EuroWire May 2017

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May 2017 24
IT was in Biel (the centre of the Swiss
and worldwide watch industry),
Switzerland, on 1st May 1957. Bruno
Zumbach, a young electrical engineer,
not even 30, had come up with the idea
of starting his own electronics company
because he wanted to build something
independently.
Electronics were still in their infancy: relay
and vacuum tubes were still the main
elements. The transistor was something
almost unbelievable; all integrated circuits
and microprocessors, the stuff of the
future. However, economic development
in Switzerland at that time was good
and there were many thriving machine
factories in Biel.
Customised drives – the first
manufactured products
The first orders, individually or in small
quantities, were received for drive
systems in any kind of machine. They
concerned machines for watches, optics,
sterilisation and instruments of all kinds.
Probably the biggest and ‘most daring’
order at the initial stage was automating
the butter centre in Gossau near St
Gallen (Switzerland). The whole butter
production and distribution system
was automated with a completely
non-contact drive – at that time still a
brand new technology. It was the first
such drive in Switzerland.
For cost reasons, all control elements, the
so-called logic blocks, were developed
and mass-produced at the company’s
own factory. Even drives, light barriers
and other items were manufactured
in-house in Biel.
The vision of a new kind of DC motor
drive
At the time, there were many
manufacturers of cylindrical grinding
machines in Biel and Switzerland who
required low-vibration and finely
adjustable drives. Bruno Zumbach quickly
realised that this was a major market. The
problem was that a satisfactory solution
was not possible with the thyratron
technology of the time.
Zumbach’s vision involved developing
and building a small and affordable “Ward
Leonard” drive with a monoblock inverter
and a matching DC motor and controller.
This technology was only practicable and
affordable for far higher drive outputs at
the time. The “Ward Leonard vision” would
soon become the basis of Zumbach
technology for many years.
The first production articles and
growing success
The first production orders soon arrived.
The new kind of drive proved its worth
and became established. Leading
grinding machine companies such as
Tripet, Charmilles, Kellenberger, Tschudin,
Studer and others became regular
customers. As a result, hundreds if not
thousands of Zumbach drives found their
way to market; many of them are still in
operation today.
From the basics
The workforce had grown to around 20
by 1964 and new premises were required.
A small factory was built in a few months
and today (with new cladding) still forms
the heart of the company’s main building
in Orpund.
Changing times and new visions
In the early 1960s, Zumbach realised
that its business with drives could
not guarantee a viable future for the
company. The field was marked by new
technical possibilities and thus growing
numbers of competitors, who began
to force down prices and margins. The
machine tool industry would also soon
begin its process of decline.
Around 1972, a plan was developed
to produce an eccentricity tester for
electrical cables. In 1974, Zumbach was
granted a patent for the new inductive
Ex-Test 7 device, which became the first
major success in what was then the new
field of in-line measuring equipment.
The product range – and the company –
continues to grow
The optical diameter measuring devices
became Zumbach’s most successful
products. The analogue Odc types were
created around 1975, and the absolute
measuring Odac® gauges from 1977.
The Odac 24 was the first gauge with
absolute measurement to be sold in large
quantities. “Odac®” became a registered
trademark; and more than 80,000 Odacs
Pioneering Zumbach – a glance back at the last
A pioneer of on-line measurement, Zumbach manufactures a comprehensive
range of non-contact, on-line measuring and control instruments. Its technology
is in use worldwide and this year the company celebrates its 60th anniversary.
Whether for the cable industry, plastics, rubber or steel and metal industry,
Zumbach technology is used by customers who rely on the quality and reliability
of its instruments and systems.
▲ ▲ The first home of the company was a small, rented studio and office in an old factory building in the centre
of Biel