At the 2014 Hannover Messe, the former Pneumatics division of Bosch Rexroth will celebrate its product highlights and extremely compact, lightweight valve technology. However, the new brand AVENTICS will be the focus of attention – and bring change to the international pneumatics market.
 
Machine manufacturers and system integrators have one name to remember for the future: AVENTICS. The previous subsidiary of Bosch Rexroth, Rexroth
Pneumatics, is now acting as a stand-alone company, starting out with around 2,100 employees worldwide and a total of six plants in Europe, the U.S., and
Asia. “We are small enough to respond quickly and flexibly, and large enough to remain competitive in all growth markets,” explained Dr. Thomas Brückner,
chairman of the board at AVENTICS, the restructured company. The former Pneumatics division of Bosch Rexroth changed hands on January 1st, 2014.
 
The business, headquartered in Laatzen, near Hanover, Germany, is looking towards the future with confidence. “We are connecting the best of two worlds:
in AVENTICS, a long tradition and the solid expertise of our employees meet many new ideas and the flexibility of a medium-sized company.”
 
The change of ownership also came with a fresh name – both for the brand and company. At the 2014 Hannover Messe, AVENTICS celebrated its first major public appearance, at its own stand and directly next to its former owner Bosch Rexroth. “For a transitional period, we will follow a dual branding strategy so that customers can become accustomed to our new name,” explained Stuart Cheyne, managing director UK. This is why the old brand Rexroth Pneumatics will make an appearance next to the new name AVENTICS.
 
“We are a new company with a long history,” Dr. Brückner said, referring to the company’s history dating back to 1884, starting with the construction of the first Pneumatics plant in Hanover. AVENTICS will also benefit from decades of experience in pneumatics products and applications in the future. The new name marks an important milestone in the company’s history. “With the launch of our new name, we are ringing in the next generation of pneumatics,” the chairman of the board added.
 
With around 2,100 employees, AVENTICS is now considered a solid mediumsized enterprise. Right from the beginning, the company has benefited from an
international position, with production sites in Germany, France, Hungary, the U.S., and China. And its market coverage is also global: AVENTICS is present
in 40 countries. “In the U.S. alone, we have 600 man-years of pneumatics experience in sales,” Stuart Cheyne acknowledged. In addition to the industrial pneumatics sector, the company is also active in the areas of marine technology, trucks, and inverted tooth chains.
 
“Traditionally, only two companies dealt in plastic valves, that is Rexroth and Bosch Automationstechnik,” Dr. Brückner recalled. “The merger doubled development capacities and brought with it an enormous amount of expertise.” In recent years, the company has continued to promote the use of high-performance plastics on this basis. The latest generation of plastic valves, the AV series, is more lightweight and compact than ever. The valves are only half the weight of metal valves and are as small as a business card.
 
“The printing industry demands toluol-resistant plastics while the food and beverage industry requires acid resistance,” explained Stuart Cheyne. Current
valve generations, such as AVENTICS’ Clean Line, meet these requirements. Their material has been certified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
and they feature NSF-H1 greases suitable for food products. AVENTICS plastic valves from current series production have proven themselves in both clean and high-dirt, high-dust environments. “Tests have shown that our plastic valves can withstand more than 120 million switching cycles – a benchmark for the industry,” Stuart Cheyne reported.
 
The future of pneumatics depends on how it is able to achieve a higher energy efficiency in order to lower the total cost of ownership. Here, plastic technology plays a crucial role. The smaller and lighter the valves are, the closer to the actuator they can be placed, reducing dead volumes and moving masses.
 
AV – short for “Advanced Valve” – combines the advancements in plastics processing with a new design concept. AV series valves are half the weight of and over 50% more compact than conventional valves of the same performance level. In practice, machine manufacturers reach compressed air savings of up to 20%. They can achieve even more savings with the electropneumatic pressure regulator for application-specific pressure control within the AV system, which will be available from mid-2014. 
 
The AV series features a modular design and is currently available in two flow rate sizes. It can be integrated into plastic control electronics in a wide range
of automation environments and communicates with all common fieldbuses. This makes it suitable for all standard controllers in machinery and system
engineering. “We are concentrating solely on pneumatics and focusing on industries where we have expertise,” Dr. Brückner
affirmed. This includes the automotive, food and beverage, medical technology, and heavy industries. “We are proud to be a specialist for niches, because
that’s where we can offer our customers clear added value with our experience and our products,” Stuart Cheyne summarised.
 
Pneumatic components and systems have been produced in the German city of Hanover for over 130 years. In 1884, Westinghouse WABCO established
a plant here for pneumatic valve production for the then booming railroad industry. The decades to follow saw the development of a control technology
division for industry, train, and marine, which relocated to plant 2 in Hanover- Linden. In 1989, Westinghouse WABCO sold these activities to Mannesmann
Rexroth. The purchase of Mecman, a Swedish company founded in 1945, reinforced the enterprise’s position on the market. At the same time, Bosch
Automationstechnik was expanding its own pneumatic activities, acquiring CPOAC, a French firm founded in 1946 located in Bonneville, in 1996. The
merger of Mannesmann Rexroth and Bosch Automationstechnik resulted in a common corporate division. With a new owner, the company has been
operating under the name AVENTICS since early 2014.
 
AVENTICS has around 2,100 employees globally. In addition to production facilities in Laatzen and Gronau/Leine (Germany), Bonneville (France), Eger (Hungary), Lexington (USA), and Changzhou (China), the company has an extensive sales network and is represented in more than 40 countries
worldwide.