report
3.5.10 Profiles of selected key companies

Ferrotec GmbH

Ferrotec GmbH, has specialised in innovative components for vacuum and thin-film technologies. In addition to their own products they also distribute products manufactured within the Ferrotec group and products made by another American manufacturer. Major applications offered by Ferrotec GmbH are FERROFLUIDIC® sealing technology and FERROSOUND audio applications.^[47] Ferrotec GmbH is certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001^[48].

The global headquarters for the Ferrotec Group are based in Tokyo, Japan. Globally, the company has revenues in excess of $150 million, and employs over 1800 people across 3 continents. Ferrotec Corporation is publicly traded on the Nikkei (code number 6890 (OTC)).

VAC VACUUMSCHMELZE GmbH & Co.KG

VACUUMSCHMELZE GmbH & Co KG is a manufacturer of advanced magnetic materials and related products^[49]. The development of the first vacuum melting furnace laid the foundation for today's VACUUMSCHMELZE in 1914. Then in 1923, melting alloys in a vacuum went into production on an industrial scale. This initial operation was located in Hanau, Germany and later grew into a company that operates on a worldwide basis. Now, VAC is a company with 4,500 employees in 40 countries and with annual sales in the order of €400 million.

In order to reduce costs the company began to dislocate labour-intensive processes to low-wage countries. Today, VAC has subsidiaries in Slovakia, Singapore, Malaysia, Middle East, Australia and China^[50]. They build up a production network Europe/Asia which is specialised and optimised according to each product group. World Headquarters is located in Hanau, Germany. The R&D and Engineering centre with 1,500 employees is also located in Hanau. Besides research and development melting of alloys plays a key role at this location. It is the first step in the production process for the majority of VAC's products.

The key business in Horna Stredá, Slovakia is the manufacturing of inductive components and soft-magnetic parts for power electronics and permanent magnetic assemblies.

The regional headquarters for Asia is located in Singapore which is responsible for technical support and sales activities in the area. Pekan, Malaysia is the location for inductive components for telecommunications and power electronics.

All sales activities in China are being managed at the Shanghai location. With their Chinese partners VAC produces among others Toroidal Tape Wound Cores, inductive components for telecommunications and installation technology in Shenyang. The joint venture SANVAC manages the production of Neodynium-Iron-Boron magnets in Beijing.

MAGNETEC GmbH

In 1984 MAGNETEC GmbH was established in Langenselbold, approximately 30 km away from Frankfurt/Main, Germany. The company holds, develops and produces high grade tape wound ring cores made of the soft-magnetic alloys MAGNEPERM® and NANOPERM®. The main application areas are mains-independent earth leakage circuit breakers (ELCB) and the full range of power electronics/EMI. They have recently invested in their production sites in Hungary and India to build up a capacity of approximately 18 million toroidal tape wound cores or assemblies (such as current transformers and chokes) per year.

MAGNETEC supplies one third of the world markets demand of magnetic cores for passive ELCBs. In addition, many customers buy high performance inductive components for EMI filters or similar applications within the power electronic industry. The related spectrum of applications ranges from industrial power supplies and variable speed drives to windmill installations.

Following the actual trend, more and more products are made from the advanced nanocrystalline NANOPERM® material. Conventional Permalloy (Fe-Ni) is continuously decreasing - driven by the hyping raw material cost of the recent years.