2003-11-25

Hirschmann Electronics Group

The Hirschmann Electronics Group, headquartered in Neckartenzlingen near Stuttgart, stands for competence and innovative capability in automobile electronics, multimedia communications, automation and network technology, as well as mobile plant electronics. Hirschmann's history goes back to 1924 with a simple yet ingenious invention: founder Richard Hirschmann's "banana" plug. Consisting of just two parts, it displaced the then widespread and vulnerable clip/screw mechanism used in joining the radio receiver and antenna cable. A one-man operation evolved into a lead player in modern communications technology.

Since January 1, 1997, Hirschmann Electronics GmbH & Co. KG has been a part of the technology group Rheinmetall. Hirschmann's capabilities are bundled under the units Car Communication Systems, Multimedia Electronics, Automation & Network Solutions, and Electronic Control Systems. In order to make the organization more flexible, the Multimedia unit was spun off at the start of June 2003, into the autonomous Hirschmann Multimedia Electronics GmbH. Concurrently, Hirschmann acquired its former sister company PAT GmbH, Ettlingen, which since has constituted the Electronic Control Systems unit within the Hirschmann Group.

As a worldwide leader in the manufacture of integrated antenna systems, Hirschmann has to its name such global premiers as the first mobile radio antenna built into the car's rear bumper while also pioneering modular rear windscreen antennas. Completing the range of mobile transmission and reception systems is an extensive array of antennas for applications such as radio reception, mobile telephony, navigation, fleet management, and telematics. Hirschmann also develops and assembles coaxial cables ready for installation in motor vehicles.
Hirschmann Multimedia Electronics GmbH specializes in components and systems for receiving, processing, and distributing TV, radio and data signals in house networks. This includes mutually matching product families for cable connection, terrestrial TV, satellite reception, and interactive services.



As a specialist in automation and network solutions, Hirschmann supplies complete and integrated infrastructures for companywide data communication. The product lineup ranges from network components for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet via fieldbus systems and AS interfaces to actuator and sensor connectors. These are used in many different applications such as factory automation, process engineering, traffic management systems, and in individual machinery controllers.
In the market for mobile plant electronics, PAT GmbH, also belonging to the Hirschmann Group, has achieved a leading position in the world market for load indicators and load moment limiters. This company develops and produces both the hardware and the software for microprocessor-based control and safety systems, and its products are increasingly used outside the classical construction machinery sector in such areas as container logistics.
The Hirschmann Electronics Group has its own production plants in Germany and Hungary as well as subsidiaries in numerous European countries, in the United States, South America, and Asia. In 2002, the some 2,370 employees worldwide generated sales of about EUR 306 million excluding PAT whose about 280-strong workforce achieved sales of EUR 46 million last year.