Innovation and Progress
From a small carpentry to an engineering company
Innovation and progress - these are Vogelsang's guiding principles. After nearly 80 years, we have become an international market leader as an engineering company.
In the beginning the company was quite small but the desire and the innovation of a few people made the company grow quickly.
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It all started as a small and independent sawmill and carpentry
Hugo Vogelsang (left side) started the business in 1929 by inventing and manufacturing wooden barrel based products. Some examples of his creativity are a mechanical butter churn and an electric driven washing machine, just two of several of the innovative products.
Hugo's son Helmut Vogelsang studied mechanical engineering and after Hugo's early death, Helmut took over the company in 1960. The first innovation Vogelsang introduced into the agricultural market was made by designing equipment that spread liquid manure and fertilizer over farms and fields.
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New headquarter: Essen-Sandloh
Very soon the business grew beyond all expectations and in 1965 the company moved to Essen/Oldenburg in Germany to accommodate administration, manufacturing and research and development.
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Milestone: Invention of the elastomeric-coated lobes
Beginning in 1970, Vogelsang began designing and manufacturing a series of agricultural, municipal and industrial products that, even today, remain industry leaders.
The vacuum technology was a challenge for the company, as it could not be applied to wooden tanks. A pumping system was needed to process viscous media containing fibres and and foreign particles, by suctioning from one side and emptying from the tank trailer on the other side. The solution was the invention of the elastomeric-coated lobes (left side: early rotary lobe pump, patented 1970) was an important step for the future development of Vogelsang.
It was soon determined that this new, self-priming pump was not only suitable for tank-wagons, but perfect for pumping other highly viscous media which conventional centrifugal pumps couldn't process. The pump was made of steel with elastomeric-coated lobes.
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Helmut Vogelsang died in 1976 and the company was led successfully by a commercial and technical manager until the mid 1980s. The number of employees rose up to 50. The rotary lobe pump was developed further and new products were added, such as the Dosimat distributor or the dribble bar manure spreading system, which today is the standard solution for uniform and environmentally friendly manure slurry spreading. In 1985 the widow of Helmut, Maria Vogelsang-Verhülsdonk remarried and took over the company as Managing Director.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Vogelsang expanded to the eastern part of Germany and built a manufactory in Rothenschirmbach near Halle.
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Modern factory and rapid expansion
In the 1990s the business expanded rapidly and the workforce counted over 100 employees. Vogelsang provided apprenticeships for motivated young people in the commercial, technical and trades department. New manufacturing plants were built to expand the workshop.
Today Vogelsang employs over 300 workers in Essen (Oldenburg) on more than 12,000 square metres.
Hugo Vogelsang, son of Helmut Vogelsang, is the technical Managing Director of the company. After completing his studies in mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic University in Hannover, Germany in 1992, he has brought a lot of innovative ideas to the company and continues to improve our products.
Vogelsang has also expanded greatly on the international market. We have an export of over 50% that is growing recently. Harald Vogelsang, Hugo's brother, is the Sales Manager since 1997. After completing his studies in Business Administration at the University of Muenster, Germany, he gained experience as a marketing manager at international corporations. Having joined Vogelsang, he began to focus on the global market. Using his intiative the subsidiary Vogelsang-USA was founded and is still very successful. Up to now,
13 subsidiaries
were founded all around the world. In addition to that Vogelsang works with an
international network of distributors
. Future plans are to develop new markets in emerging economies all around the world. With the foundation of subsidiaries in Malaysia (2005), China (2006) and India (2009) we took some good steps forward in this direction.
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Factory site throughout time:
1991
(top left)
2001
(top right)
2009
(bottom right)
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Today 50% of our products are for industrial use
The Vogelsang rotary lobe pump, due to its excellent features, can be applied in many different applications. In the 1990s the pulsation-free running HiFlo rotary lobes were produced in series and the variety of applications was extended even further. Today Vogelsang's products are represented in many industrial applications. Today the production program contains rotary lobe pumps with a displacement volume up to 1,000 m³/h and pressures up to 16 bar. To adhere and even to increase the technical advantage to our competitors we furthermore do intensive researches and developments. This technological advantage is the base of our position being the market leader for elastomeric-coated rotary lobe pumps.
A great change Vogelsang did with the dimensioning of pumps: through optimized, media-adapted speeds, investment- and sparepartcosts are reduced. In addition to that the lifetime was highly increased.
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Continuous development in shredding technology
1990 brought the invention of the RotaCut in-line grinder. The RotaCut separates large heavy objects and debrits from the liquid which collects in the pot for easy removal. Lighter objects and debrits are drawn upwards through the cuting screen where they are chopped into an acceptable size for downstream pumps and equipment to process. The RotaCut is the best protection for downstream by removing objects that will cause damage before they enter the system. Today we have several different models for applications up to 1,200 m³/h. Through a versatile selection of cutting-screens, blade rotors and blade-types, as well as motors with different speed and power, individual designs for every application can be set up. Is it for agriculture, industry or a sewage treatment plant, just a simple protection for the following equipment or precise and defined crushing - everything is possible. Combined Cut&Pump-Systems with elaborate control engineering are even more spreading on advanced applications.
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Liquid manure Distribution and irrigation systems
An innovation and up to now a symbol for precise and environmentally friendly distribution technology are - developed in the 1980s - the dribble bar systems. Alongside with an optimized use of slurry as fertiliser, all the negative concomitants of the old spreading systems (smell-emissions, contamination of the ground water) are things of the past. Today working widths up to 36m are standard and still an end of the development can not be seen. For the future larger working widths and an increased spreading accuracy are aspired.
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Technology for biogas plants
It was the growing environmental problem that led Vogelsang to design special products, e.g. the dribble bar system to address these issues. These products are continualy being improved and developed today. The most recent example is the QuickMix, which has been awarded the silver medal for innovation by the DLG. The QuickMix mixes solid materials (co-ferments) with a liquid medium (e.g. manure slurry or fermentation remains) in one single operation. Coarse materials are shredded and the resulting suspension slurry is then pumped into a digester.
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Protecting the environment
Environmentally friendly products and production methods are a top priority at Vogelsang. Equipment for the recycling and waste disposal industry is designed and built at Vogelsang, e.g. the vacuum-disposal system. based on the proven rotary lobe pump it is used for the passenger rail industry, for ships and ports. This technology is also applied in large buildings, e.g. the Westfalen Stadion in Dortmund, a soccer stadium. The Railway industry trusts in our vacuum disposal technology in using them at rail stations and depots. It is also getting more and more attention from foreign markets.
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Setting new standards
Now after nearly 80 years, thanks to continuous research and development, Vogelsang has become a market leader in many sectors. Setting standards and developing our own products rather than simply copying them. That's the philosophy of the Vogelsang family and of the employees as well.
Part of Vogelsang's philosophy entails the need for continuous improvement of its existing and new products. As a result new innovative ideas and concepts will be born in the future and developed until they are mature for the market.
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Who we are