SPECIAL: 100 YEAR CELEBRATION
100 A TRADITION OF INNOVATION
This year marks an important anniversar y for Kaeser Compressors – its centenar y year. Some
100 years after it was established in Coburg, Germanythe company is now active all over the
world including both Australia and New Zealand.
The history of the German compressed air
specialist, Kaeser Kompressoren truly is a
remarkable story. Although many a company
celebrates its centenary, they cannot all
boast such sustained and continuously positive
development.
While the Kaeser product range can be found in
action all over the world, the general public rarely
come face to face with the compressed air specialist's
products. Only the portable compressors
catch the eye with their black and yellow
livery, when used for road construction work.
Compressed air stations tend to be hidden away
in outbuildings. Yet Kaeser compressors are just
as likely to be found in power stations in Australia
as in Peruvian gold mines, used by aerospace
engineers in the US, fish farms in Norway, car
manufacturers in Germany, at the CERN particle
accelerator in Switzerland, on ski pistes in Austria,
on Arabian oil fields or the weaving mills in Asia.
Often considered the fourth utility, compressed air
is just as vital as electricity and no company with
an industrial production line can get by without
compressed air.
YEARS OF KAESER:
Humble beginnings
It all began in a small workshop in Coburg's
Hahnweg. The old buildings are still standing in
which Carl Kaeser senior started producing spare
parts and engines for cars, along with gear wheels
and special machines for the glass industry, with
a team of eight employees and two apprentices in
June 1919. Business was booming. Within a few
years, the company was to employ a 150-strong
workforce. After World War II, virtually the entire
customer base fell by the wayside as most were
located in Thuringia and Saxony – and thus on
the other side of the border. Taking advantage
of the available automotive expertise, production
was adapted without further ado to similar
products: reciprocating compressors. Thus began
Kaeser's successful focus on compressed air. In
1948, the first reciprocating compressor rolled
off the Hahnweg production line as the company
continued to evolve.
Further challenges emerged during the mid-1960s.
In retrospect, it may perhaps be described as the
first technological shift. Screw compressors came
onto the market. Once again, Kaeser spearheaded
the change with its very own invention: Sigma
Profile was born. Developed in-house, it is a rotary
screw compressor block with a special energy
efficient rotor profile that was groundbreaking
at the time. Since then, Sigma Profile has been
the centrepiece of every Kaeser rotary screw
compressor; needless to say, it is also refined on an
ongoing basis.
A tradition of innovation
This innovative spirit pervades the company to this
day, resulting in a steady stream of innovations in
compressed air technology and applying equally to
hardware, software and services. From the refrigeration
dryer to revolutionary controllers (Sigma
Air Manager 4.0), from the portable compressor
to completely new business models, where the
customer basically only purchases the compressed
air, through to digitalisation and Industrie 4.0,
Kaeser still blazes a trail in the industry for the
cost-effective, reliable, efficient generation and
use of compressed air, thanks to its innovative,
top-quality products and services. Most production
facilities are located in Germany, with sales and
service available in every corner of the globe.
34 May 2019