Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum - Zentrale in Köln-3584

Leybold GmbH, based in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, is part of the Swedish industry group

Atlas Copco Atlas Copco (Copco from Compagnie Pneumatique Commerciale) is a Swedish multinational industrial company that was founded in 1873. It manufactures industrial tools and equipment. The Atlas Copco Group is a global industrial group of companies ...

. The company’s core competencies are based on the development of components and systems for the generation of vacuum and gas management engineering.

History

In 1850, the merchant Martin Kothe founded the trading company Kothe, but died a year later. With the introduction of the manager Ernst Leybold in 1851, the company Leybold & Kothe was formed, focusing on the distribution of pharmaceutical and physical-technical equipment and apparatus. In 1863, Ernst Leybold took over the company completely, but resold it in 1870. The company name lived on for some time, however, as E. Leybold’s Nachfolger (E. Leybold’s Successor). The company divested the pharmaceutical sector to focus on propaedeutic and teaching materials, initiating the serial production of

vacuum pump A vacuum pump is a device that draws gas molecules from a sealed volume in order to leave behind a partial vacuum. The job of a vacuum pump is to generate a relative vacuum within a capacity. The first vacuum pump was invented in 1650 by Otto ...

s as of 1906. The collaboration with Wolfgang Gaede resulted in the development of the molecular pump (1911), the mercury

diffusion pump Diffusion pumps use a high speed jet of vapor to direct gas molecules in the pump throat down into the bottom of the pump and out the exhaust. They were the first type of high vacuum pumps operating in the regime of free molecular flow, where the ...

(1913), and the invention of the gas ballast design, which allows vapors to be pumped with rotary vacuum pumps (1935). The company was reformed as a

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fre ...

in 1922, and was converted into a limited partnership in 1936. In 1948 and 1955 respectively, the

Metallgesellschaft AG Metallgesellschaft AG was formerly one of Germany's largest industrial conglomerates based in Frankfurt. It had over 20,000 employees and revenues in excess of 10 billion US dollars. It had over 250 subsidiaries specializing in mining, specialty c ...

and

Degussa Evonik Industries AG is a stock-listed German specialty chemicals company headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the second largest chemicals company in Germany, and one of the largest specialty chemicals companies in the ...

placed their first investments in E. Leybold’s Nachfolger. 1967 saw the merger of E. Leybold’s Nachfolger with Heraeus Hochvakuum GmbH. The

Degussa AG Evonik Industries AG is a stock-listed German specialty chemicals company headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the second largest chemicals company in Germany, and one of the largest specialty chemicals companies in the ...

, the

and the W.C. Heraeus GmbH were equal shareholders in the newly created Leybold Heraeus GmbH. After Metallgesellschaft and W.C. Heraeus sold their shares in 1987, ''Leybold Heraeus GmbH'' became Leybold AG and its headquarters were moved from Cologne to Hanau. In 1994, Degussa sold Leybold to the Swiss

Oerlikon Bührle Group Oerlikon may refer to: Companies *OC Oerlikon (former ''Unaxis''), a Swiss technology conglomerate, or one of its business units: ** Oerlikon Solar ** Oerlikon Balzers ** Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum *Oerlikon-Bührle, a company in Zürich, Switzerland ...

, which combined Leybold with the Balzers AG, which was already in their possession, to form the Balzers and Leybold Group. The merger of these companies resulted in the world’s largest vacuum and surface technology company with around 6 500 employees, generating sales of DEM 1.8 billion in 1995. In 2000, Degussa sold the remaining propaedeutic and teaching materials division, which today – after bankruptcy in 2008 – operates under the company name LD Didactic and has its headquarters near

. In 2006, Leybold Vacuum GmbH was renamed to Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum as part of a group-wide renaming of all Group Segments. In 2015 Oerlikon announced the sale of the vacuum business to Swedish company

. The sale was finalized in September 2016. Then, the company was renamed to Leybold GmbH and became part of the Vacuum Solutions division of the Compressors business area of

.Press Release: Atlas Copco completes Leybold vacuum acquisition

References

External links

Leybold GmbH
*

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Literature

* Vakuum Pumpen (Gastransfervakuumpumpen), W. H. Faragallah (Hrsg.), Verlag und Bildarchiv W. H. Faragallah, . * Theory and Practice of Vacuum Technology, Wutz/Adam/Walcher, Verlag Vieweg, .
Wilhelm Burgmann/Uwe Zoelligː Explosionsschutz für Stahlentgasung, Verlag Stahl & Eisen, 15.12.2014.

Fliessatzː Explosionsschutz für Stahlentkohlungs-Vakuumanlagen - Stahlentkohlung und Explosionsschutz

Oerlikon Leybold Vakuum 19989 Grundlagen der Vakuumtechnik

Oerlikon Leybold Vakuum 19990 Fundamentals of Vacuum Technology

Oerlikon Leybold Vakuum Grundlagen der Lecksuchtechnik - Basic Principles on Leak Detection Techniques
{{Authority control Manufacturing companies of Germany Manufacturing companies based in Cologne OC Oerlikon Manufacturing companies established in 1850