The ARGO-HYTOS Group produces and develops components and systems for the hydraulic industry. Its headquarters are in Switzerland and production sites are in Germany, Czech Republic, India, China and Brazil.

History

The present ARGO-HYTOS group has its seeds in the former company Argo GmbH for precision mechanics. It was established in Stuttgart on July 7, 1947, at the request of Herbert Kienzle, the managing director of the Kienzle Apparate, and has developed from the former sales company for Kienzle-Taximeters. Argo originally was a brand name of the predecessor company Kienzle Apparate for manufacturing of taximeters, referring to the Greek legend of

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek mythology, mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was marri ...

and his incredibly fast ship. An autonomous production program for magnetic filters and strainers was developed; in 1952 Argo received a patent for magnetic filters. The product portfolio was expanded to hydraulic filters for the mobile and industrial hydraulics, which were produced in a former cigar factory in

Kraichtal Kraichtal is a town in the north-eastern part of the Karlsruhe district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was founded in 1971 by a merger of nine smaller municipalities. Geography Kraichtal is a town embedded in western Kraichgau, a hilly lan ...

/Germany. In 1965 the head office was also transferred to Kraichtal. The company expanded internationally: At the beginning of the 1980s the first own sales company was established abroad in France, followed by more companies in the Netherlands, Great Britain, in the US, Sweden, Hong Kong, Italy, Poland and China.

Development

In 1990 Christian H. Kienzle took over the position of the managing director and has managed the ARGO-HYTOS group up until now. In 1993 the Argo GmbH for precision mechanics was renamed as Argo GmbH for fluid technology. In the same year Argo purchased shares in the Czech hydraulic manufacturer Hytos, a company already having a 50-year experience in the production of components for Fluid & Motion Control. Since 2003 both companies have traded under the name ARGO-HYTOS.

Locations

The ARGO-HYTOS group operates globally with numerous sales companies all over the world and more than 100 international distributors. The group is headquartered in Switzerland and employs more than 1,200 staff members. ARGO-HYTOS maintains locations with production plants in *

(Germany) - approx. 450 employees *

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four ri ...

(Czech Republic) *

Vrchlabí Vrchlabí (; german: Hohenelbe, la, Albipolis) is a town in Trutnov District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. It lies at the foot of the Giant Mountains on the river Elbe. The town centre ...

(Czech Republic) *Zator (Poland) * Coimbatore (India) *

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Ya ...

(China)''Groundbreaking ceremony for the new company in China''
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Portfolio and customers

The portfolio of ARGO-HYTOS includes hydraulic filters and filter elements, components for Fluid & Motion Control, Fluid Management Systems, Sensors- and Measurement Technology as well as systems for Wind Energy Plants. The company's customers include manufacturers of

agricultural machinery Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that ...

, production machines and machine tools, construction machines, municipal engineering and energy production.

Literature

* Armin Müller: ''Kienzle. Ein deutsches Industrieunternehmen im 20. Jahrhundert.'' Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, S. 221–225. . * Bernhard Foitzik: ''Filtration Technology for Hydraulic Systems: Optimum concepts for filtration systems in fluid power technology.'' 2nd edition, Verlag Moderne Industrie, Landsberg/Lech 2000, .

References

{{Reflist

External links

''History brochure with detailed company history''
(PDF) Hydraulic engineering Manufacturing companies established in 1947 Engineering companies of Switzerland Swiss companies established in 1947