounted to over €12.5 billion
Krones AG is a German packaging and bottling machine manufacturer. It produces lines for filling beverages in plastic and glass bottles or beverage cans. The company manufactures stretch blow-moulding machines for producing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, plus fillers, labellers, bottle washers, pasteurisers, inspectors, packers and palletisers. This product portfolio is complemented by material flow systems and process technology for producing beverages for breweries, dairies and soft-drink companies.
Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information and equipment. Industrial engineering is central to manufacturing operations.
Hidden champions are relatively small but highly successful companies that are concealed behind a curtain of inconspicuousness, invisibility, and sometimes secrecy. The term was coined by Hermann Simon. He first used the term as a title of a publication in a scientific German management journal, describing the small, highly specialized world-market leaders in Germany. According to his definition, a company must meet three criteria to be considered a hidden champion:
Flottweg SE is a manufacturer of machines and systems for mechanical liquid-solid separation. The headquarters is located in Vilsbiburg (Bavaria), Germany. The company develops and produces decanter centrifuges, separators and belt presses. Flottweg has subsidiaries and branch offices with service centers in the United States, People´s Republic of China, Russia, Italy, Poland, France, Australia and Mexico.
Jungheinrich AG is a German company active in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sectors. In these segments, the company is ranked in second place in Europe, and third in the world.
Hako GmbH is a manufacturer of street sweeping equipment and ultra-light commercial vehicles, headquartered in Bad Oldesloe, Germany with customers in about sixty countries. The company was founded on 24 December 1948; its name derives from Hans Koch & Sohn. It produces the Multicar line of vehicles.
Schleicher Electronic GmbH und Co. KG is a medium-sized German technology company based in Berlin.
FRABA is a worldwide company founded in Germany. The company manufactures products for fabrication and process automation and is specialized in sensor manufacturing, for example sensors which are used in windmills and heavy machinery. The company holds several patents of encoder innovation. Until the 1960s, FRABA's main product was mechanical relays. In 1963 the company started selling brush rotary encoders, leading to the development of the first optical rotary encoder in 1973 and the magnetic multi turn rotary encoder in 2007.
Safety relays are devices that generally implement safety functions.
Poly-clip System is a German family-owned company based in Hattersheim near Frankfurt am Main. Poly-clip System is the largest provider of clip closure systems worldwide and the world market leader and hidden champion in this sector of the food industry and packaging industry.
Bauer Kompressoren is a company that produces compressors for air and other gasses. The company was formed in 1946 in Munich and exports 90% of their products.
Dieter Ramsauer was a German engineer who was renowned for numerous inventions. He is founder of the international operating company Dieter Ramsauer Konstruktionselemente GmbH (DIRAK), operating in the fields of development, production and the distribution of construction elements.
