The current position of ALD as a leading supplier of processes and services in the field of vacuum metallurgy and vacuum heat treatment goes back to significant entrepreneurs of vacuum technology:
Wilhelm Carl Heraeus (1827-1904) and Ernst Leybold (1824-1907).
The roots of today’s ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH lie in their companies Heraeus and Leybold as well as in Degussa, founded in 1873 by Friedrich Ernst Roessler (1813-1883). Scroll through the milestones of over 100 years of development:
1916
1930
1950
1952
1967
1987
1991
1994
1999
2000
2001
2005
2006
2007
2010
2011
2013
2014
2016
2017
1916
Heraeus enters the field of vacuum metallurgy when it succeeds in melting chromium-nickel alloys under vacuum conditions.
Together with Degussa AG and Metallgesellschaft AG Leybold founds the Leybold-Hochvakuum-Anlagen GmbH.
1967
Spinning off its vacuum engineering division W.C. Heraeus founds Heraeus Hochvakuum GmbH. Thereafter both companies merge to Leybold-Heraeus GmbH.
1987
Degussa AG acquires all shares of Leybold-Heraeus GmbH, which is then renamed Leybold AG.
1991
Degussa spins off its Durferrit business including Degussa Industrial Furnaces, while Leybold AG sheds its vacuum metallurgy division. The two spin-offs merge to form Leybold Durferrit GmbH.
1994
The vacuum metallurgy and vacuum heat treatment business become part of the newly founded ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH.
ALD founds a sales subsidiary in Tokyo, Japan.
1999
Through founding the Own & Operate GmbH, ALD substantiates its service area of vacuum heat treatment.
The joint venture Vacuheat (Germany) becomes the first vacuum heat treatment service center.
2000
ALD enters into the vacuum coating business by acquiring all EB/PVD activities from Leybold AG.
2001
With ALD Thermal Treatment Inc. ALD starts off a vacuum heat treatment center in the USA.
2005
ALD TT Port Huron is established as the 2nd vacuum heat treatment center in the US.
ALD Holcroft is founded as a joint venture with AFC Holcroft to market new vacuum technologies in the US.
2006
ALD founds Furnaces Nuclear Applications Grenoble SAS (FNAG) in Grenoble.
AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. emerges from the Safeguard International Fund. Therein ALD forms the Engineering Division.
2007
Foundation of the vacuum heat treatment center ALD Tratamientos Termicos S.A. de C.V., in Ramos, Mexico.
2010
Participation in Dynatech Furnaces, Mumbai, India.
2011
ALD-C&K Vacuum Technologies Co., Ltd. is founded in Suzhou as a joint venture between ALD and C&K (China) Co., Ltd. from Hong Kong.
ALD acquires all shares of Dynatech Furnaces and names the company ALD Vacuum Technologies India Pvt. Ltd..
2013
ALD opens a branch in Moscow, Russia and Bangkok, Thailand.
2014
ALD founds the Russian company ALD Vacuum Technologies OOO in Moscow.
ALD France is founded as a merger of FNAG and Thermique Industrie Vide SAS (TIV).
2016
ALD acquires the remaining 50 % of the joint venture ALD Holcroft and rebrands it ALD Vacuum Systems.
ALD moves into new headquarters with offices and production halls at Otto-von-Guericke-Platz 1 in Hanau.
2017
A new storage and shipping building is put into operation at headquarters, centralizing all ALD business areas on one site for the first time.