WCA May 2017

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20 Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2017
Industrynews
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 micro-
processors, 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
Pioneering Zumbach – a glance back at the last 60
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 60 th 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