· A provider of innovative technology right from the beginning

· Flexibility the key to success

· Worldwide portfolio of vacuum solutions since 1910

Asslar, Germany — Mechanical engineering company Pfeiffer Vacuum has been in existence for precisely 120 years since April 7, 2010. Originally founded by Arthur Pfeiffer as a fine mechanical workshop, Pfeiffer Vacuum can look back at a long tradition in the development of innovative technologies.

“Given our ongoing passion for innovation, many might be amazed to learn that Pfeiffer Vacuum is already so old,” notes Pfeiffer Vacuum Chief Executive Officer Manfred Bender. “But although the company may be getting on in years, it’s still young in spirit. It possesses the rare ability to repeatedly reinvent itself.”

And flexibility is one of the company’s key success drivers. Only ten years after founding what had since gone on to become a highly successful workshop, for example, Pfeiffer stops marketing remote ignition systems for gas street lights after the metallic filament lamp debuts at the 1900 World’s Fair. So Pfeiffer shifts to the production of vacuum components for manufacturing electric lighting products. In 1910, this entrepreneur is already supplying physics equipment and complete research and teaching laboratories to customers throughout the world. By the year 1926, Arthur Pfeiffer Vakuum­tech­nik Wetzlar GmbH is one of the world’s largest specialty manufacturers in the field of high vacuum technology. General agencies are in place in nearly all European countries and the United States.

1958 sees the commencement of regular production of the first turbomolecular pumps, which were developed by Pfeiffer Vacuum. These pumps achieve a pumping speed of 150 l/s and weigh 95 kg. Their hydrocarbon-free vacuum opens up new fields of application in the analytical industry and in industrial process technology. The breathtaking pace of development of microelectronics and microchips would not have been possible without turbopumps, which assure the required high vacuum under extreme conditions. In addition to a broad portfolio of vacuum pumps, the company’s product line also includes systems for drying and impregnating cables, for degassing transformer oils and for freeze-drying pharmaceutical products.

Its era as a family-run company ends in 1969, when Pfeiffer becomes a member of the Balzers Group with headquarters in the Principality of Liechtenstein. On July 16, 1996, Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG is the first German mid-size company to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. All of the shares are placed, enabling the company to leave the corporate group and become independent, which it has remained ever since. This is followed in 1998 by a second listing on Deutsche Börse Frankfurt’s Neuer Markt segment (today the TecDax). The development of this equity is considered to be a textbook example.

Today, Pfeiffer Vacuum has advanced to become a leading manufacturer worldwide of components and systems for generating, measuring and analyzing vacuum. The company offers a complete line of turbopumps rated at different pumping speeds in both conventional and magnetic levitation technology, including integrated drive system. And with its further products, such as backing pumps, measurement and analysis equipment, components, vacuum chambers and systems, Pfeiffer Vacuum is able to supply complete vacuum solutions.

About Pfeiffer Vacuum

Pfeiffer Vacuum (Stock Exchange Symbol PFV, ISIN DE0006916604) is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of components and systems for vacuum generation, measurement and analysis. Ever since the invention of the turbomolecular pump by Pfeiffer Vacuum, the company has stood for innovative solutions and high-technology products that are used in the analytical segment, in research and development, environmental technology, chemistry, semiconductor production and coating technology, as well as in the automotive industry and any number of further sectors. Founded in 1890, Pfeiffer Vacuum is today together with Trinos Vakuum-Systeme active throughout the world with a workforce of some 870 people as well as 14 subsidiaries and over 20 agencies. Further information is available at www.pfeiffer-vacuum.net