50 Years of VEGA – 50 Years of Success In 2009, VEGA Grieshaber KG can look back on a 50-year company history. In these 5 decades VEGA has acquired the reputation of a technology leader in level measurement technology. Development performance and enthusiasm for modern technologies have a long tradition at VEGA. Company founder Bruno Grieshaber already saw the future in electronics in the 1950s. The turned parts business of the family-owned enterprise "Gebrüder Grieshaber" was subject to strong economic fluctuations at that time. So with an eye to the future, Bruno Grieshaber invested in the still young electronics sector. The company gathered its first experiences in the production of radios, like the bicycle radio Veloton. As is so often the case in life, it is chance that steers destiny: Bruno Grieshaber happened to meet an engineer who was occupied with the question of how the level in vessels can be measured electronically. It was a question practically custom made for Bruno Grieshaber, who worked doggedly on a problem for however long it took to solve it. By 1959, things were ready to go: under the company name VEGA – Vertrieb Elektronischer Geräte und Apparate (Sales Company for Electronic Instruments and Apparatuses) – the first tube level gauge was brought onto the market. In the 1960s, the company applied for numerous patents on new measuring techniques. Barely 10 years after beginning sales, VEGA established its first foreign branches in Holland, Belgium and France. By 1975 VEGA already had 100 employees. Space in the Wolfacher operation eventually got scarce, so Bruno Grieshaber bought the building of a former textile factory in Schiltach. VEGA then moved to the site where the company headquarters still stands today. At the end of the 1970s, the product range included level, switching and pressure sensors that operated according to different measuring principles. VEGA successfully developed, produced and sold new measuring principles, such as the, at that time still young, technology of pulse-echo gauges, the predecessors of today's ultrasonic sensors. VEGA’s customers can be found worldwide in almost all areas of industry. The company commands great technical know-how in almost all areas of automation technology – from standard to special solutions. In 1989 VEGA started working on a radar instrument incorporating pulse technology, the first company to do so. Only two years later, the company introduced to the world the first radar level gauge ready for series production. That was the starting shot for the worldwide victory of radar measurement in process engineering. When VEGA brought the first two-wire radar gauge in the world to market in 1997 under the name eric®, level measurement technology changed dramatically once again. Industry began to deploy eric® in numerous applications where the use of radar had until then been technically unfeasible or simply too expensive. It didn’t take long for eric® to bring VEGA to the top of the world market. In 1994, at the age of 75, Bruno Grieshaber retired from the operative business activities and appointed his oldest son Jürgen Grieshaber to management. Jürgen Grieshaber had been working as managing director of the sister company "Gebrüder Grieshaber" for many years. He steers the destiny of the VEGA dedicatedly and keeps the successful enterprise firmly in family hands. Why is VEGA successful? Very simple: VEGA thinks ahead. Technology is there to serve people – not the other way around. That’s why VEGA is always on the lookout for ways to make technology even better. Lots of ideas are produced this way. And some of them are simply brilliant, like the idea behind plics®. This modular system unites the most important physical measuring principles in the areas of level, switching and pressure. The handling and technical construction of all instruments are based on a universal, systematic modular system with uniform adjustment procedures and an amazingly simple overall concept. The precision and durability of VEGA technology has in the last 50 years made the company one of the worldwide leading manufacturers of instruments for level, limit level and pressure measurement. VEGA sensors and signal conditioning instruments can be found everywhere where precise data on level and pressure are needed. Today, 50 years after its founding, VEGA employs 900 staff worldwide, 500 of whom are at the headquarters in Schiltach. VEGA is active in over 70 countries with subsidiaries and distribution partners: in 32 countries in Europe and 10 in North and South America. In Africa, Asia and Australia VEGA is present in 30 countries. Caption The letter "V" has a quite special meaning for VEGA this year. It is not only the first letter of the company name but also stands for the Roman number V: in 2009 the company is celebrating five decades of success. Author: Holger Sack Marketing manager VEGA Grieshaber KG Am Hohenstein 113 77761 Schiltach Germany Phone +49 7836 50-0 Fax +49 7836 50-8415 E-mail press@de.vega.com www.vega.com