50 years of Auma

Author Günter Eckhardt Editor-in-Chief, cpp chemical plants & processes

Since the foundation of Auma by Werner Riester and Rudolf Dinse in Ostfildern-Nellin-gen, close to Stuttgart, in 1964, the focus of Auma’s complete engineering excellence has been on developing, manufacturing and distributing electric actuators. With the pioneering spirit and the clear feeling for market requirements, the company has grown into a global technological leader with a product portfolio renowned for their long product life, reliability and precision.

The soaring success of Auma is mainly owed to the water industry: supplying Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Wuerttemberg, with water from the Lake Constance was the first significant order in this segment, followed by further awards for implementing their actuators with the “Hamburger Wasserwerke” (waterworks of Hamburg) or the “Oldenburg-Ostfriesischen Wasserverband” (cooperation for drinking water supply and sewage treatment). When space to expand became scarce at the plant Nellingen in 1971, Auma decided to move their headquarters to Muellheim in southern Baden. An optimised infrastructure and attractive environment helped the transfer of both production and people to new premises.

‚All business is local‘ – this conviction lead the company to found the first subsidiary, Auma Benelux in Leiden (the Netherlands) as early as 1974. “Thanks to our cosmopolitan sales and service network, our customers trust us to find competent local support in more than 70 countries all around the globe. Auma have grown to a successful global player, giving work to more than 2,300 people worldwide. Still today, we are an owner-managed private enterprise. We are committed as a reliable partner for our customers underpinned by our sound financial background and long-term growth strategies”, Matthias Dinse, Commercial Managing Director, underlines. In 1994, he took over the company management together with the Technical Managing Director Henrik Newerla. Production sites in Germany, the USA, India, and China guarantee short transport and delivery times.

Auma Riester GmbH & Co. KG have set the course for future growth when laying the foundation stone for the new administration centre at the headquarters Muellheim, Germany on 17 October 2013. All international Auma activities will be coordinated from this point after scheduled completion in 2016. “Increasing complexity in process plants throughout all sectors requires more specific actuators”, Matthias Dinse, Commercial Managing Director, confirms. To satisfy the soaring requirement for information and training by both staff and customers, the new building will house a training centre on 4,200 m2 including a company restaurant. Altogether, Auma will create around 220 working places on 7,350 m2 overall surface. The invested sum will amount to 20 Mio. Euro.

Auma actuators work reliably all around the globe in water and waste water supply, in power plants, pipelines, refineries, and industrial plants of any kind. Their mission is requested wherever control and management of flow of liquids or gases, powders or granules is required. Auma products are by no means considered mass products in spite of the chal- lenging total number of more than 180,000 actuators per year. The actuators are tailored to customer-specific needs. “Thanks to our comprehensive product portfolio including high performance multi-turn, part-turn, linear, and lever actuators, we offer automation solutions for any type of valve – from two-inch ball valves to diverter dampers metres high”, Newerla explains. He further states: “More than just fulfilling the purpose as mechanical interface to the valve, our products are the crucial interface to control systems. The modern actuator controls cater for safe communication with commonly used site control systems. Flexible device positioning and configuration including comprehensive accessories satisfy any variety of installation specifications. The company product is based on a modular design. We develop modular components with perfect matches, inviting to combine, resulting in avoidance of multiple developments by optimally using available resources. Short distance between development and production facilitate swift implementation.“

At the beginning of 2013, Auma have successfully launched the part-turn actuator type range SQ .2 on the market. The explosion-proof version SQEx .2 was made available in February 2014. The SQ and SQEx actuators replace the previous SG and SGEx type ranges. Compared to their predecessors, the product offers an additional size thus doubling the torque to a range between 50 and 2,400 Nm. The SQREx .2 actuators offer furthermore an explosion-proof version for modulating duty.

Together with the multi-turn actuators type range SAEx .2, the part-turn actuators form a product family. Installation, commissioning and operation are virtually identical, even beyond type range level. Auma actuators are supplied either without actuator controls or, depending on the application, with the simple AMExC controls or the microprocessor-based ACExC. Equipped with intelligent diagnostic functions, the ACExC devices allow actuator integration into Asset Management Systems.

At this point in time, explosion-proof part-turn actuators are certified in compliance with the European Atex Directive and the international IECEx system. Approval applications are currently placed with various countries and their completion is expected within the next few months.

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