HELLA

Without Hella, vehicle safety would be on the dark side. And this is in the truest sense – because Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., with its headquarters in Lippstadt, Germany, develops and manufactures lighting technology and electronic products for the global automotive industry and has one of the largest trading organizations for automotive parts and accessories in Europe. From the technical and economic point of view, the enterprise is a true shining light in the automotive world.

With a turnover of EUR 4.8 billion, the family company which, still today, is independent, ranks amongst the world's top 50 automotive suppliers, and is one of Germany's one hundred largest industrial enterprises. Since 1990, the turnover annually increased by seven per cent on average. 23 per cent of the turnover is generated in Asia, mainly in China, and 19 per cent in North and South America. Worldwide, Hella employs approximately 27,000 people at around 70 locations, in more than 30 countries – 4,800 of which in the field of research and development.

In Germany, the company has slightly fewer than 10,600 employees, with approximately 1,400 of them working in the Hella factory 4 in the Westphalian city of Hamm. There, Hella manufactures small batch series of heating controllers, and access systems for vehicles, in particular body and control electronics. In the center are steering control devices for EPS systems; in other words, electrically powered servo steering.

As the central function and safety units of a motor car, the steering system and its components receive, by nature, increased attention when it comes to product quality. A responsibility which the automobile manufacturers uncompromisingly also pass on to their suppliers. Hella faces these requirements with the maximum possible quality assurance and state-of-the-art manufacturing technology.

The non-contacting surface-cleaning systems in the production for steering control devices are a special example. They are installed at the transition point between the assembly hall and clean room, in which the sensitive electronics is implemented into the module racks. Here, every dust particle that is introduced from outside represents a quality risk – an introduction into the system must be prevented correspondingly. The solution: dry and, above all, absolutely oil-free compressed air – because humidity and oil application are more dangerous for the sensitive high-performance electronics than any dust particle.

The non-contacting cleaning of the module racks is implemented via special surface-cleaning devices in the load locks of the clean rooms. They have numerous rotary jets which, through their rotary motion, generate a pulsating highly-turbulent air flow with a high cleaning effect. Arranged above and below the components which pass through on a conveyor belt, they reliably blow off every single mote under high pressure. An absolutely reliable cleaning method, provided that the compressed-air quality is suitable.

In 2010, Hello turned towards a completely new form of compressed-air processing for this application purpose, namely the catalytic method. The catalysis was capable of fully eliminating the residual insecurity that prevailed until now regarding the actual oil content of the compressed air.