Sew-Eurodrive Celebrates 75th Anniversary

SEW-Eurodrive of Bruchsal, Germany, celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2006. During the year, the company looked back on a history of landmark developments in drive technology and automation.

The foundation for this success story was laid in 1931, when Christian Phr founded the ‘Sddeutsche Elektromotoren Werke’ in Bruchsal. The company has had a considerable influence on the development of modern drive technology in the past 75 years and its innovations have contributed to making the step from industrialization to the era of modern drive automation.

New manufacturing processes developed by the company have resulted in improvements in performance and reliability. In the mid-1960s, SEW-Eurodrive was the first drive technology provider to develop a modular component system for the production of gearmotors.

At the same time, SEW-Eurodrive pushed its international expansion. Following increasing demand from abroad, Ernst Blickle, who had taken the company’s lead in 1945, decided to move production and assembly sites for drive systems into the respective local markets in the early 1960s. The first SEW subsidiary was founded in Hagenau, France, in 1960.

Today, SEW-Eurodrive has 11 production and 59 assembly sites and sales agents and representatives in 44 countries. Its Canadian operations, launched in 1974, are based in Brampton, Ont. SEW-Eurodrive Canada has three assembly plants (Brampton, Lasalle, Que., and Delta, B.C.), 11 technical sales offices and hundreds of distributor locations across the country.

In addition to many other innovative ideas, the company decided in the early 1990s under Rainer and Jrgen Blickle — the sons of the late Ernst Blickle, who passed away in 1986 — to develop electronic motor controls. The electronics production that resulted from that decision today now is one of the company’s most important businesses.

The company’s new multiple-axis servo drive system Moviaxis — with a dynamic control of individual axes — follows the latest trend in automation technology, which requires easy machine accessibility, maximum flexibility and the integration of safety technology. As one of the first mechatronic drive systems, Movigear also offers state-of-the-art technology. The integration of optimized drive, motor and electronics within a single system enables users to redesign entire facilities under strategic viewpoints.

For more information, visit the website at www.sew-eurodrive.ca.