Tuned concrete sleepers Abetong

A pioneer in coatings Oerlikon Balzers

or other high-precision tools to industrial compressors and agricultural harvesters and tractors.

From the Fluid Power side comes an integrated line of high performance hydraulic hoses, couplings, fittings and self-assembly equipment. All elements of the hose assembly process are designed together, to offer factory quality assemblies in applications ranging across construction, mining and manufacturing to agriculture, transport and beyond.

Recent examples of innovation in both areas are the PowerGrip® GTX rubber synchronous belt and the GSM coupling.

Distributors and partners

At the customer end, another two distinct groups, OE clients and – “an area that is very important to us,” says Mr Baart – the replacement business. “Across the world we have 150,000 distributor partners. If we want to bring our products to end users then we need distributors, and many are also our service partners.

“High-performance, high-quality products are bywords for Gates, and especially where there are problem applications, our customers need these qualities along with durability. Installing our product is one thing; installing it in a correct way and in compliance with safety regulations, is quite another. So training is very, very important.”

Gates has been synonymous with innovation ever since 1917 when John Gates developed the V belt, thereby solving the problem of slippage and alignment. Now the basic belt for power transmission, its success propelled the company to become the largest manufacturer of drive belts, a title it still holds. Thirty years later, Gates developed the first synchronous belt, and it was advances like these that were to be the foundation for the continuous development of Gates belts and hoses.

World leadership

Unsurprisingly the Gates Corporation invests continuously in optimisation, research and development. “To remain a world leader, you have to come up with new ideas all the time, and we have six specialist R&D centres around the world,” says Frank Baart. “We know the importance of getting closer to the customer and end user, and understand exactly what product they need.”

“We will continue to introduce new products and integrated systems and solutions, while increasing the service offering to distributors and end users. For example, it is not only a belt that we are supplying to customers such as Daimler-Benz, but also the complete accessory system. And the service we build around our products is a feature that we will be developing more and more in the future.”

Currently, Gates has 21 facilities in Europe – where it employs 3000 people in different production, sales and distribution centres (250 at the two units in Erembodegem and in the Ghent distribution centre) – and 14,000 across the world at more than 100 locations in over 30 countries: manufacturing, distribution centres, sales and service offices. Tomorrow Africa

“As a global company we always look on a global level. Our last major investment was fluid power plants in China where we now have six production facilities. And China is where most of the world’s manufacturing is going or developing. The next big thing will probably be Africa. At the moment, we are primarily in Northern Africa and South Africa and we shall continue to move North to South and South to the North until we have it all covered.”

Gates lays claim to ‘Powering Progress’ in its niche sector, and Frank Baart explains why: “People trust our products, their quality, performance, safety – very important on the fluid power side – and longevity. So when it comes to motion quality and high performance we claim that we are the global partner of choice. We make things move.” n