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Energy-efficient compressed air from Germany - ALMiG has been building compressors for a century

ALMiG - 100 Jahre Logo
Bilderreihe - 100 Jahre ALMiG

ALMiG in Köngen has been manufacturing compressed air systems for 100 years. Swabian inventiveness has characterized the company from the very beginning. Instead of mass production, ALMiG focuses on compressors that precisely meet the challenges of their time and environment - today more than ever.

Köngen. Difficult circumstances do not frighten anyone at ALMiG. Adolf Ehmann founded the company on October 1, 1923 - at the time of hyperinflation, which caused the currency of the time to collapse and wiped out all his savings in one fell swoop. This did not deter the master mechanic Ehmann from his desire for independence. In the meantime, his workshop in Köngen, Baden-Württemberg, has grown into a global player. The company continues to defy crises with its products: ALMiG specializes in the manufacture of energy-saving and reliable compressors.

Compressors are machines that compress air and make it usable as a source of energy. Modern everyday life does not function without them. Butchers shoot sausage meat into sausage casings with compressed air, brewers fill beer into bottles with compressed air. Compressed air makes dental instruments work, sets ship engines in motion and drives the machines on conveyor belts in industrial plants. Compressed air is used to clamp, grip and suck in workpieces. A defective compressor can paralyze a factory, and the effects are similar to those of a power outage.

Company founder Ehmann had initially focused on a narrower customer base. Motorized transport had become increasingly important, and rubber tires had replaced wooden wheels on vehicles. Ehmann and his employees built air pumps for car tires and served automobile companies in the surrounding area. In addition, there were car lifts, compressors for gas stations or compressed air tools such as paint spray guns. In the post-war period, pneumatics, i.e. the execution of mechanical work and movement with the aid of compressed air, became increasingly important in industry. Compressors had to be able to do more and perform better. In the meantime, ALMiG supplies compressed air systems for all industries worldwide.

Energy saving compressors are a main focus of the company's product range. Although the reduction of energy costs has currently become a central concern for commercial enterprises, the Köngen-based company developed the technology for this decades ago: In 1998, ALMiG introduced the so-called speed control. Speed-controlled compressors can change their speed and thus also their energy consumption depending on the demand for compressed air. "The idle portion, in which the compressor does not produce compressed air but still consumes electricity, is thus drastically reduced," says Ralph Jeschabek, Head of Marketing at ALMiG. In addition, the company offers options for using the heat generated during the production of compressed air: for example, for heating rooms or for heating liquids, such as bottle cleaning at beverage manufacturers. This saves money and resources in equal measure.

Another ALMiG specialty is oil-free compressors. While other compressed air systems require oil for lubrication and cooling, similar to car engines, ALMiG's oil-free systems use water for this purpose. On the one hand, this is more environmentally friendly and prevents oil from getting into the environment. On the other hand, oil-free compressors guarantee safety in sensitive sectors such as the pharmaceutical and food industries and for consumers by eliminating residues of machine oil starting from the compressed air in medicines or chocolate, for example. In 1992, the company launched its first oil-free water-injected screw compressor.

As an agile company, ALMiG can respond flexibly to special requests. "If compressed air systems beyond the standard model are needed, we find new and creative solutions," says the sales manager for Central Europe, Wolfgang Seitz. The design department develops compressors according to on-site requirements. Its systems are particularly in demand in rail transport, where it is necessary to eliminate any hazards. For example, the braking systems of the metro trains in Oslo, Bangkok or Munich are operated with compressors from ALMiG that can withstand high temperature fluctuations and extreme forces. In addition, compressors from Köngen are used, for example, in mining, tunnel boring machines and power plants, in the textile industry, in woodworking and in the skilled trades as well as in large-scale industry - but also for artificial snow production at ski jumps or in swimming pools to minimize the risk of injury for high diving athletes.

About ALMiG

ALMiG Kompressoren GmbH is one of the leading system suppliers in compressed air technology. The company has subsidiaries in Austria, Great Britain, Sweden, Italy, the Czech Republic and employs 300 people, nearly 200 of them at its headquarters in Köngen (Baden-Württemberg). Adolf Ehmann founded the company in 1923, and its original name was short for "Autoluftpumpen" (Alup), which was representative of its initial main product: automatic air pumps for inflating tires. After changes in the ownership structure, the name was changed to ALMiG ("Automatische Luftpumpen - Made in Germany") in 2007. Since 2012, the traditional Swabian company has been part of the multinational Fusheng Group.