Kiepe Electric GmbH (formerly Vossloh Kiepe) is a German manufacturer of electrical traction equipment for

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es other road and rail transport vehicles, as well as air-conditioning and heating systems, and conveyor device components. Founded in 1906, it was known as Kiepe Elektrik GmbH until 2003, when it was renamed Vossloh Kiepe, following its acquisition by Vossloh AG. Vossloh sold the company to

Knorr-Bremse Knorr-Bremse AG is a German manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has operated since 1905. Other products in the company's portfolio include intelligent door systems, control components, air conditioning system ...

in January 2017, and in May 2017 Knorr renamed it Kiepe Electric GmbH.

History

In 1906, Theodor Kiepe created an electric

arc lamp An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc). The carbon arc light, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, ...

repair workshop in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

. Over the next 40 years the company's product range grew to include electrical switches, then electrical drum controllers and

resistor A resistor is a passive two-terminal electronic component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active e ...

s for electric vehicles. By 1951, the product range included electro-pneumatic contactors, and

traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction (engineering), Traction motors are used in electrically powe ...

s; in 1952, the company supplied equipment for an order of 700

es for Argentina. Between the 1950s and 1970s Kiepe Elektrik GmbH expanded, with formation of subsidiaries. In 1959 in Wien, Austria Kiepe Elektrik GmbH took over a small manufacturing company forming ''Kiepe Bahn und Kran Electric Ges.m.b.H.'' and additionally founded Kiepe Italiana di Elettricità s.p.a., later named Kiepe Electric spa, in Milan, Italy. In 1973, Kiepe Electric GmbH was acquired by ACEC of Belgium. In 1983, the company was acquired from ACEC by

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

, then by

AEG The initials AEG are used for or may refer to: Common meanings * AEG (German company) ; AEG) was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte El ...

in 1993. During this time Kiepe had become a provider of electrical traction equipment for

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

vehicles. In 1995, AEG formed

Adtranz Adtranz was a multi-national rail transportation equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the US. The company, legally known as ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation, was created in 1996 as a joint venture between ABB and Daim ...

with

ABB ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

by merging their transportation divisions. As this created a duopoly of electric traction equipment manufacturers in Germany, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

ruled that the Kiepe subsidiary had to be sold; in 1996, Schaltbau AG acquired the company. In the early 2000s the company expanded into the North American and Italian markets. On 14 September 2002, Vossloh AG acquired Kiepe Elektrik GmbH, and in 2003 the company was renamed Vossloh Kiepe GmbH. In mid-2012, UK-based engineering consultancy ''Transys Projects Ltd.'' was acquired. The acquisition was renamed Vossloh Kiepe UK in late 2012. In late 2013, the company, Serbian company Zelvoz and the city of

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

reached an agreement for the establishment of a rail vehicle air conditioning unit factory. In 2014, as part of a restructuring by its parent company, Vossloh Kiepe discontinued its mainline traction equipment activities (''Vossloh Kiepe Main Line Technology GmbH''). In December 2016, Vossloh AG announced that it was selling Vossloh Electrical Systems, of which Vossloh Kiepe was a part, to

, and the sale was completed in late January 2017. In May 2017, new parent Knorr-Bremse announced the renaming of Vossloh Kiepe as Kiepe Electric GmbH, a restoration of its pre-Vossloh name but using English spelling.

Company structure under Vossloh

From 2002 through 2016, the company was part of the Vossloh group, as of 2009 part of the transportation division (Motive Power & Components) along with Vossloh Locomotives (Kiel, formerly MaK) and Vossloh España (formerly Meinfesa). As of 2009, the company had five subsidiaries: *Vossloh Kiepe Main Line Technology GmbH (Germany) *Vossloh Kiepe Ges.m.b.H. (Austria) *APS electronic AG (Switzerland) *Vossloh Kiepe S.r.l. (Italy) *Vossloh Kiepe Corporation (Canada)

Products and services

The company's primary business is the supply and manufacture of electric equipment for rail vehicles, typically

s or LRVs (

vehicles); the company provides electrical traction converters, auxiliary power supplies, air conditioning and heating equipment. Entire trams and LRVs are typically supplied in association with other manufacturers. Also supplied are specialised electric rail vehicles, and equipment for the modernisation of older electrically powered mass transit vehicles. and traction equipment for trolley buses and hybrid electric buses. The company often acts as a component supplier to larger integrated rail vehicle manufactures including Siemens, Alstom and Bombardier. Components for

conveyor belt A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to a belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with a closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor b ...

s are also made.

References

External links

Kiepe Electric website
(English) {{Authority control Vossloh Manufacturing companies based in Düsseldorf Electrical engineering companies of Germany