Vacuum pioneer Leybold marks company anniversary with 175 years of operation
Innovative companies often have an interesting history. One tradition-conscious market leader is the German vacuum specialist Leybold.
Founded by Ernst Leybold in Cologne in 1850, the company has achieved numerous pioneering milestones and product developments. Now, in 2025, the renowned manufacturer is celebrating its 175th anniversary.
Important role in many areas
Leybold’s core competencies include developing and manufacturing standardised, individual solutions for vacuum generation and process gas conveying, as well as customer-specific vacuum systems. The vacuum pioneer’s components, systems, and services play an important role in many areas worldwide, such as industrial coating, analysis, and research and development processes.
Dynamic markets, high demands
With its comprehensive application expertise and the quality of its products and services, Leybold has a significant influence on the efficiency of processes and value chains. This is particularly important at the moment because the market dynamics and global challenges, such as climate change, are especially great.
Areas of application undergoing structural change
The currently relevant applications of vacuum technology in structural change include metallurgy, the automotive and coating industries, solar, display and food applications, analytics and processes for the production of lithium-ion batteries for electromobility.
Continuation of the Leybold name
The entrepreneur Ernst Leybold laid the foundations for the company when he moved from Bavaria to the Rhineland in 1850. By registering the company in Cologne, Leybold became the founder of industrial vacuum technology. Even after the sale of the company in 1870, which continued to operate under the name “E. Leybold’s Nachfolger’, his vision remained intact.
Collaboration with Dr Wolfgang Gaede
His successors achieved a breakthrough in vacuum technology in 1906 in collaboration with Dr. Wolfgang Gaede: for example, with the basic principle of the turbomolecular pump (1911) and the application of the diffusion pump (1913), both of which are still in use today. The gas ballast device for pumping out vapours, patented in 1935, is also still in use.
Industrial utilisation of the vacuum
Vacuum metallurgy began in 1913: Dr Wilhelm Rohn, head of the physical testing laboratory at W.C. Heraeus GmbH, developed a process for melting high-purity metals in a vacuum in Hanau, which was patented in 1918. In 1931, Wilhelm Carl Heraeus succeeded in vaporising metals on glass, thus paving the way for vacuum coating technology. Subsequently, vacuum technology was increasingly used in process engineering.
Important brand with great appeal
In September 2016, the Swedish company Atlas Copco AB, based in Stockholm, acquired 100 percent of Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum, which is now part of Atlas Copco’s Vacuum Technique division. In the multi-brand group with around 53,000 employees and customers in over 180 countries, Leybold is a major brand that plays an important role with its great tradition and reputation.
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