Contents

1

Foreword by Ernst Delfos, publisherwhich these companies made in terms of specialisation,

globalisation and innovation. The latter – innovation –

gradually seems to have become an inevitable container

concept but it is no less important because of this. Now that

countries such as China are starting to focus on innovation

companies are forced to work as fast as they can to develop

the crucial technical or organisational developments which

enable them to stay one step ahead of the (overseas)

competition.

Find out more in this Industrial Insights about these and

other developments in the gears and gearbox industry,

alongside options and insights from prominent players and

experts.

These days it is impossible to write an introduction without

referring to the economic crisis. Inevitably it has had a

negative impact on the sales figures and balance sheets and

unfortunately the gears and gearbox industry in Belgium is no

different. And yet, when we interviewed the representatives

of this industry, there was a general sense of cautious opti­

mism and trust in the future. And the industry’s reputation

and know­how is largely the reason for this positive outlook.

But at the same time this is also related to a number of choices

6HIT also takes the lead within Sumitomo Heavy Industries in terms of industrial gearboxes

13Innovation is crucial

2Globalisation, lean

manufacturing and collaboration

11Issues & Insights

16List of advertisers

2 3

2008 while wind energy progressed

spectacularly that same year, which, in

turn, had a positive impact on the general

figures. One year later the situation had

changed. As is the case in other sectors we

develop in line with the macro­economic

situation and government policy but these

two factors impact each of our manufac­

turers differently.”

Factories of the Future

“And yet all our companies face the same

challenge”, says Roobaert. “We have to

safeguard our competitiveness and tech­

nological advantage in a fast changing

world. This is not an easy feat because the

competition has only increased over time

as a result of the globalisation and by

exporting our products we have also

exported part of our knowledge. In the past

technological superiority was a decisive

criterion in Europe because all the basic

technology was either Belgian or European.

But these days we are rapidly losing our

advantage. Everyone knows that Asia

imports technology through Western

companies wishing to produce there and

that it has modern and effective production

facilities. Our companies have to be lean in

order to respond to this in the appropriate

manner. This applies first and foremost

to the production but it also plays a role

in the other organisational aspects. The

sales, marketing and other services have

to provide a perfect framework for the

design and for production according to the

same lean philosophy.

Barbara Willems, sectoral adviser Mecha­

tronics: “Agoria supports this development

very intensively in the frame of the

‘Factories of the Future’ project. We help

develop modern, effective companies

through the platform and the website,

www.madedifferent.be. That is the way

that we need to go. Our companies have to

simultaneously maintain a global outlook

while being as close as possible to the

A different impact

“But the industry certainly isn’t doing bad”,

Roobaert explains. “There are various

reasons why our Belgian manufacturers are

so resilient. Generally speaking our manu­

facturers have modern production facilities,

which is a first advantage. Another important

aspect is their global outlook within their

field. When combined with the language

knowledge and the cultural interest of

Belgians in general, it is easy to understand

why the companies in this sector manage

to export ninety percent of their production.

Another element, which has contributed to

the industry’s success, is the specialisation

of many Belgian manufacturers. As a result

a large number of our companies are

recognised as global players in their niche

markets. On the other hand this speciali­

sation complicates matters because you

cannot make general statements about our

industry. The suppliers to the automotive

industry, for example, were hit hard in

remained relatively stable. As was the

case in all the industries the economic

downturn did have a general impact, but

structurally speaking the industry is doing

well albeit that there are significant differ­

ences between the various fields. Companies

that primarily live off exports are doing

rather well at the moment. A good example

is that of the companies that export a lot

to the United States. The economy is picking

up slowly but surely and the Americans

have realised that they need to start

manufacturing goods themselves again

instead of importing them. As a result they

are investing in their production and process

structures, and our gearbox suppliers are

reaping the benefits of this. In Asia too the

economy and the production continues to

grow, which in turn has led to a rise in the

demand for gearboxes. They also highly

appreciate European quality. Things are

more complicated in Europe. Customers are

postponing their investments because it

seems as if the crisis is not about to end

anytime soon. Everyone is taking a cautious

approach and only smaller projects are

given the go­ahead.”

The history of the industrial gearbox

industry goes back a very long way

in Belgium. Although it is responsible

for about five percent of European pro­

duction the country is certainly not the

biggest market player. That said, thanks

to the patents of pioneer David Hansen

Belgium played a significant role in the

development and standardisation of gear­

boxes. And it continues to do so even today

which is why the Belgian industry has an

excellent reputation. Belgian companies

operate in very diverse fields including

the automotive, the shipping and aviation

industries, the chemical and wind power

industries and the chemical industry. The

industrial gearbox sector is also very capital

and knowledge intensive, two requirements

which Belgian companies are able to satisfy

thanks to excellent training and financial clout.

Export pays off

Georges Roobaert, President of Agoria’s gear­

boxes and transmissions group: “Although

the number of gearbox manufacturers has

systematically dropped in recent years,

the overall turnover of the industry has

Interview with Georges Roobaert, President of the gearboxes

and transmissions group at Agoria and an industry representative,

and Barbara Willems, sectoral adviser Mechatronics

Globalisation, lean manufacturing and collaboration

Belgium has a relatively high number of world players in terms of

the design and production of gears and gearboxes. This high-tech

industry is very innovative and highly diversified, with applications

in every possible field, including cooling towers, mixers, maritime

and lock structures as well as wind turbines. As is the case

elsewhere our fast changing world generates a lot of opportunities

but at the same the industry also faces numerous challenges.

According to Georges Roobaert and Barbara Willems, the specialists

in this field at Agoria, the challenges at Belgium and European

level are significant, but the future is still bright.

Barbara Willems

Georges Roobaert

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5

of this evolution towards more high­tech

applications requires significant investments,

which, in some cases, are unfeasible for

individual players.” “That is why several

companies have initiated cross­border

partnerships with universities and research

centres”, Willems continues. “A good

example is the Werkzeugenmaschinenlabor

in Aachen, in Germany where a lot of research

is bundled. Naturally this collaboration across

national and company borders requires a

subtle approach, founded on openness

and the preservation of discoveries. Until

today this has worked quite well and all

the partners have benefited, including the

Belgian stakeholders.”

The best solution

Roobaert: “People often suggest that gears

are a thing of the past. And it’s true that

the industry has a rich past, but at present a

gearbox is simply the best way to transmit

coupling. What’s more, it is also the

cheapest method, especially in machines

which generate a big coupling. And it is the

most efficient method: roughly speaking

the energy loss is one percent per gear,

which is negligible. That is why gears will

still be used for quite some time and the

future is bright for this industry, especially

in Belgium”.

various markets. In other words they have

to adapt local production to the specific

geographic needs, regardless of their loca­

tion. Finally the attention to ecological

thinking is becoming increasingly crucial.

The objective is not only to save on energy

and on equipment in the production cost

but also to support the companies’ image

and to make employees proud of their

enterprise, which is also important.

Innovation

In addition to setting up a modern, compet­

itive organisational structure manufacturers

also have to continue to make a difference

in terms of innovation. Roobaert: “All the

basic principles of gears are widely known

and have been for quite some time, but

there is still some margin for innovation.

Gears are operating increasingly better

because the calculations have been tweaked

and the production methods used are

becoming more precise. As a consequence

gearboxes are becoming smaller, more

reliable and quieter while being able to

handle more coupling. The evolution since

the Second World War has been spectac­

ular. These days a gearbox with the same

potential is five times smaller and lighter

than it was fifty years ago while its lifespan

has increased threefold. The continuation

76

enormous growth market and we fully

capitalised on this evolution at the time.

Unfortunately this choice was made at

the expense of our other activities which

mainly related to the more traditional or

established industry. Our customers are

OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)

as well as end users in the food, material

handling, chemicals, mining, water treat­

ment and cooling tower industries. Generally

speaking these are mature markets, which

are very stable. But this also has its

disadvantages: it is not evident to grow

quickly or a lot. On the other hand this

stability provides you with a certain extent

of certainty and potential. The condition,

however, is that you can develop your

long­term vision yourself and that you can

concentrate on your core business. This is

all possible thanks to the new HIT structure

within SHI.”

A subsidiary of Sumitomo Heavy Industries

(SHI)

HIT was acquired by the SHI Group in

March 2011. This Japanese multinational

has a wide range of activities, including a

Power Transmission and Controls Group,

which includes the Gearboxes subgroup to

which HIT belongs. In any event SHI and

Hansen had already worked together in

the past. In the Seventies SHI was granted

a license agreement for Hansen Patent 2

products. The collaboration ended in the

Nineties, however. Torsten Schultz is very

satisfied about the current collaboration

with the Japanese group: “In the beginning

of the takeover process you always need to

suss each other out but we soon reached a

good understanding. As usual we started

energy is a highly specific sector with only

a limited number of big customers and

this industry requires its own specific

approach. But this approach did not mesh

well with the other activities, which were

grouped under the industrial gearboxes

denominator. Instead of just a few customers

this niche served thousands of customers,

who often required tailor­made solutions.

That is why the sale, the design and the

production are founded on a different

principle out of necessity. Because the

wind energy industry grew so spectacularly

it increasingly started to overshadow the

company’s other activities, thereby limiting

the growth potential for this sector. That

led to the founding of Hansen Industrial

Transmissions on April 1st, 2010. An

independent legal entity was created for

all the activities which were not related to

wind energy

A logical development

Torsten Schultz was appointed CEO of the

new division. He was born in Germany,

grew up in Namibia and studied at Stellen­

bosch University in South Africa. He joined

Hansen South Africa in 1995 and managed

Hansen’s US subsidiary from 2005 until he

moved to Belgium in 2007. Today he runs

HIT from the head office in Edegem.

Torsten Schultz: “I felt that HIT’s evolution

to an independent status was a natural

and logical step. In the past, as a board

member of the parent company, Hansen

Transmissions International, I also witnessed

the development of the wind energy

division. We absolutely made the right

choice in economic terms when we

decided to strengthen this branch. It is an

wide for the standardisation of gearboxes.

During the second half of the twentieth

century the company increasingly earned

a reputation for itself as a global leader

and trendsetter in the field of mechanical

power transmission technology.

HIT independent

In the eighties Hansen started to focus

more on wind energy, which was quite

progressive of them, because around 2000

this market grew spectacularly. Wind

Hansen Industrial Transmissions,

which was originally named La

Méchanique Générale, was founded

in 1923. Initially the company, which was

established in the city centre of Antwerp,

manufactured all types of mechanical parts

but soon it added the development of

tailor­made transmissions to its compe­

tences. Gradually the company’s focus

shifted to the development and manufac­

ture of customer­specific gearboxes. An

important stimulus in this evolution was

the hiring in 1929 of the young engineer,

David Hansen. Ten years later the company

moved to its current location in Edegem,

where there was more margin for expan­

sion. After the Second World War the

company patented its products – thanks

to David Hansen and his development in

1950 of a unique standardisation concept

– and the Hansen Patent was created. The

brilliant engineer developed the law of

centre distances, which is still used world­

Interview with Torsten Schultz, CEO Hansen Industrial Transmissions (HIT)

HIT also takes the lead within Sumitomo Heavy Industries in terms of industrial gearboxes

Hansen is a reputable name in international mechanical power transmission technology

and the Belgian technology world, which is associated with a Flemish yet global enterprise,

which prides itself on a long and illustrious history. Until recently this name referred to two

different independent companies as a consequence of the division of Hansen Transmissions

International (HTI) in 2010 and takeovers in 2011. On the one hand there was Hansen

Transmissions International (currently: ZF Wind Power Antwerp NV) which manufactures

gearboxes for the wind energy industry and which is now part of the German company, ZF

(Friedrichshafen). On the other hand Hansen Industrial Transmissions (HIT) specialises in

gearboxes for a wide range of industrial applications and customers. HIT was taken over in

2011 by the Japanese group, Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI). Since April 2012 it has been

a part of SHI’s Power Transmission & Controls Group (which consists of three product

groups: industrial gearboxes, geared motors and controls). Torsten Schultz, CEO of HIT,

elaborates on the DNA of HIT and outlines the company’s vision for the future.Torsten Schultz

8 9

towards selling uptime. We get involved as

much as possible with our customers to

understand the application in order to

design the best solution which increases

uptime for the end user.”

A fascinating industry

And yet Torsten Schultz is forced to admit

that this quality philosophy has not been

adopted worldwide: “There is still a lot of

excess production capacity in the gear and

gearbox market. A lot of low­cost countries

tend to encroach on our market share by

selling at low prices. In Europe we are able

to counter this thanks to our superior

quality and far­reaching service. But the

economy is often quite cost­driven and

less quality driven in other countries. This

especially applies to the emerging econo­

mies such as China, India, Latin America

and Africa. As these economies mature

they will shift focus to long term reliability,

which is more suited to our product

positioning. Attracting trained personnel

will also be a challenge to support our

vision and our strategy in the long term.

Currently we have an excellent worldwide

network of engineers, which is a real asset.

But we are also concerned about the

imminent lack of highly trained personnel,

as is the case in every sector. We work with

umbrella organisations, universities and

other knowledge centres to encourage

people to choose a technological training

program. And naturally we hope that the

best among them will choose Hansen

Industrial Transmissions. In any event we

can offer them a bright future in a highly

fascinating, innovative industry, with a

global scope.”

was only limited. As a result HIT can

significantly expand its portfolio at the

global level. We have complemented our

range with the more standardised products

of SHI, Paramax and Seisa. This is a perfect

solution for some of our customers. In the

frame of the acquisition we opted in

favour of a pragmatic approach. Sales and

service, where possible, are combined

based on cross­selling agreements. Better

yet, in 2012 the engineering, production,

assembly, sales and service of Sumitomo’s

PARAMAX® industrial gearboxes for EMEA

will be incorporated in the European as­

sembly centre in HIT’s Antwerp­based

gearbox plant. So there are a lot of

synergies between both partners.”

Selling uptime

“In Europe, the integration of HIT and

Sumitomo will be finalised by mid­2012

and we are quickly approaching this point

in the rest of the world. But in addition to

its integration in the SHI group HIT is also

focusing on implementing its own strategy.

We have firmly opted to continue to build

on our historic assets: offering high­quality

specific solutions to our customers. Many

of them, especially in the processing indus­

try, emphasise the need for high product

reliability in their installations, with no

unscheduled production stops. To achieve

this they have to eliminate all the risks of

downtime and to this end they develop

various models and techniques. An impor­

tant example of this is predictive main­

tenance: Hansen is busy introducing a

formula based on complete service packs.

We have been a real solutions provider for

quite some time but now we are evolving

essence the more challenging and the

more specific the transmission problem,

the more competitive HIT is at solving it.

Complementary

“SHI’s philosophy is different:” The company

offers more standardised products and

has a strong presence in other countries.

During the due diligence in the run­up to

the takeover we finally understood how

complementary the SHI and HIT gearboxes

really are. Whereas they are more special­

ised in horizontal gearboxes in the lower

torque ranges we tend to be better at

vertical gearboxes in the higher torque

ranges. They are quite strong in Asia and

Latin America while we are market leaders

in Europe, Australia and South Africa, where

our market share amounts to over thirty

percent. We are on equal footing in North

America. So our product range proved to

be quite complementary and the overlap

with the financial reporting and the

integration of knowledge, services and

production. The acquisition was one year

ago and we have already progressed quite

a bit in terms of the integration. That said,

the objective is for HIT to continue to be an

independently operating unit within the

same group. The biggest challenge is the

‘different’ approach of the organisation.

SHI has always been more regionally

oriented and the group has subdivided the

world into different markets, aligning its

structure accordingly. Historically speaking,

HIT’s organisation is more globalised.”

Customised solutions

And yet the two companies make a good

match. Schultz: “HIT mainly distinguishes

itself from the competition because of its

flexibility. We are familiar with various

different markets and we offer our cus­

tomers customised, high­quality solutions

for their power transmission problems. We

prioritise quality and reliability. The basic

design of our gearboxes and the production

is done here in Belgium. In addition to our

global sales and service network we also

have our own assembly plants with our

own employees in several locations all

over the world. As a result we are locally

embedded and we are familiar with the

situation and the local markets. This allows

us to offer customised solutions, engineered

to order, and this is how we differentiate

ourselves from the competition. All our

plants can offer customised solutions to

meet the specific demands of their local

customers. They start from a “standard

product platform”, which they then proceed

to tailor in function of the demand. In

11

Issues & Insights The platform to

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at the end of 2008 after which it dropped

again to the same level as 2006 in 2011.

It is worth noting that the peak employ­

ment figures in 2008­2009 can almost

entirely be attributed to the huge growth

of the wind energy industry.

• If we map the entire industry of Belgian

manufacturers of power transmissions

then we can conclude that the industry

employed a workforce of 5,330 employees

in 2008.

Manufacturer confidence

Manufacturer confidence is linked to the

level of guaranteed activity for the next

few months.

• At its lowest, in November 2009, the

average was only 3.4 months.

• In April 2012 the average has increased

again to 4.8 months. It is too early how­

ever to say that there is a real revival as

long as the European economies continue

to remain unstable. Agoria does however

expect a positive evolution for the BRIC

countries.

• Although entrepreneurs are cautiously

optimistic about demand and employment

they are concerned about the level of the

sales prices.

Sources: Agoria, Eurotrans

The industry distinguishes between

priority companies and the others.

The priority companies specialise

almost exclusively in the manufacture of

gearboxes and gears.

Turnover

• After the 2008 crisis the industry slowly

grew again but 2010 and 2011 were

marred by the unstable markets. As a

result several investments were cancelled

or postponed. In 2010 the overall pro­

duction of the priority companies that

are also Agoria members amounted to

580 million euros. This is an 18.7% drop

compared with 2009. In 2011 production

declined again by 7.5% to 536.77 million

euros. Agoria represents 95% of the

companies, in terms of employment.

• This drop was also apparent in the

industry’s export figures: in 2010 export

volumes dropped by 14.1% even though

there are big differences depending on

the destination country.

Employment opportunities

The same trend is apparent in employment.

• The workforce of the priority Agoria com­

panies evolved from 2,684 employees in

2006 only to peak with 3,353 employees

The gears and gearboxes industry is anything but a uniform industry. There are

several different manufacturers which manufacture a range of highly diverse

products. Some companies manufacture bigger machines in which a small

number of gears have also been integrated as part of these machines while others

exclusively manufacture gears and gearboxes.

Hansen Industrial Transmissions nv

Registered office: Edegem, Antwerp, Belgium

Founded: 1923

Shareholder: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. Japan

Employees: 400 (Belgium) – 600 (Worldwide)

Branches: Australia, Belgium, China, Great Britain, USA, South Africa

Turnover for 2011-12 107,6 million euros (Group)

Market share in 2011: 5.3 % (right angle and parallel gearboxes +10kNm)

Main applications: Conveyor belts, cooling towers, industrial mixers

Company slogan: “In gear for your success”

Source: Hansen Industrial Transmissions

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13

Ceramics

“The innovation goes beyond inventing a

revolutionary concept”, says De Groef. “It’s

all about fine­tuning existing techniques

and computing programs. The machines

we use to manufacture gears are becoming

increasingly precise, so deviations are con­

tinuously being reduced. These deviations

cause the additional friction and less

efficiency. Better lubrication also plays a

role in this, in addition to more precise

gears. Next to this we are also continuously

searching for new materials and coatings

for the parts in a gearbox in order to

increase its efficiency. The latest trend is

to substitute metals with ceramic materials

in the bearings, which is mainly inspired

by the insulating properties of ceramics, a

property which metal lacks.”

Heyvaert: “The basic principles of

gearboxes have been known to us

for several centuries. As early as

the fifteenth century Leonardo da Vinci was

already using various types of gearboxes

and transmissions to control his fantastic

machines and over time these parts have

become even more important. They are all

around us, in our daily life, in the smallest

watch and even in supersize tankers. There

have not really been any revolutionary

discoveries in the last few decades but it is

safe to say that gearboxes have become

spectacularly smaller and more effective

since the Fifties. This innovation has been

largely motivated by the concentration of

more coupling and power in a smaller unit,

the extension of the part’s lifespan and

the reduction of the production costs. In

recent years the new aspects of energy

efficiency and sustainability for the environ­

ment also became increasingly important.

Interview with Geert Heyvaert and

Ludo De Groef, the President and Vice-President of Belgitrans

Innovation is crucial

Gears and gearboxes come in all shapes and sizes and this also applies to the companies that

manufacture them. Belgium has both smaller companies which manufacture custom-made parts to

repair machines and big companies which sell their standardised products worldwide. But all these

companies have one thing in common: innovation. Belgium’s high-tech industry has been playing a

leading role in terms of innovation for quite some time now. Belgitrans, a Belgian organisation, was

founded to provide further support for innovation in this industry. It helps its members to further

develop their technological capacities among others by organising exhibitions and seminars and by

writing publications about mechanics and electronics in the field of transmissions. The organisation’s

President, Geert Heyvaert, and its Vice-President, Ludo De Groef, stress the importance of innovation.

Geert Heyvaert

15

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Mechatronics

“This material development is actually

part of a more general evolution in what

is known as the field of mechatronics”,

says Heyvaert. “In the past mechanics and

electronics were strictly separated but

more recently these two fields have

started to merge, hence the compound

name, mechatronics. These days our cus­

tomers no longer simply buy gearboxes.

Instead they ask us for an integrated

solution to a given problem. As a result

the manufacturers have gradually become

suppliers of solutions instead of merely

supplying parts. The motor and the gear­

box are increasingly integrated for example

and are seen as one entity. The powertrain

is optimised as a whole, instead of just

optimising the individual parts, like we

used to do in the past.

Lifecycle

De Groef: “The interrelation between me­

chanics and electronics also plays a role at

a much smaller level and even in the centre

of the bearings. There are bearings, for

example, with integrated electronic sensors

which permanently measure vibrations. A

wire protrudes from these bearings, making

electronics a highly tangible part of the

transmission. This permanent control by

integrated sensors is part of a bigger trend

to better predict the lifecycle of gearboxes

and to adapt them to their uses. In the

past gearboxes were designed to last

forever, with the odd check now

and then. These days they

have to merely achieve

the lifespan of the

machine in which

they have been

integrated. As a result production has

become much cheaper.”

Sustainability

“In addition to the cheaper production the

notion of ecology has also played a big role

in research and development”, Heyvaert

continues. “In essence gears are a very

environment­friendly product as they can

be fully recycled. And yet several efforts

are being made to work even more sus­

tainably: the production and the operation

of gearboxes have to become more

energy­efficient and more environment­

friendly. These efforts are inspired by a

dual motivation: the cost of manufacturing

has to be reduced and they also serve as a

marketing tool. These days these aspects

play a significant role in every decision. For

example research is conducted into ways

of manufacturing in the lowest possible

number of steps and with less material. At

the same time the manufacturers are also

investing in research into coatings to reduce

friction and wear and into ways of substi­

tuting water as a coolant and lubricant.

Despite the fact that we know gears inside

and out the possibilities for inno­

vation are endless.

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Insights is published by Goo MediaT +32 (0)3 ­ 218 23 01I www.goomedia.com

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Design and productionGoo Media

Hansen Industrial Transmissions nvT +32 (0)3 ­ 450 12 11I hansenindustrialgearboxes.com

© Goo Media July 2012No part of this publication may be reproduced or publicised in any form by print, photocopy, microfilm or any other means without written permission from the publisher.Whilst every care has been taken in compiling this publication to ensure the accuracy of the content, the publisher and authors cannot be held responsible for the consequences of any errors or omissions.

ISSN: 1570 ­ 9876

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