Heraeus
Encyclopedia
Heraeus Holding GmbH is an engineering group based in Hanau
, Germany
. Its core areas of business are precious metals
, special metals, dental
materials, medical technology
, quartz
glass, sensors and specialised light sources. The company was founded in 1851 and is one of the biggest family businesses
in Germany measured by turnover.
Heraeus Holding employs 12,931 people in more than 120 companies, generating product sales of €4.1 billion and precious metal sales totalling €17.9 billion.
to local counts. Wilhelm Carl Heraeus began laying the foundations for a global family business, which has now been headquartered in Hanau, east of Frankfurt
, for more than 150 years. At the time, Hanau was a town of goldsmith
s. Since the end of the 18th century, platinum had been processed in the town for the production of jewellery. Goldsmiths had extreme difficulty processing platinum due to its toughness and high melting point
of 1770 degrees Celsius
. Until a melting process was discovered, platinum could only be processed by using complex forging
processes using the white-hot metal. Having studied chemistry
and pharmacy
, Wilhelm Carl Heraeus understood the problems faced by goldsmiths. After a series of experiments, he first succeeded in melting platinum in large volumes and producing pure metal in 1856, using his own specially developed oxyhydrogen
blowpipe
. It was already known at the time that platinum could be melted using oxyhydrogen, a mixture of hydrogen
and oxygen
gas – but until then, only small quantities had been melted in a laboratory. With his gas blowpipe, Heraeus could produce enough oxyhydrogen and a large enough flame front to melt several kilograms of platinum-containing materials. This pioneering achievement enabled Heraeus to found the ‘W.C. Heraeus First German Platinum Smelters’, supplying a variety of customers such as goldsmith workshops and jewellery factories throughout the world, as well as dental manufacturers, chemistry laboratories and other branches of industry. In 1857, W.C. Heraeus succeeded in producing around 30 kilogram
s of pure platinum. By 1896, he was melting and processing more than 1000 kilograms of pure platinum.
, rubidium
and caesium
. Most production at this time still involved platinum, which was used in more and more applications due to its chemical and physical properties. As it is also highly resistant to acids and heat, platinum was also used to make instruments such as scientific tools, crucible
s and vessels used in chemistry and physics. As early as the 19th century, platinum had already been used in locking pins to hold false teeth in place. Platinum was also used to make filaments in light bulbs and non-corrosive electrical contacts in telephones. As the company continued to expand, it needed new premises – so in 1896, the W.C. Heraeus Platinum Smelting Factory was established just outside Hanau, employing 40 people. Two years later, Wilhelm and Heinrich Heraeus, the two sons of the company founder, took over as managers. They were responsible for pushing ahead with research and development, and bringing on board a former school friend, the physicist and chemist Richard Küch. Küch, who became a director in 1909, had many contacts in the world of science and continued to carry out fundamental research, resulting in further growth in the company. Among his achievements were the development of a process to melt rock crystal at around 2000 °C to produce quartz glass. The quartz glass produced by the company was almost entirely free of defects and was of outstanding purity. It is still used in medicine today and is a highly sought-after material in manufacturing on account of its translucence and resistance to heat and acids. During this period, the company transformed from a platinum smelting company to one of the leading companies in the field. With the advent of ceramic colours, more and more platinum was needed for production processes and Heraeus started supplying products to the electrochemical and plastics industries. By the beginning of the 20th century, a major platinum processing boom was underway, caused by demand in the chemicals industry for large volumes of platinum thermocouples and platinum-rhodium catalysts needed to produce nitric acid.
s. This approach took the company from strength to strength and broadened its product portfolio. One of the most significant technical innovations of the 1920s is credited to Heraeus: the melting of metals under vacuum. For a short time, Heraeus set up an independent division dedicated to this technology, ‘Heraeus Vacuum Smelting’, which registered 84 German patents in 10 years. The company also suffered setbacks during this time. The First World War and hyperinflation
in the Weimar Republic
resulted in the collapse of the precious metal market in Russia and massive swings in the price of platinum
. As a result, Heraeus began focussing its research activities on recycling techniques and started to look for suitable ersatz materials and substances to replace precious metals. Despite the turbulent times in Germany, the business continued to grow. By 1939 it employed around 1000 people, with annual sales of around 20 million Reichsmarks. With the outbreak of the Second World War, many workers were drafted into military service. The company shifted its production to electrical contacts with low densities of precious metals, catalysts, and rhodium reflectors for anti-aircraft searchlight
s. Allied bombing raids in 1944 and 1945 resulted in the near-total destruction of the town of Hanau as well as Heraeus production facilities.
and Italy
, followed by full subsidiaries and international holdings as of 1972. The company subsequently set up new quartz glass factories in Japan
and the United States
, followed by manufacturing facilities in South Korea
and the Philippines
to produce contact wires (wire bonding
) made of pure gold for use in semiconductor components. In 1970, Helmut Gruber, a respected physicist in the field of metallurgy, took over as head director, with company-wide responsibility for the technical department. Gruber pushed ahead with operations in the fields of quartz glass, precious metal
chemistry and special metals. He also set up even more subsidiaries outside Germany. Sales outside Germany first outstripped domestics sales in 1979.
From 1983 until 2000, the company – by now in its fourth generation – was headed up by Jürgen Heraeus, the son of Reinhard Heraeus and a company director since 1970. Under his management, the business grew into a global group of companies. To pave the way for this expansion, the company was fundamentally reorganised and modern management structures introduced. Following the founding of Heraeus Holding GmbH in 1985, the company underwent an intense period of decentralisation
in 1990. Under the umbrella of the management holding
, the group’s core activities of precious metals, dental materials, quartz glass, sensors and medical technology were reorganised into five decentralised, independent management divisions. Simultaneously, the company expanded in Asia
. Heraeus also entered strategically important markets, such as through the acquisition of Electro-Nite. As the company grew, sales and operating profits reflected its standing as an international group. By 2001, sales outside Germany first broke the 74% mark. To exploit synergies throughout the group, Heraeus refocused its activities on core business, resulting in the setting up of Heraeus Noblelight as an independent business in 2001. The Heraeus Med part of the company was sold in 2002, as were the group’s shares in Kendro Laboratory Products. At the same time, W. C. Heraeus intensified its involvement in industrial precious metals by expanding its activities in the field of thin film materials. The company’s wire bonding operations in China
were also expanded, and the company entered into a joint venture
in South Africa
which soon evolved into a fully-fledged subsidiary. Heraeus also expanded its activities in medical technology with the acquisition of the Swiss company Metalor Medical Division.
, electronics
and medical industries. The company is a leading supplier of industrial precious metals.
base metals
used in fields such as medical technology, environmental technology
, the power industry, transport
and telecommunications
.
industry for measurements in liquid iron
, steel and aluminium
.
and biocompatible materials used in orthopaedics and trauma surgery
. Its core product, PALACOS, is considered the standard bone cement product used in orthopaedics.
, Asia
and North America
specialised in the manufacture of natural quartz glass for the optics
, chemical and semiconductor
industries. It also produces synthetic quartz glass for components used to make microchips
and for optical fibres used in the telecommunications industry.
and ultraviolet light emitters, it manufactures infrared and ultraviolet LED
s for use in industrial production, environmental protection, medicine, cosmetics
, research
and analytical measurement.
, silver
and platinum
rose sharply in the 1930s, Heraeus also turned to platinum group metals such as palladium
, rhodium
and ruthenium
. The development of the precious metal strowger switch
and high-speed contact opened the market to Heraeus in 1950 to sell large volumes of contact rivets and springs. This laid the foundations for the company to enter markets such as telecommunications, microelectronics and computing
.
W. C. Heraeus was split up in 2010 to form Heraeus Precious Metals and Heraeus Materials Technology.
Heraeus Kulzer was split up in 2009 to form Heraeus Dental and Heraeus Medical.
(now SMS-MEVAC) in 1933. The Ruhrstahl-Heraeus process for vacuum degassing of steel was also a Heraeus innovation.
s, prism
s and lense
s for the optical industry (under the names Homosil and Ultrasil) plus opaque quartz glass under the name Rotosil. In the late 1960s, Heraeus also produced ultra-pure isotropic/homogenous quartz glass for space exploration. This special optical quartz glass was used in retroreflector
s set up on the moon during the Apollo landings. These were used to measure the exact distance between the earth and the moon and are still in use today.
Heraeus also developed a new process for making high-quality synthetic quartz glass from silicon tetrachloride. In the late 1960s, this opened up a completely new market for the company: quartz fibre technology for the optical transmission of data in the telecommunications industry, followed by product developments in the field of optical fibres in 1972. In 1986, the first synthetic waveguide tubes were developed, and in 1992, production of synthetic quartz glass began in Bitterfeld. Heraeus has established itself as the world’s leading supplier of devices and optical components for the semiconductor industry.
(mercury) in a quartz tube acted as an intense light source when stimulated with electricity. In light of this discovery, Heraeus joined forces with AEG
and founded a quartz lamp company, culminating in the development of the ‘Original Hanau Synthetic Sunlamp’ which flooded onto the German market as early as the 1930s. By the 1950s, the tanning lamp
had become a popular consumer electronics item. After buying out AEG in 1973, a number of newly developed products were added to the range. Heraeus Noblelight now supplies infrared and ultraviolet emitters as well as UV-LEDs to a variety of industries, for use in automotive production, printing, plastics and semiconductors, analytical instruments, laser and environmental technology in solariums, and water and air treatment.
s and thermometer
s with platinum and platinum alloy
wires under the directorship of Richard Küch. The technology still forms the basis of Heraeus temperature measurement technology today. By the mid-1960s, analysis technology was added to the product portfolio. After the takeover of the Belgian Electro-Nite Group in 1987, immersion thermocouples and gas probes were added to Heraeus’s array of measurement technology for use in the steel and aluminium industry. In 1997, the company founded Heraeus Sensor-Nite, specialised in temperature sensors needed in platinum thin-film technology for use in automotive construction, electronics and household appliances.
sector, telecommunication
s, the chemical industry
, medical technology
and the steel industry.
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Its core areas of business are precious metals
Precious metal
A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value.Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high lustre, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals...
, special metals, dental
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
materials, medical technology
Medical technology
Medical Technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases or medical conditions affecting humans. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and...
, quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
glass, sensors and specialised light sources. The company was founded in 1851 and is one of the biggest family businesses
Family business
A family business is a business in which one or more members of one or more families have a significant ownership interest and significant commitments toward the business’ overall well-being....
in Germany measured by turnover.
Heraeus Holding employs 12,931 people in more than 120 companies, generating product sales of €4.1 billion and precious metal sales totalling €17.9 billion.
1851 – 1895
In 1851, at the age of 24, the pharmacist and chemist Wilhelm Carl Heraeus took over his father’s ‘Einhorn Apothecary’ in Hanau. The business had been in the ownership of the Heraeus family since 1660, acting as an official court apothecaryApothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
to local counts. Wilhelm Carl Heraeus began laying the foundations for a global family business, which has now been headquartered in Hanau, east of Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, for more than 150 years. At the time, Hanau was a town of goldsmith
Goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
s. Since the end of the 18th century, platinum had been processed in the town for the production of jewellery. Goldsmiths had extreme difficulty processing platinum due to its toughness and high melting point
Melting point
The melting point of a solid is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depends on pressure and is usually specified at standard atmospheric pressure...
of 1770 degrees Celsius
Celsius
Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
. Until a melting process was discovered, platinum could only be processed by using complex forging
Forging
Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which it is performed: '"cold," "warm," or "hot" forging. Forged parts can range in weight from less than a kilogram to 580 metric tons...
processes using the white-hot metal. Having studied chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, Wilhelm Carl Heraeus understood the problems faced by goldsmiths. After a series of experiments, he first succeeded in melting platinum in large volumes and producing pure metal in 1856, using his own specially developed oxyhydrogen
Oxyhydrogen
Oxyhydrogen is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases, typically in a 2:1 molar ratio, the same proportion as water. This gaseous mixture is used for torches for the processing of refractory materials and was the first gaseous mixture used for welding...
blowpipe
Blowpipe (tool)
The term blowpipe refers to one of several tools used to direct streams of gases into any of several working media.- Blowpipes for torches :...
. It was already known at the time that platinum could be melted using oxyhydrogen, a mixture of hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
and oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
gas – but until then, only small quantities had been melted in a laboratory. With his gas blowpipe, Heraeus could produce enough oxyhydrogen and a large enough flame front to melt several kilograms of platinum-containing materials. This pioneering achievement enabled Heraeus to found the ‘W.C. Heraeus First German Platinum Smelters’, supplying a variety of customers such as goldsmith workshops and jewellery factories throughout the world, as well as dental manufacturers, chemistry laboratories and other branches of industry. In 1857, W.C. Heraeus succeeded in producing around 30 kilogram
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
s of pure platinum. By 1896, he was melting and processing more than 1000 kilograms of pure platinum.
1896 – 1927
Further experimentation in the platinum smelters’ laboratories resulted in a variety of inventions and revolutionary new production processes. These included the production of pharmaceutical iron compounds, chemically pure hydrofluoric acidHydrofluoric acid
Hydrofluoric acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride in water. It is a valued source of fluorine and is the precursor to numerous pharmaceuticals such as fluoxetine and diverse materials such as PTFE ....
, rubidium
Rubidium
Rubidium is a chemical element with the symbol Rb and atomic number 37. Rubidium is a soft, silvery-white metallic element of the alkali metal group. Its atomic mass is 85.4678. Elemental rubidium is highly reactive, with properties similar to those of other elements in group 1, such as very rapid...
and caesium
Caesium
Caesium or cesium is the chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal with a melting point of 28 °C , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at room temperature...
. Most production at this time still involved platinum, which was used in more and more applications due to its chemical and physical properties. As it is also highly resistant to acids and heat, platinum was also used to make instruments such as scientific tools, crucible
Crucible
A crucible is a container used for metal, glass, and pigment production as well as a number of modern laboratory processes, which can withstand temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents...
s and vessels used in chemistry and physics. As early as the 19th century, platinum had already been used in locking pins to hold false teeth in place. Platinum was also used to make filaments in light bulbs and non-corrosive electrical contacts in telephones. As the company continued to expand, it needed new premises – so in 1896, the W.C. Heraeus Platinum Smelting Factory was established just outside Hanau, employing 40 people. Two years later, Wilhelm and Heinrich Heraeus, the two sons of the company founder, took over as managers. They were responsible for pushing ahead with research and development, and bringing on board a former school friend, the physicist and chemist Richard Küch. Küch, who became a director in 1909, had many contacts in the world of science and continued to carry out fundamental research, resulting in further growth in the company. Among his achievements were the development of a process to melt rock crystal at around 2000 °C to produce quartz glass. The quartz glass produced by the company was almost entirely free of defects and was of outstanding purity. It is still used in medicine today and is a highly sought-after material in manufacturing on account of its translucence and resistance to heat and acids. During this period, the company transformed from a platinum smelting company to one of the leading companies in the field. With the advent of ceramic colours, more and more platinum was needed for production processes and Heraeus started supplying products to the electrochemical and plastics industries. By the beginning of the 20th century, a major platinum processing boom was underway, caused by demand in the chemicals industry for large volumes of platinum thermocouples and platinum-rhodium catalysts needed to produce nitric acid.
1927 – 1945
The third generation of the family took over the business in 1927, under Wilhelm Heinrich Heraeus and his cousin Reinhard Heraeus, who remained at the helm of the business for nearly 40 years. During this time, Heraeus tapped into a variety of new material discoveries. For example, they started producing the first dental alloyAlloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
s. This approach took the company from strength to strength and broadened its product portfolio. One of the most significant technical innovations of the 1920s is credited to Heraeus: the melting of metals under vacuum. For a short time, Heraeus set up an independent division dedicated to this technology, ‘Heraeus Vacuum Smelting’, which registered 84 German patents in 10 years. The company also suffered setbacks during this time. The First World War and hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...
in the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
resulted in the collapse of the precious metal market in Russia and massive swings in the price of platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
. As a result, Heraeus began focussing its research activities on recycling techniques and started to look for suitable ersatz materials and substances to replace precious metals. Despite the turbulent times in Germany, the business continued to grow. By 1939 it employed around 1000 people, with annual sales of around 20 million Reichsmarks. With the outbreak of the Second World War, many workers were drafted into military service. The company shifted its production to electrical contacts with low densities of precious metals, catalysts, and rhodium reflectors for anti-aircraft searchlight
Searchlight
A searchlight is an apparatus that combines a bright light source with some form of curved reflector or other optics to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direction, usually constructed so that it can be swiveled about.-Military use:The Royal Navy used...
s. Allied bombing raids in 1944 and 1945 resulted in the near-total destruction of the town of Hanau as well as Heraeus production facilities.
1945 – 1983
During German reconstruction, the company turned its attention back to its established products and expanding new production facilities. The first steps towards expanding internationally and entering foreign markets had already been laid at the beginning of the 20th century by the company’s founder. The company re-established its network of contacts after the Second World War, allowing it to gain new customers in the American market for quartz glass for optical applications. Beginning in 1958, the company founded its first sales subsidiaries in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, followed by full subsidiaries and international holdings as of 1972. The company subsequently set up new quartz glass factories in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, followed by manufacturing facilities in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
to produce contact wires (wire bonding
Wire bonding
Wire bonding is the primary method of making interconnections between an integrated circuit and a printed circuit board during semiconductor device fabrication. Although less common, wire bonding can be used to connect an IC to other electronics or to connect from one PCB to another...
) made of pure gold for use in semiconductor components. In 1970, Helmut Gruber, a respected physicist in the field of metallurgy, took over as head director, with company-wide responsibility for the technical department. Gruber pushed ahead with operations in the fields of quartz glass, precious metal
Precious metal
A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value.Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high lustre, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals...
chemistry and special metals. He also set up even more subsidiaries outside Germany. Sales outside Germany first outstripped domestics sales in 1979.
Since 1983
Décentralisation
Décentralisation is a french word for both a policy concept in French politics from 1968-1990, and a term employed to describe the results of observations of the evolution of spatial economic and institutional organization of France....
in 1990. Under the umbrella of the management holding
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
, the group’s core activities of precious metals, dental materials, quartz glass, sensors and medical technology were reorganised into five decentralised, independent management divisions. Simultaneously, the company expanded in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Heraeus also entered strategically important markets, such as through the acquisition of Electro-Nite. As the company grew, sales and operating profits reflected its standing as an international group. By 2001, sales outside Germany first broke the 74% mark. To exploit synergies throughout the group, Heraeus refocused its activities on core business, resulting in the setting up of Heraeus Noblelight as an independent business in 2001. The Heraeus Med part of the company was sold in 2002, as were the group’s shares in Kendro Laboratory Products. At the same time, W. C. Heraeus intensified its involvement in industrial precious metals by expanding its activities in the field of thin film materials. The company’s wire bonding operations in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
were also expanded, and the company entered into a joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
which soon evolved into a fully-fledged subsidiary. Heraeus also expanded its activities in medical technology with the acquisition of the Swiss company Metalor Medical Division.
Heraeus Precious Metals
Heraeus Precious Metals is specialised in the processing of gold and silver as well as platinum group metals for use in industrial components needed by the automotive, semiconductorSemiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
, electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
and medical industries. The company is a leading supplier of industrial precious metals.
Heraeus Materials Technology
The Heraeus Materials Technology area of the business produces high-tech products such as gold, silver and platinum group metals. It also produces metals with high melting points and refractoryRefractory
A refractory material is one that retains its strength at high temperatures. ASTM C71 defines refractories as "non-metallic materials having those chemical and physical properties that make them applicable for structures, or as components of systems, that are exposed to environments above...
base metals
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
used in fields such as medical technology, environmental technology
Environmental technology
Environmental technology or green technology or clean technology is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic devices to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of...
, the power industry, transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
and telecommunications
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
.
Heraeus Electro-Nite
With at least 24 sales subsidiaries worldwide, Heraeus Electro-Nite is a market leader in the production of sensors used in the steelSteel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
industry for measurements in liquid iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, steel and aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
.
Heraeus Medical
Heraeus Medical produces bone cementsBone cement
Bone cements have been used very successfully to anchor artificial joints for more than half a century. Artificial joints are anchored with bone cement. The bone cement fills the free space between the prosthesis and the bone and plays the important role of an elastic zone...
and biocompatible materials used in orthopaedics and trauma surgery
Trauma surgery
Trauma surgery is a surgical specialty involved in the invasive treatment of physical injuries, typically in an emergency setting. Trauma surgeons generally complete residency training in general surgery and often fellowship training in trauma or surgical critical care...
. Its core product, PALACOS, is considered the standard bone cement product used in orthopaedics.
Heraeus Dental
Heraeus Dental produces medical systems for maintaining and restoring human teeth, plus prosthodontic equipment. The company’s portfolio encompasses a wide variety of products used in dental laboratories and dental practices.Heraeus Quarzglas
Heraeus Quarzglas has a wealth of experience in processing quartz glass. It owns 13 production sites in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
specialised in the manufacture of natural quartz glass for the optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
, chemical and semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
industries. It also produces synthetic quartz glass for components used to make microchips
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
and for optical fibres used in the telecommunications industry.
Heraeus Noblelight
Heraeus Noblelight is a leading international producer of specialised light sources and systems. As well as developing, producing and marketing infraredInfrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
and ultraviolet light emitters, it manufactures infrared and ultraviolet LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s for use in industrial production, environmental protection, medicine, cosmetics
Cosmetics
Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...
, research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
and analytical measurement.
W.C. Heraeus
The precious metals division of the company always generated the most sales for Heraeus. When the price of goldGold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
rose sharply in the 1930s, Heraeus also turned to platinum group metals such as palladium
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired...
, rhodium
Rhodium
Rhodium is a chemical element that is a rare, silvery-white, hard and chemically inert transition metal and a member of the platinum group. It has the chemical symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is composed of only one isotope, 103Rh. Naturally occurring rhodium is found as the free metal, alloyed...
and ruthenium
Ruthenium
Ruthenium is a chemical element with symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most chemicals. The Russian scientist Karl Ernst Claus discovered the element...
. The development of the precious metal strowger switch
Strowger switch
The Strowger switch, also known as Step-by-Step or SXS, is an early electromechanical telephone switching system invented by Almon Brown Strowger...
and high-speed contact opened the market to Heraeus in 1950 to sell large volumes of contact rivets and springs. This laid the foundations for the company to enter markets such as telecommunications, microelectronics and computing
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
.
W. C. Heraeus was split up in 2010 to form Heraeus Precious Metals and Heraeus Materials Technology.
Heraeus Kulzer
The particularly hard nature of the dental material Alba (an alloy of gold, silver and palladium) allowed Heraeus to occupy a leading position in the dental technology market as early as the 1930s. In the years that followed, Heraeus developed a variety of premium quality gold and ceramic bonding alloys.Heraeus Kulzer was split up in 2009 to form Heraeus Dental and Heraeus Medical.
Heraeus Vacuum Smelting
The process of smelting metals in a vacuum is based on early development work carried out by Heraeus. The first vacuum furnaces came into use before the First World War. They were used to make alloys in the total absence of air. The first vacuum induction furnace was developed in 1917. Heraeus Vacuum Smelting started operations as an independent company in 1923, producing a variety of base metal alloys for use in electrics. The company owned 84 German patents between 1923 and 1933, resulting in 101 foreign registrations. Due to the increasingly high cost of investment and the different nature of this area of the business compared to the rest of the company, Heraeus sold its Vacuum Smelting business to SiemensSiemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
(now SMS-MEVAC) in 1933. The Ruhrstahl-Heraeus process for vacuum degassing of steel was also a Heraeus innovation.
Quartz glass
Heraeus began to continuously expand its product portfolio starting at the turn of the 20th century, moving into areas such as the production of optical instruments, infrared emitters and laboratory equipment. It produced plateWave plate
A wave plate or retarder is an optical device that alters the polarization state of a light wave travelling through it.- Operation :A wave plate works by shifting the phase between two perpendicular polarization components of the light wave. A typical wave plate is simply a birefringent crystal...
s, prism
Prism (optics)
In optics, a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. The exact angles between the surfaces depend on the application. The traditional geometrical shape is that of a triangular prism with a triangular base and rectangular sides, and in colloquial use...
s and lense
Corrective lens
A corrective lens is a lens worn in front of the eye, mainly used to treat myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. Glasses or "spectacles" are worn on the face a short distance in front of the eye. Contact lenses are worn directly on the surface of the eye...
s for the optical industry (under the names Homosil and Ultrasil) plus opaque quartz glass under the name Rotosil. In the late 1960s, Heraeus also produced ultra-pure isotropic/homogenous quartz glass for space exploration. This special optical quartz glass was used in retroreflector
Retroreflector
A retroreflector is a device or surface that reflects light back to its source with a minimum scattering of light. An electromagnetic wave front is reflected back along a vector that is parallel to but opposite in direction from the wave's source. The device or surface's angle of incidence is...
s set up on the moon during the Apollo landings. These were used to measure the exact distance between the earth and the moon and are still in use today.
Heraeus also developed a new process for making high-quality synthetic quartz glass from silicon tetrachloride. In the late 1960s, this opened up a completely new market for the company: quartz fibre technology for the optical transmission of data in the telecommunications industry, followed by product developments in the field of optical fibres in 1972. In 1986, the first synthetic waveguide tubes were developed, and in 1992, production of synthetic quartz glass began in Bitterfeld. Heraeus has established itself as the world’s leading supplier of devices and optical components for the semiconductor industry.
Speciality lighting
In 1904, Richard Küch discovered that evaporated quicksilverMercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
(mercury) in a quartz tube acted as an intense light source when stimulated with electricity. In light of this discovery, Heraeus joined forces with AEG
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau....
and founded a quartz lamp company, culminating in the development of the ‘Original Hanau Synthetic Sunlamp’ which flooded onto the German market as early as the 1930s. By the 1950s, the tanning lamp
Tanning lamp
Tanning lamps are the part of a tanning bed, booth or other tanning device which produces ultraviolet light responsible for tanning. While there are literally hundreds of different kinds of tanning lamps, they can usually be classified in two basic groups: low pressure and high pressure...
had become a popular consumer electronics item. After buying out AEG in 1973, a number of newly developed products were added to the range. Heraeus Noblelight now supplies infrared and ultraviolet emitters as well as UV-LEDs to a variety of industries, for use in automotive production, printing, plastics and semiconductors, analytical instruments, laser and environmental technology in solariums, and water and air treatment.
Sensors
Heraeus first started producing thermocoupleThermocouple
A thermocouple is a device consisting of two different conductors that produce a voltage proportional to a temperature difference between either end of the pair of conductors. Thermocouples are a widely used type of temperature sensor for measurement and control and can also be used to convert a...
s and thermometer
Thermometer
Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer is a device that measures temperature or temperature gradient using a variety of different principles. A thermometer has two important elements: the temperature sensor Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer (from the...
s with platinum and platinum alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
wires under the directorship of Richard Küch. The technology still forms the basis of Heraeus temperature measurement technology today. By the mid-1960s, analysis technology was added to the product portfolio. After the takeover of the Belgian Electro-Nite Group in 1987, immersion thermocouples and gas probes were added to Heraeus’s array of measurement technology for use in the steel and aluminium industry. In 1997, the company founded Heraeus Sensor-Nite, specialised in temperature sensors needed in platinum thin-film technology for use in automotive construction, electronics and household appliances.
Customers
Heraeus supplies products to a variety of manufacturing companies in the automotive sector, the aerospaceAerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
sector, telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s, the chemical industry
Chemical industry
The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
, medical technology
Medical technology
Medical Technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases or medical conditions affecting humans. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and...
and the steel industry.