umicore Issue 31/ 2009 goldpost The world of noble and functional surfaces HARTING – Global success with connectors Umicore customer report No ammonia smell in production PALLUNA® ACF 100 without ammonia Reliable transmission of wind power New gold electrolyte AURUNA® 500 goldpost editorial in operation goldpost New standards in gold plating Dear Readers, Innovation prize for Umicore Further developments and innovative ideas are the Patent applications are nothing The Umicore employees Klaus Fromanteel Ltd 2009 Fromanteel key elements in the work at unusual in Baden-Wuerttemberg: A total Bronder and Uwe Manz received the © Umicore. The award of the of 13,638 companies or private persons innovation prize for the development Foto: Foto: Innovation Prize East Wuerttem- in Baden-Wuerttemberg had their in- of a new process for the electroplating berg proved to us again only recently ventions protected under the trademark of gold. Using new gold electrolytes we how important our continuous law last year. Particularly outstanding have succeeded in achieving a far research and development work is. patents are furthermore rewarded with quicker build-up of the coating and hence The Innovation Workshop launched the Innovation Prize East Wuerttemberg significant increases in production. The “Corpus Clock” in Cambridge is gold plated with AURUNA® 311 last September in which employees of the Kreissparkassen Ostalb, the “With this patent we are setting new of Umicore Galvanotechnik try to Chamber of Trade and Industry and the standards in gold plating technology,” optimise products and processes in Wirtschaftsfoerderungsgesellschaft Ost- says Umicore Managing Director, their day-to-day work is also showing wuerttemberg GmbH (WIRO). Umicore Thomas Engert, emphasising the im- Grasshopper driving the first signs of success. Galvanotechnik GmbH was able to portance of the invention for electro- celebrate one of the five prizes in 2008. plating technology. Proven magazine along the sands of time Uwe Manz (2nd from left) and Klaus Bronder (3rd from left) of Umicore Galvanotechnik show their in new design pleasure at receiving the Innovation Prize East Wuerttemberg, from the hands of Dr. Eberhard Veit (left), Executive Board member of Festo AG, and Johannes Werner (right), Board Chairman of KSK Ostalb. Our “Umicore Goldpost” has also Five years of work and 1 million Pounds Sterling (around 1.2 million Euros) the meantime. A special acid mixture enjoyed a breath of fresh air. As a have been invested in the 1.5 metre high “Corpus Clock” of Corpus Christi College cleans and activates the stainless steel long-standing communication medium in Cambridge. But you will search in vain for the hour, minute and second hands on before the electrodeposition allows a for our customers and employees, it the almost completely gold-plated clock. They are replaced by small LEDs in three gold coating thickness of up to 5 µm has now undergone a facelift. concentrically arranged rings that are revealed in turn but seemingly without any of hard gold to be deposited on the recognisable rhythm. Sometimes they move forwards at a breath-taking pace and surface in a single operation. The You are now holding the first edition then they appear to stand almost still whilst moving backwards. In between these AURUNA® 311 made easy work of gold in the new design in your hands: movements the LEDs show the right time, and so fulfil the actual purpose of the plating the extremely large, three- Clearly arranged, fresh and attractive. Corpus Clock. dimensional, stainless steel dial of the The principles of the Umicore Corpus Clock. Goldpost, however, have naturally With his masterpiece, the builder BJS found the appropriate elec- remained the same: of the clock, Dr John Taylor, wanted to trolyte and competent technical To see the Corpus Clock in action go Through this magazine we wish to draw parallels with real life where time support at Umicore Galvanotechnik in to www.youtube.com and insert “The keep you up to date on news, is sometimes subjectively felt to be Schwäbisch Gmünd. They were par- Corpus Clock & Chronophage” into the innovations and products at Umicore. moving faster or slower. The move- ticularly impressed by the outstanding search box. Further information also see The customer report will continue ment of the Corpus Clock is driven by properties of Umicore’s AURUNA® 311 www.bjsgold.com to form a firm part of the Umicore an oversized, grim-looking grasshop- solution which will directly gold plate Goldpost and give you an insight into per which is an analogous to the on to stainless steel. The process first Norbert Hunke the companies and products of our “grasshopper escapement”, a clock developed as long ago as 1980 and Tel.: +49 23 71 / 944 521 customers. In the section “Umicore drive mechanism invented by the has been continuously improved in E-Mail: [email protected] in operation” (page 3) you can find British watchmaker, John Harrison, in out in future where and how Umicore the early 18th century. Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. products are in use. A major challenge was the gold- IMPRINT I wish you an enjoyable read of the plating of the huge stainless steel dial new Umicore Goldpost! Published by: Umicore Galvanotechnik GmbH, Klarenbergstrasse 53 - 79, D-73525 Schwäbisch Gmünd that had to be plated as a complete Editorial responsibility: Karin Barth part. It took John Taylor a considerable Yours Design and layout: Eberle Werbeagentur, Schwäbisch Gmünd time to find a gold-plating company sincerely Text: ecomBETZ PR GmbH, Schwäbisch Gmünd with a sufficiently large gold plating bath. He found what he was looking for Printed by: Rösler Druck, Schorndorf Thomas Engert © 2009 All rights reserved at BJS in London, a company specialis- Managing Director ing in finishing and electroforming Umicore Galvanotechnik GmbH Goldpost is available and can be downloaded as a pdf file from the Internet in German and English works of art. at www.umicore-galvano.com. 2 3 goldpost report report goldpost HARTING Technology Group Global success with connectors The patented Han® connectors are to be found practically everywhere: and automatic machines In power generation and distribution plants, in the transport sector and in communication technology. through to connectors for power technik is one of the first contact for transmission (650 A, 4 kV). many questions, as illustrated by the example of the ammonia-free electro- The Espelkamp-based HARTING Technology Group is one of the world’s As in most family-run companies, An impressive rise to fame began lyte, PALLUNA® ACF 100 (see article leading companies for industrial connectors. The medium-sized family-owned Wilhelm and Marie Harting started for HARTING with the successful on page 6). company has equally as much success with electronic service systems. from practically nothing when they mass production of connectors. In the founded HARTING on 1st of September mid-1970s, HARTING concentrated A family-owned company Anyone who gets on a train, owns for quality. The company that even today 1945. In a small repair workshop they the whole production on the manu- even until today a car or uses a mobile phone comes is still 100% family-owned came to manufactured predominantly items for facture of connectors and cigarette into contact indirectly sooner or later fame with the production of jukeboxes everyday use: Cooking plates, irons or machines. Even until today, the Han® Despite its size with subsidiaries with products from HARTING. The and electric cigarette machines. In energy-saving light bulbs. But even in connectors have been continuously in 27 countries, the HARTING Westphalian company is one of the 1959 the HARTING Technology Group the early 1950s, engineer Wilhelm further developed. Umicore Galvano- Technology Group has remained a largest producers of industrial connec- was the first company in Europe to Harting recognised the enormous family-owned company. The company tors worldwide. build electric cigarette machines. Today potential of industrial plug connectors. founders, Wilhelm and Marie Harting, the Westphalian company generates a These had already been developed HARTING Technology Group managed the company jointly and The patented Han® plug connec- turnover of 385 million Euros per year during the war by German and American with equal rights until the death of HARTING – 100% family-owned: Philip F. W. tors, in particular, are a common synonym with 3,200 employees worldwide. engineers, predominantly for military Founded: 1st of September 1945 Wilhelm Harting, and were thus way Harting, Maresa W. M. Harting-Hertz, Dietmar purposes. Harting set himself the goal in Minden; registered offices ahead of their time in this respect. and Margrit Harting (from left to right) Reel-to-Reel plating line for coating Han® connectors. of developing a plug connector that was today in Espelkamp (Westphalia) After the death of her husband in sturdy and easy to use on the one hand, 1962, Marie Harting took over the but also flexible in use on the other. Turnover: 385 million Euros management of the company with have also been integrated into the (2007/08) more than 700 employees. Other company in the meantime. Maresa Industrial connectors women who wanted to work at that Harting-Hertz has been board member revolutionize the market Employees: 3,211 (30.09.2008) time still had to ask their husbands responsible for Finance, Controlling for permission. and Tax since 2007. Her brother Philip The result was the Han® con- Products/services: Connector and has been head of the Connectivity and nector. It has more contact pins than network technology, microtech- At the end of the 1960s, the two Networks Division since 2008. Dietmar conventional connectors. The contact nology, PCB technology, housing sons Dietmar und Jürgen Harting and Margrit Harting are engaged in technology was changed over to plug technology and electronic shop joined the company.