In its 100th year, FLSmidth MAAG Gear has been looking back at the key milestones in company and technology development since 1913. Max Maag, a pioneer in the field of gear technology, founded Maag Zahnräder AG. On April 1, 1913, he moved the company to Hardstrasse 219 in Zurich and as a result, 1913 is considered the founding year of the company. The factory produced hardened, ground gears for a number of industries such as aviation (Zeppelin), car making, metal working and ship building. It also designed gear-cutting machines and gear grinders.

Around 1930, Maag went international and founded subsidiaries in France and Italy. Over the next 50 years, the company developed a number of successful gear measuring and gear grinding machines. After the Second World War the company expanded into the cement and marine industries, producing heavy-duty gear units, turbo gear units and gear pumps. In the 1980s the company board defined a new strategy and expanded into a new market by taking over a company that produced powder castings. The machine tool business was closed down and MAAG Gear was founded as an independent company. In the 1990s it became clear that this strategy was not working and MAAG Gear was sold to FLSmidth. Since then, FLSmidth MAAG Gear has designed, produced and maintained gears, gear units and drive systems for the cement and minerals industries.

MAAG Gear milestones include 1910 with the invention of the Maag tooth design; still in use today, it provides gear manufacturers with an ideal method of influencing tooth shape to improve load bearing and sliding characteristics. In 1913 the company introduced a gear grinder guided by diamond tracers for precision-shaped gears for the car industry. This was used for the next 70 years. In 1939 the PH-60 gear-measuring machine was developed. By the time production was phased out in 1981, 1,260 machines had been delivered to customers worldwide, some of which are still in use today. The year 1949 saw the introduction of the HSS-360 gear grinder, which could handle gear diameters up to 3,600 mm and workpieces weighing up to 25 t, making it the largest gear grinder in the world at that time. Then 1966 saw the design of heavy-duty two-stage planetary gear units – called CPUs – for horizontal mills in the cement industry. CPUs were more reliable than conventional parallel shaft gear units; 265,000 hours and almost 50 years later the first two CPUs installed are still running.

Moving into the modern era, in 1983 MAAG delivered its first WPU two-stage gear unit for a vertical roller mill. The largest WPU gear unit weighs 190 t and outputs 5,346 kW at a speed of 995/23 rpm. In 2007, MAAG introduced its unique concept of a three-stage bevel planetary gear unit WPV with torque split. The torque split enables approximately 25% of the power to be guided directly through the planet shafts of the second stage into the output flange. The three-stage concept was the answer to the ever increasing mill sizes. The biggest MAAG WPV weighs 220 t and outputs almost 8,000 kW. In 2011, FLSmidth MAAG Gear launched an entirely new drive concept for vertical mills: MAAG CEM Drive (Central Electric Motor) combines the advantages of proven MAAG gear technology with an ingenious motor concept, all in one common housing.

The company states: “Entering its second century, FLSmidth MAAG Gear continues to develop technology, products, people and drive solutions for the cement and minerals industries. The company is making solid progress, favoured by growth in some of the major markets. This will necessitate continuous development of products and strong support from the parent FLSmidth. FLSmidth MAAG Gear is to become the Global Technology Centre for engineered drive solutions in the cement and minerals industries and to be the customers’ preferred full service provider of sustainable minerals and cement technologies.”