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100 YEARS OF ROTA YOKOGAWA100 YEARS OF TECHNICAL MEASUREMENT

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Responsibility, courage and

innovative spiritA century of fl ow measuring in industrial processes - by Andreas Dobratz, Director, Rota Yokogawa

A century of Rota Yokogawa – not exactly

an everydayeveryday anniversary and truly a reason

to celebrate. We look back at the past and

forward to the future based on the expertise

and experience gained over the last 100

years. As a result, the solid foundations

that underpin our company will allow it to

develop successfully.

In its eventful and successful history, ‘Rota’ has

transformed from a regional family business to

a thriving global company today, with Yokogawa

as its Japanese parent company. There are many

reasons why a company does well. However,

one strategy has proved to be a constant and

cornerstone of our success: our focus on fl ow

technology, even though other business sectors

were effectively developed at the same time. Our

history teaches us to continue to concentrate on

fl ow measuring technology and to be innovative

in this area.

Küppers developed the rotating-fl oat fl owmeter

in 1908. Deutsche Rota-Werke founder, Felix

Meyer, took over the patent, heralding our

entry into modern fl ow measuring technology.

In many areas of industry, such as for example

chemicals, it was the fi rst time that fl ows could

be determined precisely. Over time, the rotameter

became a synonym for fl oat-fl ow measuring.

This strong brand has continued to the

present day. Over this long period of time, the

company gained and passed on a vast amount

of expertise in fl ow measuring, adding many

new innovations along the way. Today, Rota

Yokogawa is one of the premier suppliers of fl ow

measuring technology worldwide. Yokogawa

currently offers six fl ow measuring principles:

the fl oat principle, differential pressure principle,

magnetic-inductive, eddy current, Coriolis and

ultrasonic. With the exception of ultrasonic

fl ow measuring instruments, all products are

manufactured at the Wehr factory.

Rota Yokogawa stands for high quality, reliability

and professional support. Our staff relishes the

challenge of maintaining and developing these

high standards each and every day. Thanks to

our customers, our efforts have been rewarded

by above-average growth over the last few

years. Although our company is 100 years old,

we are still young at heart. Our customers’ ever-

changing requirements have helped us remain

that way. Even 40 years ago, only a few processes

were automated in the way they are today. The

computer age was a watershed. In the 1970s

and 1980s, engineers developed the fi rst process

control systems. Process measuring technology

was also revolutionised by microprocessors. Rota

did not ignore this trend and developed eddy-

current and ultrasonic instruments.

Automation is developing at a rapid pace even

today. Among others, the infl uences are better

plant safety and safety at work, eco-friendly

processes or improving energy effi ciency

and quality. Increasing process effi ciency for

example by quickly changing chemical recipes

also plays a role.

To date, Rota Yokogawa has met these

challenges successfully. Numerous new

developments have been launched over the

last decade. Top of the list is our Coriolis fl ow

measuring instrument ROTAMASS. Its box-in-

box design and specifi c method of measuring

temperatures make it one of the best Coriolis

Andreas Dobratz

CONTENT

Responsibility, courage and innovative spirit – by Andreas Dobratz 2

Flow history, fl ow stories 4

Felix Meyer: a Jewish inventor, manufacturer, patriot and philanthropist 7

1909 – 1947 From garage business to market leader 10

1948 – 1995 The birth of new Rota 13

1995 – 2009 Rota Yokogawa as a global player 162

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measuring instruments on the global market.

For example, one of our customers recently

told colleagues in the NAMUR working group

that only Rota Yokogawa’s ROTAMASS could be

recommended for diffi cult applications.

At present, Coriolis measuring instruments have

the largest growth rate. One of the reasons for

their success is that mass is measured directly.

Many chemical processes control the reaction

based on the masses in the media and not the

volume which most other methods measure.

Nowadays, Coriolis measuring instruments are

multi-variable, high-tech measuring instruments

that can determine the volume, the density and

the temperature in addition to the mass.

Our current-eddy meter digitalYewfl o, our

magnetic-inductive fl owmeter ADMAG or

our differential pressure meter EJX910A

have become milestones in modern process

measurement technology. Compared to our

competitors’ products, they offer our customers

many benefi ts in terms of applications. Rumour

has it that the end of the rotameter is dawning,

in other words the end of the very measurement

method that allowed reliable fl ow measurement

for the fi rst time in many areas. However, this is

not the case.

The strength of the measuring principle is

that it requires no power to operate. For

safety reasons, the rotameter is often used for

redundancy purposes. The very low pressure

losses which remain virtually constant enable

usage in processes with low process pressures,

such as those that exist in kilns. Another typical

application is pump monitoring. Many other

measuring methods are incapable of doing this,

or are signifi cantly more expensive.

The measurement method may have remained

the same, but measuring instruments continue

to be developed. One of the latest achievements

is the blockage detection of the fl oat that again

has been developed and was patented by Rota.

This self-monitoring that was presented in

2000 for the fi rst time, has helped boost our

customers’ plant safety.

We look back on business relationships that have

grown over many years. They are an expression

of customer satisfaction and something we

endeavour to comply with each and every day.

We are proud of this achievement. It encourages

us not to rest on our laurels, but to continue to

develop what we have accomplished.

The human face of Rota Yokogawa, our

workforce, has been and still is the reason for our

success. Their creativity, sense of responsibility,

relentless energy even during diffi cult times and

last but not least their enormous loyalty are vital

factors. Staff training, combined with continuous

improvement of our processes, will therefore

be one of the main pillars in developing our

company.

Cutting-edge technology and committed staff are

also the basis of the Yokogawa company logo.

The top half of the diamond shape is dominated

by a right angle and straight edges as symbols

for Yokogawa’s cutting-edge technologies.

The smooth, curved lines of the lower half

represent the human face of the company, its

friendly, committed personnel. Combining both

facets is our way of helping to make the global

community prosper.

Many people have devoted time and effort to

the company over the years. The centenary

proves that their endeavours were successful.

I would like to extend my thanks to everybody

who has contributed to Rota Yokogawa growing

and thriving.

Rota Yokogawa’s innovative sprit and healthy sales

mean that our production facilities can no longer

keep up with demand. Thanks to the support by

our parent company, today we are opening our

new production facilities which are now 40 percent

bigger. The hall is one of the most advanced and

most innovative of its type, with fl exibility being

the trump card. Without the complex process of

laying new supply pipes, plants can be redesigned

in a short space of time so we can react quickly

to changing requirements. The new crane system

for example can be adapted to the latest needs

in the shortest possible time. The redevelopment

also includes further automation of production.

The company is investing in production machinery,

robots and automatic testing systems. The increase

in effi ciency due to the bigger production facilities

will safeguard our position in fl ow measuring

technology.

Responsibility, courage and an innovative spirit

have always been and will continue to be what

sets our company apart. Our objective is to stay

a reliable partner for our customers all over the

world.

Developing smart solutions – an Interview 19

Rotameter: 100 years of excellence 20

Best vortex-street location: digitalYewfl o 21

ROTAMASS: for direct measurement of mass fl ow 22

ADMAG: Measuring with Induction 23

Edition notice 243

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Flow history, fl ow stories

Heraclitus is reported to have said ‘Everything fl ows!’ virtually confi rming the widely held view that ancient Greece was the cradle of

Western culture and science. The ancient Greeks’ achievements are not to be looked down on. Their philosophy scaled unique heights.

However, they understood little of fl ows and particularly through-fl ows. The quote mentioned at the beginning only referred to purely

philosophical contexts. When looking at natural sciences in the ancient world, it is an irrefutable fact that even some of today’s classicists

are at a more advanced stage.

Time varied in ancient times

If we look at fl ow metering, although the ancient

Greeks did have water pipes, in some cases

even pressurized water pipes, they carried

out no further measuring. At best, only water

levels were used, or the simplest solution was

to measure capacity. Measuring gases was

neither possible nor conceivable for one simple

reason: in ancient times people had no clear

concept of the physical nature of gases. Vitruv

reports that Ctesibius of Alexandria started

to experiment with air and water pressure in

around 140 BC and one of the objects he built

was a water clock. The ancient researcher at

least approached the measurement of ‘time per

water’, but cultural hurdles had to be overcome.

Because throughout the year the day remained

constant, divided into twelve hours between

sunrise and sunset. The consequence was that

the clocks had to go faster in winter because of

the shorter days, but more slowly during summer

time. Ctesibius addressed these diffi culties and

invented several devices that could provide a

‘variable hour length’.

So we encounter a link that hardly gets a mention

in the area of fl ow measurements, but is still

important nevertheless: fl ow measurements do

not function without time measurements. Clocks

that function with a relative degree of precision

had to be invented fi rst, and then actual fl ow

volumes could be determined. On the other

hand: wherever water was scarce, volumes had

to be calculated and distributed all the time.

However, for a long time the success aimed at

was not achieved.

Frontinus’ calculations

The ancient Romans built a pipeline system

for supplying their city with water that brought

hundreds of thousands of cubic meters to Rome

daily. These large water pipelines were 404 km

long, of which 352 km were laid underground,

the rest on aqueducts. A vast feat and marvel

of engineering for which the state of Rome had

to raise huge sums of money to create and

maintain. Consequently, it is no surprise that the

benefi ciaries of the water supply were asked

to pay up. In 97 AD, Sextus Julius Frontinus

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was appointed water commissioner (Curator

aquarum), in charge of water management in

ancient Rome. He had to combat an enormous

amount of illegal taps and attempts to draw off

excessive amounts of this valuable commodity.

He described (sometimes in detail) many tricks

employed to feed more than the permitted

volume into the approximately 18,000 domestic

lead water pipes. And he also calculated how

much water arrived in Rome and how much

vanished without having been paid for.

From today’s point of view, Frontinus’

calculations appear somewhat clumsy. On this

subject, engineer Theodor Beck wrote in 1899:

‘What was lacking to measure the supplied

and discharged water volumes to a fairly

reliable degree was the necessary knowledge

of hydraulic laws. Only very vague concepts

existed on the infl uence of the pressure level on

the discharge velocity and of the latter on the

water volume. The magnitude of the water infl ow

and the consumption were measured solely in

accordance with the water cross-sections in the

relevant ducts and pipes; the velocity at which

the water fl owed is not mentioned in any of

Frontinus’ work (...)’

Once again measuring time is mentioned

because velocity is distance divided by time.

The enthusiastic ancient Roman simply had

no concept on the subject since no reasonably

reliable and simple method existed to measure

intervals in a reproducible manner. The idea to

use time as an element for a calculation did not

even have a basis in culture. Frontinus stood no

real chance.

Beck continues: ‘Under these circumstances,

the offi ce of a Curator aquarum must have been

a particularly diffi cult one. Frontinus’ attempts

to identify the reasons why his calculations

do not add up, which of course he puts down

to thieving citizens, as well as pipe leaks. (...)

Since he measures the water volume solely

according to the water cross-sections (...) we

can lay a huge part of the blame on Frontinus’

faulty calculation methods and the era, without

stepping on the feet of ancient Romans as

regards their cleverness in terms of stealing or

fraudulent conduct’.

If only Frontinus had had a few ADMAG RXF

fl owmeters, all of ancient Rome’s water

management would have changed. The Italian

practice, still prevalent today, of treating water

(and electricity) basically as a commonly owned,

free commodity would also have changed.

Capacity measures as an interim solution

Despite the faulty calculation method, a cultural

and technical standard in terms of public water

supply that is of a comparable level as that

in ancient Rome in the fi rst century, was not

achieved again for some time to come. Since

then, whenever water measurements were

concerned, people tried to estimate the levels

of natural waterways using methods that were

more or less sophisticated. In ancient Persia,

a type of measuring instrument was used that

consisted of a fl at copper bowl, a perforated cup

and a particular stone with a measuring scale. It

is not quite clear how these utensils were used.

However, it is certain that the results produced

were not clear or satisfactory to everybody

concerned by a long chalk. Arguments among

people living on the waterways about water

usage arose all the time. One of the things the

Persian polymath and mathematician Sheikh

Bahaee (1532 to¬ 1610) was famous for was

drafting a water distribution plan for a particular

area. However, nothing has been handed down

on values measured. It appears that for about

1300 years after Frontinus’ failed calculations,

the art of measuring fl ows stagnated. One of

the reasons was that due to the collapse of

the Roman Empire, technical and scientifi c

traditions came to a halt and old hydraulic

structures became dilapidated.

New approaches to measuring fl ows

It was not until the Renaissance that the Western

world started to show a scientifi c interest

in determining volumes again. Leonardo da

Vinci did research on the principles of water

movement, the velocity distribution of open

channels, he drew hydraulic power machinery

and water transportation screws.

Edmé Mariotte (1620 - 1684) was the Prior of the

Martin-sous-Beaune cloister and measuring fl ows

from springs was one of the tasks he devoted

himself to. The 18th century saw several important

inventions: mathematician Johann Andreas von

Segner (1704 - 1777) was a teacher in Göttingen.

He invented the ‘Segner water wheel’ which today is

regarded as the predecessor of turbine technology.

In Hamburg, hydraulic engineer Reinhard Woltmann

invented a screw thread counter for determining

the fl ow velocity of rivers. Daniel Bernoulli (1700 -

1782) and Giovanni Battista Venturi (1746 - 1822)

investigated fl uid mechanics and developed the

fundamentals. Since that period, liquid fl ow can

be measured using what is known as the Venturi

fl ume.

Of course this progress was due to the increased

demand for reliable volume determination. Water

was also increasingly used to produce energy

Leonardo da Vinci: water-machines

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and a huge variety of mills and machinery

utilised water power. All these inventions were

improved and modifi ed over time. The age of

measurement technology was approaching.

Float - the time had come

And approximately another century later, Karl

Küppers (1874 - 1933) invented the rotameter.

But wait a minute: it is not that simple. Because

of course others had done some groundwork.

A rotameter manual published by Rotawerke

in 1966 states: ‘The basic principle of fl oat

fl owmeters (...) was described fi rst in 1868 in

the American patent specifi cation by Edmund

A. Chameroy. In 1873, 1874 and 1875 George

F. Deacon was granted British patents for

similar instruments for measuring water. (...)

German Patent no. 25809 was granted in 1883

to Michael Flürscheim, Eisenwerk Gaggenau. It

describes a fl owmeter in which a device that

for the fi rst time was called a ‘fl oat’ adjusts

itself in a cylindrical measurement tube. It is

connected to a wedge-shaped chimney, to a

height corresponding to the cross-section of

the chimney. There is no indication that fl oat

fl owmeters were manufactured in accordance

with one of these publications’.

So what was innovative about Küppers’

measuring instrument? Even the fi rst few

lines of the patent specifi cation fi led in 1908

provide the explanation: ‘the subject matter of

the invention is a gas meter in which a fl oat

inside a cylinder adjusts itself to a specifi c

height position corresponding to the gas volume

fl owing through it. The invention is that ducts or

slots are provided in the fl oat in such a way that

the fl oat also experiences a rotating movement’.

The invention therefore consists of the rotation

of the fl oat.

Several aspects jump out when reading the

patent specifi cation. For example, it mentions

the term ‘gas meter’. Küppers evidently did not

yet consider measuring liquids. Another aspect

that stands out is that a cylindrical glass is

talked about. In the conventional design of the

rotameter the measurement tube must not be

cylindrical, otherwise the annular gap between

the glass wall and fl oat would not change

with varying height - the rotameter would not

function.

Later, the specifi cation does indeed refer to

the ‘conical tube’. From today’s standpoint, the

term ‘swimmer’ for the fl oat is surprising. The

fl oat is not meant to fl oat at all. Rotameters

only function when the fl oat is heavier than the

medium to be measured and drops in the case

of zero fl ow. It is possible that both the terms

‘cylindrical measurement tube’ and ‘fl oat’ were

inspired by the older patents mentioned. But the

term persisted and until the 1950s the offi cial

term was still ‘swimmers’.

Küppers was a dynamic academic and inventor.

He showed his acquaintance Felix Meyer an

innovative gas burner in which a gas mixture

was combusted. To determine the mixture used

in each case, he utilised fl oat fl owmeters that he

had built himself. Meyer is reported to have said:

‘Your burner is quite nice, but the interesting

thing is what is standing next to it!’ The

potential usefulness and market opportunities

of the measuring instrument were immediately

obvious to Felix Meyer.

Küppers gladly sold the patent applied for in

1908, marking the dawn of success for the

rotameter, technical fl ow measurements and

the positive change in Rotawerke’s fortunes. But

who was Felix Meyer?

The Woltmann Wing was the fi rst impeller fl owmeter

From Karl Küppers’ patent specifi cation:

the fi rst fl oat fl owmeters

with a rotating fl oat

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Felix Meyer: a Jewish

inventor, manufacturer,

patriot and philanthropist

Deutsche Rotawerke would never have been founded or become what it did without such a forceful personality as Felix Meyer. Who was this man from Aachen?

The Meyers originated from Westphalia in

Germany. The brothers Elias and Moses (later

Moritz) Meyer moved to Aachen where they

founded a successful textile factory.

Eduard, Moritz Meyer’s son, benefi ted from

traditional training and joined his father’s

combed-yarn factory. He married in 1874 and

his daughter was born in the same year. She

was followed in 1875 by Felix as the second

of six children. The family lived in a 16-room

house, with servants, a large garden and stables

for fi ve horses. Religion did not play any major

role in the Jewish Meyer family, but they were

not prepared to convert to Christianity.

At 65, Felix Meyer looked back at his youth and

described it as a very happy one. In the same

letter, he also gave an account of the education

methods at that time, which were ‘not the same

as today. Corporal punishment was believed to be

indispensable, and it was put to plenty of use (...)’. In

her book on Meyer, Amelis von Mettenheim reports:

‘after their father’s Sunday ride out, the two brothers

usually received a few lashes with the riding crop on

their bare backsides, whether deserved or not, for all

their mischief during the week.’

Felix Meyer did not continue the tradition, tending

to abhor violence. As soon as his daughters were

of a marriageable age, he urged them to look

for Jewish husbands. In his view, this was the

only guarantee that they would not be subject to

domestic violence. Later, once both daughters

were married to Christian husbands, Felix Meyer

had to apologise for his error of judgement.

Felix Meyer must have been quite imaginative

and inventive even during childhood and

adolescence, because stories abound about

the practical jokes he played, usually with his

brother Georg. However, he was not an ambitious

pupil. This strong-willed boy hated the discipline

imposed by the school. The school was over for

Felix after he fi nished the 11th grade. He then did

a dyer’s, spinner’s and weaver’s apprenticeship.

Looking back, he called this period in his life ‘an

awkward age and the era of the girls’ school’

– but was discreet and refrained from going into

any more detail. However, he remarked that this

time never really came to an end. This dovetails

with the story that as a young man he had a

trained St. Bernard’s dog that allowed him to

strike up a conversation with young ladies he did

not know. He promised his later wife he would

always be faithful, but reserved the right to

‘bend the rules a little’. There are no indications

of how open his marriage was.

After the apprenticeship in Aachen, a wonderful

period of freedom started for Felix Meyer. He

worked as an intern in different companies,

fi rst in Germany, then in England. When he was

about 22, he joined his father’s business which

was fl agging. Looking back, Meyer writes that

although the business had assets worth 2.5

millions when Felix’ grandfather died in 1888

‘...the money disappeared rapidly since nobody

knew how to earn it, but only how to spend it’.

Meyer attempted to make the factory profi table

by being innovative. He invented the twin

loom and sold the patent, but the money was

insuffi cient to put the factory back on its feet

again. In 1905 he fi nally persuaded his father

to sell the weaving mill. Felix Meyer took on the

remaining debts.

By that time, he had already got to know

Marguerite Darmstaedter from Belgium. They

married in 1906 and occupied a modest fl at

in Kurbrunnenstrasse in Aachen, the important

factor being a workshop, a shed next to the

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residential house along the railway line Köln-

Lüttich where Felix Meyer worked tirelessly on

his inventions.

The inventor

What sorts of Inventions were they? There was

such a huge, almost unquantifi able assortment,

ranging from all types of mechanics, to

chemistry, physics and medicine. The German

Patent and Trademark Offi ce listed 140 patents

attributed to Felix Meyer. Amelis von Mettenheim

mentions 250 patents. This is quite possible

since Meyer also fi led inventions in the name

of his business.

In 1897, the inventions started with an

innovative mechanical loom. In 1900, a method

was patented for manufacturing multi-coloured

yarns or fabrics. During the fi rst years of the

century, Meyer evidently worked a lot on

cellulose and how to use it. In 1906 he invented

a cigar with a cellulose covering at the tip and in

1908 a method for manufacturing a dough-like

mouldable mass, etc.

There were a number of patents after 1915 that

relate to artifi cial limbs developed by him, in

particular special joint constructions.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Felix Meyer kept himself

busy by enhancing the manufacture of glass

tubes, ampoules, etc. and also invented devices

for fi lling these containers. Occasionally more

exotic objects popped up where the inventor

dealt for example with issues concerning the

manufacture of gelatine. In 1924 alone, the

German Patent and Trademark Offi ce registered

18 patents by Felix Meyer. However, fi ve of

these were in English or French that only served

to safeguard earlier inventions abroad.

In 1906, the newly weds could evidently make

a living from the success of the inventions.

This remained the case after the founding of

Rotawerke in 1909, since Felix Meyer did not

draw any salary, but just put money aside for his

pension. His family had grown in the meantime:

1907 and 1908 saw the birth of his daughters

Kläre and Margot.

Looking at the plethora of inventions and

patents you wonder what area Felix Meyer was

not a specialist in. He had an incredibly creative

engineering mindset and evidently could not

look at anything without immediately thinking

how he could improve it. He kept up this passion

for inventions well into old age. Even with his

grandchildren, Meyer looked for ideas for new

inventions – whether they were feasible or not.

1914: The patriotic citizen

War broke out this year. Nowadays, such an

event would be a harbinger of impending doom

to us, but at the time it was warmly welcomed

by a large section of the population. Gripped

by patriotic frenzy, the soldiers went to war -

apparently with a certainty that they would be

back home in a few weeks.

Felix Meyer was a fervent supporter of the

‘German Cause’ as well. He even went as far as

to sack his French nanny and prohibit the use

of spoken French in his house. Much later he

is reported to have answered a Gestapo offi cial

who was doubtful of his Jewish blood: ‘Do you

want to see my family tree? And I can prove

that our family has been German for longer

than yours!’ However, at that time his attitude to

Germany had already cooled markedly.

Many years were to pass before this exchange

of words. Initially Rotawerke manufactured

fl owmeters and many other products. Felix

Meyer invented and fi led patents with some

of the inventions being manufactured right at

Rotawerke.

National Socialism and exile

After the First World War, Felix Meyer lived for

his inventions, his family and his business. The

debts that had been left over from his father’s

factory had gradually been paid off. He became

wealthy and supported young artists. He

supported a craftsman’s daughter fi nancially so

she could study. Later on in Israel she started

‘The Felix Meyer Memorial Award’ foundation

to give young people a start in life. Rotawerke

had branches in Belgium and France and close

business ties to England.

The rise of the Nazis was initially regarded by

Meyer as a problem that did not concern him

personally. However, soon repression became

Even everyday devices were not outside Felix Meyer’s scope – for example he invented a

razor device in 1911. Probably in connection with rotameter production, his interest turned

to mechanics and metallurgy:

1911: Method for preventing the formation of metal oxides on the surface of bare iron parts

1911: Alarm device for indicating a specifi c volume

1912: Method of agglomerating fl ue dust, dust ore etc by blowing a mixture of these substances

with a fuel

1912: Method for determining the specifi c weight of fl owing gases

1913: Method for replicating metal engravings

9

part and parcel of everyday life. In 1938

Rotawerke was ‘arianised’: Meyer had to retire

from his business, but most of it went to his

stepson Johannes Hennig, with further shares

to staff from the Delhey family whom he trusted.

Life became increasingly unbearable for German

Jews with arrests, interrogations, repression

that was increasing day by day, confi scation

of passports and driving licences. He was

arrested by the Gestapo after Kristallnacht on

9 November 1938, but set free again the next

day. He had a capsule with poison on him. In

a letter addressed to his daughters he asked

them to understand should he and his wife

end their lives. But with the support of offi cials

he knew, Meyer succeeded in getting an exit

permit to Belgium for himself and his wife. On

2 February 1939, the Meyers left Germany for

good. On 10 May, when the German invasion of

the Netherlands and Belgium started, the couple

attempted unsuccessfully to escape to France.

They were now stranded as German Jews in

Brussels, in a country occupied by Germans.

‘Meyer’s lists’

Meyer’s time in Brussels from 1940 to 1944,

until Belgium was liberated by the Allied Forces,

was defi ned by almost improbable acts of

great bravery on behalf of persecuted Jews. It

all started with a support committee for those

imprisoned in Gurs in the south of France. Using

his ties to Belgian industrialists, Meyer was

able to get hold of drugs, but then the Gestapo

started interning Jews in the concentration

camp Breendonck. Conditions there were harsh

and reports of its severity were starting to fi lter

through to the outside world. Meyer plucked

up courage and met the head of Gestapo’s

Jewish department to complain. He wanted to

prove that innocent people are being held in

Breendonck. And he was successful, the Nazis

accepted the legal point of view. On the basis of

the arguments supplied by Meyer, 120 Belgian

and foreign Jews were released one by one.

This marked the advent of his battle for persecuted

Jews in Belgium and he was successful in many

cases. It became his key preoccupation which

he took on at the age of 65. Felix Meyer was no

longer totally physically fi t. He had been a heavy

smoker since his youth, with artery disease in his

legs and cardiac insuffi ciency making themselves

felt. Nevertheless he unfl inchingly continued his

activities, negotiating with the Gestapo and the

military authorities. Now and then he succeeded

in improving the unbearable conditions, or getting

people with certain occupations or individuals

exempted from deportation or released again, if

they had been arrested. Meyer skilfully exploited

the obvious underlying dissension between the

military administration and the Gestapo. Not

everybody in the military government was an

outright Nazi. There also were people who were

critical of the regime in Germany. These people

included Dr. Wilhelm Freiherr von Hahn and Dr.

Martin Drath whom he trusted implicitly. At the

recommendation of the German political party the

SPD, Drath was appointed judge at the German

Constitutional Court after the war.

The tricks Meyer used were always strictly

legal. For example he managed to exempt a

number of Jews from wearing the Star of David

– and those who had been of service to their

country were given privileges. Meyer supplied

a long list. The importance of this at fi rst

seemingly symbolic success became evident

later as even the Gestapo accepted these

cases and those concerned and their families

were not deported.

In fi ghting for the lives of Jews, Meyer proved

to be creative too: he established Jewish

retirement homes and hospitals where again

hundreds of Jews survived the occupation.

These Jews were called ‘Meyer Jews’ in

Brussels.

After the war, Felix Meyer and his wife

remained in Belgium. He did not want to return

to Germany; his daughters and their families

lived in Switzerland and in Ireland. His health

problems started to increase. The fi ght for the

reappropriation of Rotawerke was also a strain

for Meyer. Despite the fact that the fi ght was

successful in the end, he could not benefi t

from the success himself.

After returning from Ireland, his son-in-

law John Hennig was set to take over the

management of the company later on. On 14

April 1950, Meyer died during a vigil by his

wife’s bedside. Numerous letters of gratitude

from Jews that had been saved are kept in the

Jerusalem Yad Vashem memorial site.

10

1909 - 1947

From garage business

to market leader

Felix Meyer founded Rotawerke in 1909 with Rudolf Inhoffen to launch Küppers’ fl owmeter on the market. They were entering an era of change. Everybody seemed to be researching and inventing:

In 1909, Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented the fi rst

usable plastic, Bakelite. Young people wanted to

live a free-and-easy life outdoors, strolling through

woods with guitars and rucksacks on their backs.

Richard Schirrmann, a teacher from the German

Sauerland region, came up with the idea of the

youth hostel during a hike to Aachen. Ferdinand

Graf von Zeppelin announced the launch of a

regular airship link between Friedrichshafen and

Strasbourg. The fi rst regular radio broadcasts

were aired in the US. And the last uncharted

areas on the world map disappeared: Robert E.

Peary reached the North Pole.

Change was stirring in a new world

Prussia was also affected by changes in

society: women had access to all colleges and

universities - two young ladies immediately

enrolled at the Aachen Polytechnic. Things

also changed in art. Expressionism was a

new and still highly controversial movement.

The Viennese architect Adolf Loos published

his polemic pamphlet ‘Ornament and Crime’

[Ornament und Verbrechen] in which he

attempted to expose every ornamental aspect

as primitive and criminal. Above all large cities

grew at a rapid pace. The industrial revolution

grew at break-neck speed and the fi rst years

of the century saw a boom in transportation -

particularly in the railway network.

Rota - the new technology is about rotation

In this time of revolutions and ongoing

industrialisation the prospects for success of

the gas meter looked good. But why did the

founders call their factory Rota? We are left

to speculate. Possibly their goal was not only

for the product name ‘Rotameter’ but also the

name of the site to refl ect the rotation of the

fl oat, for publicity reasons.

When Inhoffen left Rotawerke in 1910, Meyer

renamed it ‘Deutsche Rotawerke’. This showed

that his innovative spirit was not limited to things

technical: he marketed his rotameter thoroughly

too. For example, he had the measuring

instruments tested by the Karlsruher Lehr- und

Versuchsanstalt [Karlsruhe teaching and testing

institute]. The institute’s offi cial reports started

a discussion on these instruments and made

them widely known among experts in a short

period of time.

What did Rotawerke look like in the beginning?

It was probably a rather small manufacturing

business that had its home in Felix Meyer’s

own personal workshop in Kurbrunnenstrasse

in Aachen. How many people worked there is

not known. However, we do know that a few

months after the business was founded in

1909, Emmy Delhey was employed there as a

14-year-old commercial apprentice. She played

an important role in the history of Rota - as

people still like to call the company even today.

Other members of the workforce from the early

years are also known: Rudolf Lennartz who was

likewise recruited in 1909 retired in 1969 as

Head of Rotameter Assembly. Johann Erbrich

who joined Rota in 1910, was Manager of the

Mechanical Department and retired in 1960.

With order books fi lling up, the size of the

workshop was no longer suffi cient. In early 1914,

Felix Meyer purchased a larger building complex

An anaesthetic machine, developed by Maximilian

Neu, was one of the fi rst applications for rotameters

11

in Vereinsstrasse for producing the rotameter

and other products. This building gave them

enough space to develop the company which

also carried on during the First World War.

A start-up company in many areas of industry

The fl owmeter was not Rotawerke’s only product

- they also tried to make Meyer’s inventions

commercially viable. Even before 1914, devices for

atomising pesticides were produced. During the

First World War Rotawerke made use of Meyer’s

invention to harden Electron, a magnesium

compound, by hammering. As a result, Germany

was not dependent on brass from abroad. So

Rotawerke manufactured striker tops for guns

in their Berlin branch. In 1915, Meyer started to

show an interest in functioning arm prostheses.

On the basis of several inventions, prostheses

were fi nally produced and patients were taught

how to use them. Another war invention:

when high-speed steel was getting scarce, he

converted looms so they could saw steel rods up

to 100 mm thick. This enabled huge savings in

terms of material when producing steel disks for

example for grenade bottoms.

Rotameter and drug ampoules

1919 saw two remarkable changes: the factory

was renamed from ‘Deutsche Rotawerke’ to

‘ROTA Apparatebau Felix Meyer GmbH’. Perhaps

the new name also indicates that the then 44-

year-old Felix Meyer had changed his mind.

Prior to the First World War he had inserted

the word ‘Deutsch’ [German] into the company

name. The change in name was accompanied

by a change of ownership: his daughters now

each held half of the shares.

The fact that even back in the 1920s, the

English company ‘Trost Brothers’ had had a

license to manufacture rotameters, proves

that the business was fl ourishing and that the

demand for these measuring instruments was

increasing all the time. In parallel with the

production of rotameters, Rotawerke started to

set up an assembly process for manufacturing

tablet bottles and test tubes. What they had in

common with the rotameters was the glass

tubes which were needed for both product

groups.

Reliable reports from the company during the

depression and hyper infl ation in 1922/1923

are hard to come by. It can only be said that

Rota also managed to cross these choppy seas

without too much adverse effect. In 1922 Josef

Delhey, a brother of Emmy Delhey, joined the

company. At fi rst he was mostly in charge of the

company fi nances.

Rota under the swastika

Ten years later, the Nazis seized power. Dr.

Johannes Hennig (later: John Hennig), married

to Felix Meyer’s daughter Kläre, joined the

company. Johannes Hennig was a very serious

man. He grew up in a protestant rectory and had

strong religious beliefs and an enormous interest

in the arts. At this time he also converted to

Roman Catholicism. Working for Rota was just

a temporary solution for him because he would

have preferred an academic career. However,

because of his Jewish wife, he could not expect

to obtain a suitable post in a university faculty

for religious studies.

A very diffi cult time now started for Rota, above

all for the Jewish owners. In 1937, Felix Meyer

reorganised the company once more to become

a limited partnership. Emmy Delhey now

received 19.7% of the shares.

In his memoirs, Ulrich Delhey wrote about the

new owner:

Unfortunately, little is known about Emmy Berief,

née Delhey, one of fi ve children of Stephan

Delhey, born in Aachen on 24 August 1895.

She joined Rota, aged 14, on 30 July 1909. She

completed her training as an industrial clerk and

became Felix Meyer’s right hand. Nowadays she

would be called the heart and soul, or majordomo

of the company. In 1933, she was given power

of attorney. She had started machine production

in Aachen and was in charge of selling the

machines that had been produced there. In

1936 she took on Josef Berief who she later

married. Through her prudent actions during the

Third Reich, she helped ensure Rota did not fall

into other hands, was expropriated or broken

up. They did not have any children and were not

happy. Shortly before her death on 30 August

1952 in Aachen, she relinquished her company

shares to her nieces and nephews.

Due to compulsory measures by the Nazis,

the Meyer family was forced to transfer all of

its ownership into ‘Arian’ hands in 1938. Kläre

signed over her share to Johannes Hennig and

Josef Delhey acquired 15 percent. A short time

later, Felix Meyer was forced even to relinquish

his general partnership. At fi rst the company was

still permitted to pay him 20% of the revenue

from licenses and inventions that Meyer had

made. These payments are later cut to 10% and

then suspended altogether.

Meyer demanded compensation for the

expropriation because as Managing Director

he had received neither a salary, nor a share of

Emmy Delhey

12

the turnover nor the profi t during the 30 years

that he had worked for the limited company

and limited partnership. The agreement had

only stipulated an annual pension payment of

24,000 Reichsmarks to be drawn once he left

his position of general manager. The complaint

was rejected, the tax offi ce demanded the

reserves that had been built up be dissolved.

Margot Junod, Felix Meyer’s second daughter,

who lived with her husband in Switzerland, was

only allowed to hold 24% of the company. At the

same time, the Nazis demanded that a partner

sympathetic to them should be taken on board.

Arthure Schöller was appointed, a co-owner of

a company in Hellenthal, Eifel, with whom Rota

had long-lasting business ties. As it turned out

later, he was a member of the SS and attempted

to take over Rota. Even early in 1939 new

restrictions were imposed. In the meantime,

Felix Meyer and his wife had fl ed to Belgium.

The ‘regulation on the elimination of the Jews

from business life’ began to have an effect: the

name F. Meyer had to be deleted from the name.

The company was then called ‘ROTA Apparate-

und Maschinenbau Dr. Hennig KG’.

The situation was becoming ever more

dangerous. Finally even the Hennig family

decided to fl ee and they survived the war

in Ireland. The war years presented a huge

challenge for Rota. Josef Delhey was practically

in charge of the company. After the factory

building had sustained heavy damage during

aerial bombardment on 11 November 1944,

production was at fi rst provisionally moved

to Wehr, where production was continued

in a disused textile factory. However, many

machines had remained in Aachen, either

because they could not be transported or

because they had been damaged. Supplies,

above all of food, were diffi cult to come by.

So Josef Delhey had a vegetable plot created

behind the factory halls to help supply the

workforce.

A brighter-looking future

After the end of the war, Rota started to

concentrate on its two core businesses: the

production of fl owmeters and fi lling machines.

Things began to pick up, albeit slowly at fi rst.

Wehr remained the main production site, but

work also started again in the damaged factory

in Aachen. Richard Delhey, a mechanical

engineer, had been a member of the company’s

workforce since 1946. The company was partly

owned by his aunt and his uncle.

At the end of the 1940s the war had still not

been forgotten, the wounds it had caused were

too obvious. But optimism was slowly spreading

again. Rota had good products so success was

surely certain.

John and Kläre Hennig

Josef Delhey

13

1948 – 1995

The birth of new Rota

The black market and bartering fl ourished in the

three allied-occupied zones in West Germany.

At Rota, not only fi nished instruments, but also

agricultural products that had been produced

behind the factory in Wehr were swapped for

raw materials such as metals, glass tubes

etc. Of course output was low during the fi rst

post-war years. Most transport routes had

been damaged, there was a chronic lack of

accommodation (to an extent that is hard for us

to comprehend today) and unemployment was

high. The country was divided into four occupied

zones. Until 1947 at least, the three Western

Allied Forces were not interested in ensuring

that Germany’s economy recovered rapidly.

Even the movement of people between the

three Western zones was subject to restrictions

until 1948.

The economic miracle begins

During the war over 4.8 million Germans had

died and many young people had not been able

to pursue a proper education. Most big cities and

infrastructure had been destroyed or damaged

- it was a seemingly hopeless situation. Many

people left Germany and sought their fortunes

elsewhere.

The currency reform was passed in 1948. The

effect of this monetary measure was incredible.

The black market collapsed within a very brief

space of time, goods were again on offer for

money, trade and business picked up again.

The old industries were re-established, new

industrial product lines were created and

everybody needed fl owmeters. Even the

manufacture of bottling machines fl ourished.

Rota was also able to get rid of its ‘legacy’.

Schoeller, the Nazi-appointed partner, left the

company after evidence came to light that he

had worked against John Hennig and his family.

He had to return his shares and so the company

was again in the founder family’s hands. When

Emmy Delhey died in Aachen in 1952, she

14

left her shares of just under 20 percent to her

nephews and nieces, including Richard and

Ulrich Delhey.

Rota Apparate- und Maschinenbau Dr. Hennig

KG, as the company was still called, invested

in production machinery and in advertising. In

1953 the new company logo was unveiled and

there were even plans to abandon the provisional

solution in Wehr in favour of a new site.

Expansion at Brennet railway station

This site was found in the neighbouring

community of Öfl ingen that was then still

independently run. The council made the area

behind Brennet railway station available free

of charge and naturally expected to cash in on

the trade tax in lieu of payment. Close proximity

to railways was of course a huge advantage

– because at that time most products were still

transported by rail. Specifi c construction plans

were initiated in 1955 and by the following

year the new factory was inaugurated on 10

September 1956.

And there was another big change: Dr. John

Hennig, the son-in-law of the company founder

Felix Meyer, returned from exile in Ireland. In

1956 he again joined as partner and acted as

managing director, initially together with Josef

Delhey. During his exile in Ireland he had written

hundreds of articles on theological and historical

subjects, as well as taking jobs to earn his crust,

for example as a librarian.

Even when he became managing director at

Rota, he continued to research and write about

areas of personal expertise. The University of

Basel made him an Honorary Doctor in 1970.

The church lexicon writes ‘The bibliography of

Hennig’s writings (...) contains almost 1000

entries. His work, which is outstanding both in

terms of quantity as well as of quality, continues

to stimulate the most diverse areas of research,

in particular liturgies and German-Irish studies’.

When Dr. John Hennig retired from Rota as

Managing Director and passed away in the

following year, he had made a huge contribution

to the arts. Quite possibly it was his sense of

duty and his loyalty to the company’s tradition

that attracted him to a technical company that

was after all rather foreign to him.

When he rejoined the company’s management

team, everything seemed to be going well.

The new company building showed a defi nite

commitment to Baden as a location and the

existing production site in Aachen was closed.

The development of fl owmeter measuring

technology went hand in hand with the upswing

in the economy. Rota benefi ted from the

buoyant economy too. In 1966 Ulrich Delhey, a

mechanical engineer, joined the company. At the

time, the fi rm enjoyed an excellent reputation and

was well positioned on the market particularly

with regard to fl oat fl owmeters. However, they

now had competitors. The partner in England

from the past was already producing its own

fl oat fl owmeters as early as 1938. After several

changes in ownership, this company became

part of an American enterprise. In Europe, several

companies started to build fl owmeters too. The

competition could no longer be overlooked.

Rota grows

In contrast, development in Wehr was rather

sedate. After being in the company for 49 years,

Josef Delhey retired in 1971 for age reasons. In

the following year, the company took on a new

legal form, it was now called Rota Apparate-

und Maschinenbau Dr. Hennig GmbH & Co. KG.

Richard and Ulrich Delhey also become directors

in addition to John Hennig,

On the technical side, there were a couple of

innovations. The Vorty, a vortex fl owmeter, was

Richard Delhey John Hennig

15

developed by Rota and gained quite a reputation.

Even today there are plants where Vorty units are

still in operation. Rotameters had been around

since the 1960s with steel measuring pipes for

higher pressure loads. Orifi ce rotameters for

measuring larger volumes in bypass fl ow were

also on the market. The Rotafl ux operated with

an oscillating body that is excited by the media

fl ow. The oscillations are converted into the

through-fl ow. Rota also produced hot-wire and

ultrasonic fl owmeters.

Rota’s offi ces gradually grew short of space. As

a result, a two-storey building with a cafeteria

and a seminar room was built 1983. Just two

years later it was already too small and two

more storeys were added as management,

accounting, sales and the mechanical

engineering departments required more space.

The production facilities were extended as well:

two new halls for assembling machinery were

opened in the autumn of 1986.

Technical change and new requirements

While Rota grew slowly but steadily, rapid

technical change was taking place in the

1970s and 1980s that Rota was slow to notice.

Magnetically-inductive fl owmeters were

increasingly dominating the market.

These accurate and comparatively low-priced

instruments became top sellers due to new

capabilities offered in the electronics world.

But Rota was not prepared for these changes.

Therefore, in 1986 the Managing Director,

Richard Delhey, agreed with an English company

to purchase magnetically-inductive instruments

that were then marketed as Rota fl owmeters.

But the attempt to jump on the bandwagon was

a failure: the instruments failed to make any

inroads into the market. The partnership was a

loss-maker.

Rota continued to make investments: a

calibration building was built in 1990/1991.

Precise calibration of the instruments

was of increasing importance in a sector

that was demanding ever more accurate

measurements. The company simply had to

have this type of measurement device if it

wanted to develop in the future. In 1994, the

calibration device was certified by Deutscher

Kalibrierdienst (DKD – German Calibration

Service) and they were therefore able to

perform officially recognised calibrations for

other companies.

But the calibration building overran its budget.

Rota also had to increase its investment

in developing new instruments. But these

instruments’ designs were no longer as

unsophisticated as the rotameters during

Küppers’ and Felix Meyer’s time. The early

1990s saw the start of the development of

the ROTAMASS, a Coriolis flowmeter. Rota

had excellent products at this time, highly

motivated and skilled staff and was about

to produce cutting-edge instruments again.

Therefore, it seemed an obvious move to look

for a strong partner and harness the resulting

synergy.

Initiated by Yokogawa manager Ken Busch,

a formal partnership with Yokogawa started

in 1990. First of all a vortex flowmeter was

assembled at the Wehr site. In 1991 Yokogawa

acquired its first stake in the company. In

1995, four years later, Yokogawa bought out

the remaining shares of Rota. This was a

further milestone in the company history and

the new company Rota Yokogawa GmbH & Co.

KG was born.

New fabrication hall, 1986

16

1995 – 2009

Rota Yokogawa

as a global player

Developments, even where businesses are concerned, are rarely without their hiccups along the way. Overly enthusiastic brochures published

by PR departments frequently steer clear of this simple fact. Reading them makes your head swirl and you tend to put this down to the

breakneck speed at which the company concerned appears to be developing. But gradually you realise that this is all down to presentation

and the way historical facts are dealt with. This commemorative publication endeavours to adopt a different route. It aims to show how

developments ran their course, illustrate who was involved and how.

Different eras generated different hurdles. Little

material exists on the fi rst few years and much

was drawn from relatively remote sources. The

same does not apply to modern times because

Rota was a family business until 1991. It

was managed by people who were either the

founders, or close to the founders because

they were relatives or had other ties. None of

them had studied business, none of them had

had international experience to any signifi cant

degree, or the chance to get some hands-on,

second-tier management experience in another

company. Even using ‘manager’ as a term

is probably not quite correct in this context,

because quite conventional company founders

were at Rota’s helm. But they were successful

too because the books show the company made

a profi t each year.

New framework

Incorporation into the Yokogawa Group

represented a paradigm change. It was now all

about the corporation’s consolidated success,

global strategies and fi tting into existing concepts

rather than one single success. Therefore, Rota

Yokogawa had less strategic responsibility, but

in turn more product responsibility.

New instruments now joined the fl owmeter types

already in the product range manufactured in

Wehr. The magnetic -inductive fl owmeter ADMAG

and the vortex instrument digitalYewfl o were

both instruments far ahead of their time. New

product lines were created and manufacturing

was adapted to the new instruments.

It was down to Yokogawa’s Ken Bush, Mr

Kakurai, and Mr Tamura who initially pushed

forward the co-operation with Rota, leading

in 1991 to the new company Rota Yokogawa.

Heinz Henneberger and Sinishiro Hoashi were

directors from 1993 until 1997, together with

Ulrich Delhey who stayed until 1995. From

1997 until 2002 Koichi Mori spearheaded the

company, together with Peter Batram from

1998 onwards. He was succeeded by Harry

Hauptmeijer in 2002 (who is still there today),

together with Mike Blöchlinger until 2007.

Andreas Dobratz joined the management team

on 1 March 2009.

Rota Yokogawa conquers the international markets

During these years Rota Yokogawa developed

more strongly than was immediately obvious. 20

to 30% of Rotawerke’s production was exported

in the early nineties. For a medium sized

company this is an excellent value. Today this

has even risen to about 80 %, the reason being

not only the new products that were launched

during these fourteen years. Yokogawa’s

company structure with its international sales

offi ces and well-established distribution paths

created a totally different starting point and

new opportunities. So it comes as no surprise

that Rota Yokogawa has been growing steadily

ever since. This fact is also refl ected in the

staff count that now has reached 180. The

development was anything but steady. Rota

had a good reputation above all in its core

market in Germany, Switzerland and France.

Photomontage: projected expansion

17

But there people tended to associate Rota with

conventional fl oat technology. Word still had to

spread that the company also supplied advanced

technology using other measurement principles

as well. Many high-tech Yokogawa products for

the processing industry go perfectly with fl ow

measurement technology. The most recent

example of several skills coming together is

fl ow measurement according to the differential

measurement principle. Yokogawa can offer this

method of measuring volume fl ows too because

of its revolutionary pressure transmitter. It took

some time to discover the advantages of this

integrated technology which was implemented

as part of Yokogawa’s VigilantPlant concept.

One long-standing sales rep summarises the

situation at the time: ’At fi rst many people had

to learn to spell the name Yokogawa’.

Modernization in Wehr

During the mid-nineties Yokogawa’s production

philosophy was introduced: the New Yokogawa

Production System (NYPS). It enables economic,

effi cient manufacture while at the same time

avoiding any waste and making best use of all

resources. Gradually, delivery speed could be

increased and costs could be reduced, altogether

achieving a markedly increased productivity.

A lot of money was invested for this purpose.

Old machines had to give way to new and faster

ones with a higher degree of precision. Some

manual work steps can now be carried out by

machines without effort and highly precise,

thanks to CNC technology. The management

also introduced new manufacturing techniques

so as to keep the expertise within the company

and to increase fl exibility. Rota Yokogawa make

their own fl anges, there now is a unit for high-

vacuum soldering and – as the most recent

example – a welding robot started work in

2009.

These steps to automate and increase

production are accompanied by a complex,

continuous quality offensive. Yokogawa’a credo

is to ensure quality in all areas and thus also

top reliability.

In the mid-nineties the PC entered the work

process. It replaced the typewriter for all

written work like monthly reports, statistics,

stock-taking or annual accounts. Within a short

period of time a computer network was installed

that met the requirements of modern offi ce

communication. Equipment was now developed

using CAD software. In 2008 SAP was introduced

and replaced the PPS system.

Rota Verpackungstechnik – a new company is createdDuring the fi rst few years Yokogawa was

involved, the Wehr factory was still used

to manufacture machines for washing,

sterilising, fi lling, closing, checking

and labelling ampoules and bottles

for pharmaceutical products. In 1995,

the Verpackungstechnik (Packaging)

division was hived off and Rota

Verpackungstechnik GmbH & Co. KG with

Ulrich Delhey as the CEO was founded.

Following this management buyout,

‘Verpackungstechnik’ initially rented

rooms they previously owned. It had 28

staff and immediately started to add to

and modernise the product range. In 1997,

they began to build their own factory and

offi ce building in Wehr and the company

moved into it in the middle of 1998. So

nowadays Wehr has two companies with

roots that date back 100 years, with Rota

as part of the name.

Signing of cooperation contract with Yokogawa The new calibration building

18

Internationality and high-tech products

The numerous changes at Rota Yokogawa

were based on the concept of making the work

environment more pleasant, friendlier and more

motivating. A lot of decoration work was carried

out, manufacturing areas were renovated,

fl ooring and windows were replaced, walls were

painted in bright colours etc. Yokogawa also set

up a cafeteria, and showers and toilets were

modernized and brought up to date. Offi ce staff,

too, benefi ted from improvements to the work

environment; new offi ce furniture was bought,

carpets laid and on the whole the offi ce standard

was raised. A modern training centre provides

the appropriate surroundings for international

fl ow training.

Also the staff saw changes. The international

character of the market for Rota Yokogawa

fl owmeters and the international integration of

the company were refl ected in the motley staff:

Japanese, French, English, Dutch, Australians,

Russians, Poles, Swiss or Spaniards worked or

still work in Wehr for fl owmetering technology.

On the product side, to make the Coriolis

mass meter ROTAMASS ready for the market

represented a signifi cant step. With this

instrument, the “new” Rota Yokogawa proved

its competence in the area of developments

and acquired numerous new customers. In

many processes the act of measuring masses

is a necessary task that is not at all simple.

ROTAMASS also lead to the co-operation

between the German facility and the Japanese

parent company being intensifi ed because the

software of the converter was developed in

Japan. Intense Japanese-German development

co-operation is now the norm at Rota.

Further milestones in the development are

likewise the result of ROTAMASS: late in 2007

the largest member of the ROTAMASS family

till that date was presented: the ROTAMASS

RCCS39/XR is a superlatively good mass

fl owmeter. Its two horseshoe-shaped measuring

tubes were designed for a throughput of up to

600 tons per hour. By building an additional

calibration lab for density and as a result of

constructive modifi cations to the instruments,

the ROTAMASS 3 was launched as a high-

precision densimeter in 2008.

Together with Yokogawa Deutschland, intense

press work started that increased the exposure

that Rota Yokogawa’s product range had in the

specialized media. All the important German

and some international magazines carried news

and application reports on Rota Yokogawa’s top-

class fl owmeters on a regular basis.

Actively shaping the future

The last chapter (for the time being) in Rota

Yokogawa’s success story is the expansion of

the production area that will be inaugurated

and celebrated along with the centenary. This

great step could only be carried out against the

backdrop of the successes over the previous

years. It is a result of the strong growth of

the last years and symbolizes the degree of

integration of Rota Yokogawa into the Japanese

parent company since the investments were

jointly approved by Yokogawa Europe and the

Yokogawa group headquarters in Tokyo. This

support shows the opportunities that are seen

in Rota Yokogawa’s future development.

“The management and the entire staff therefore

express their gratitude to those responsible at

Yokogawa Europe, especially Harry Hauptmeijer,

and at Yokogawa Headquarters Mr Kurosu, Mr

Tanaka, Mr Nishijima, Mr Yuhara and since

2009 Mr Minaki for their trust in the facilities

at Wehr”, to quote Andreas Dobratz, Director.

“The investments put us in a position to actively

shape our future as part of Yokogawa.” During

the planning phase, nobody could have imagined

that this important step in the company’s

development would take place during a

recession. But the fl exible utilisation concept

(entire product lines can be modifi ed in just a

few hours) offers precisely what today’s market

demands: speed, high quality and fl exibility.

Rota’s history has not come to an end. 100

years have gone by since it was founded. The

Rotawerke in a small workshop in Aachen

became Rota Yokogawa in Wehr. Today the

company is well placed to further improve its

international position in the market. In the fi eld

of technical fl owmetering, Rota Yokogawa will

continue to play an important role.

View in the new fabrication halls

19

Why does Rota Yokogawa invest so much

money on product development?

MR: For a technology-driven company

continuously focusing on product development

is vital. In the past, you could get away with

keeping a product on the market for years -

and sometimes even decades - without making

any signifi cant changes. These times are well

and truly over. It goes without saying that our

product cycles are not as short as those in the

automotive industry. However, our instruments

of course always have to compete with those of

our rivals. If we don’t stay on the ball, we’ll fall

behind sooner or later.

What is the difference between invention

and development?

MR: Development is the redesign or

enhancement of a product that is already on the

market, in many small, specifi c steps. A lot of

books for example claim Thomas Edison was

inventor of the light bulb.

However, this is not quite true, since the idea

of using electricity to make a carbon fi lament

produce light was already around. Edison’s

achievement was to develop and transform the

different concepts into a product that actually

could be produced and marketed. This fact

should not be underestimated. Küppers also

developed an existing principle and in the

process invented the rotating fl oat – Felix Meyer

turned it into a marketable product.

How much teamwork is necessary in

technical development?

MR: The concept of a solitary genius inventor is

usually wide of the mark. A modern fl owmeter

is a highly complex object. Even to understand

why an instrument uses particular measurement

principles requires considerable effort. It’s not

just mathematical methods that have to be

mastered, but you also have to know at which

points in the process they have to be applied.

To enhance such an instrument requires

expert knowledge of materials, in different

physical areas, in electronics and also practical

applications. This requires a team of engineers,

physicists, etc. They all have to work hard and

need time. Developments are the results of

inspiration and perspiration, with the latter

being the dominant factor.

But you can’t do without inspiration, can

you?

MR: This is true and sometimes it produces nice

little inventions – for example the automatic

detection of a fl oat blockage. The technology

behind it is simple and somebody could have

come up with this solution earlier, but no

competitor can offer this function. Because

of this blockage detection, our rotameters

have the SIL1 and SIL2 classifi cations. Our

fl owmeters contain many small inventions, or

in other words, many small, smart solutions to

problems. The more complex an instrument, the

more important the interaction between these

inventions is. And then again, it takes time to

work out how best to integrate them.

How long does it take to get a new fl owmeter

to market?

MR: There’s no general answer to this question.

It depends on the number of people involved and

the principles the instrument is based on. But to

give you an example: it took about three man-

years to develop and launch new, enhanced

density measurement for the ROTAMASS.

What’s Rota Yokogawa’s R&D presently

working on?

MR: Our main focus is currently on the

ROTAMASS. In developing the device two basic

goals are targeted: to expand the potential

applications by adding new features, such as

other nominal widths, additional certifi cates,

other temperature and pressure ranges etc. We

are also striving to improve the quality, precision

and stability of the measuring instrument.

Developing smart solutionsAn Interview

Dr. Martin Ricken joined the company in 1991 and is Head of Development.

Dr. Martin Ricken

20

Isaac Newton, 1642 – 1727

How irritating! Just when you need it - the man of the house was

rummaging through his papers. He was just about to convince his

guest that he had already discovered the laws of gravity some time

ago. And now, the manuscript was nowhere to be found. Professor

Isaac Newton saved the situation later by sending the visitor the

treatise. He then urged Newton to publish it and this resulted in the

‘Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ in 1687.

Without gravity, even the fl oat fl owmeter does not work. This is the

reason why rotameters always have to be installed in a vertical

position because the fl oat ‘fl oats’ in the conically shaped measuring

tube. In the process, the weight and the forces caused by a passing

medium are in a state of equilibrium at a certain throughfl ow.

The position of the fl oat in the measuring tube is a function of the

density and viscosity of the medium and the forces of the fl ow. This

is the reason why the precise description of the physical processes

is very complex in this seemingly simple measuring instrument.

The “Rotameter Manual” 1966 gives an overview of this. At that

time complicated measurements were required for correctly

designing a rotameter. This is still the case today but Rota

Yokogawa supplies the users with a design software “Flow

Confi gurator” that does all the calculations.

20

The Rotameter has many obvious strengths: it requires no external power

supply, is easy to install and maintenance free, is robust and has very little

pressure loss. So it is hardly surprising that the fl owmeter has stood the test of

time for 100 years in numerous applications. It can be used to measure liquids

of almost any kind, gases and steam.

The Rota Yokogawa original is available in a wide range of types. In general, there

are glass rotameters with the self-stabilising rotating fl oat and the solid-metal

instruments. They can also be integrated into analogue or digital process control

systems. Maximum safety is the result of a patented detection of a blockage of the

fl oat. Therefore rotameters by Rota Yokogawa can be used in SIL1 and SIL2 safety-

focused systems.

Rotameter - the original has stood the test of time for a century.

Rotameter:

100 years of

excellence

21

Theodore von Kármán, 1881 – 1963

On 7 May 1963, a doctor in a spa clinic in Aachen was called to

look at an American guest. But medicine was powerless to save

the old man and Theodore von Kármán died at the age of 82.

Kármán was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so was not

an American citizen from the word go. In 1907 he did a PhD at

Göttingen university and in 1912 presented a thesis that became

the basis for vortex fl ow measurements. At that time Kármán

was not considering putting it to any technical use, he was only

interested in describing and calculating the phenomenon that

uniform, counter-rotating vortices are produced in a fl ow behind

an obstacle.

From 1913 to 1934, Kármán was Professor at ‘Königlich Rheinisch-

Westphälische Polytechnische Schule’ in Aachen (nowadays known

as RWTH Aachen). Simultaneously with Felix Meyer’s work in the

same city, he investigated aeronautical aerodynamics. Then he

suffered a similar fate as the factory owner and inventor: because

he was Jewish he was forced to emigrate, but he remained loyal to

Aachen. After the war he came to visit on a regular basis.

Some 58 years passed before Kármán’s vortex street became

the basis of a fl owmeter. It was not until 1970 that the fi rst fully

operational prototypes were presented. Early in the 1970s, Rota

too developed a vortex fl owmeter, the Vorty. Today the digitalYewfl o

is a star among vortex fl owmeters.

21

Best

vortex-street location:

digitalYewfl o

Vortex fl owmeters have been around for some 40 years. They have consistently

proven their reliability and a whole host of applications are unimaginable

without them.

Compared to other vortex fl owmeters, Yokogawa’s digitalYewfl o has a couple of special

features. The measured value is formed at the interference body, called the ‘shedder-

bar’, across the entire cross-section of the measuring tube. So turbulences in the

vortex street only have a small infl uence on measurement accuracy - the effective

measuring range is maintained. For this reason, two instruments can even be directly

bolted together. This enables redundant, or even bi-directional measurements. As an

option, the digitalYewfl o can cover a -196°C to +450°C temperature range. Operation

is also possible at high process pressure of up to 160 bars. The digitalYewfl o has a

maximum error of up to ±0.75% and measurement ranges between 0.94 and 2156

m3/h for liquids (4.8 and 443,017 Nm3/h for air). Therefore, it is a highly reliable and

robust instrument. In safety-driven applications up to SIL2, the dual-bolted version of

the fl owmeter has proved how good it is. A version with an integrated reduction of

the nominal width is available, so that the measuring instrument can be adapted to

small fl ow areas.

Its reliability, its simple confi guration and the variety of potential applications for liquid

and gaseous media have made the digitalYewfl o one of the most widely used vortex

measuring devices in the refi nery and chemical industries.

digitalYewfl o - A top-class instrument among vortex fl owmeters

21

22

Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, 1792-1843

Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis was actually a teacher at a civil

engineering college for roads and bridges. But his chief interest was

in objects in motion. In 1835 he published a mathematical theory of

the game of billiards. His paper ‘Sur les équations du mouvement

relatif des systèmes de corps’ was published in the same year. The

paper described and deduced the force that is named after him, a

defl ection force of masses in a moving system.

When a moving mass is subjected to an oscillation transverse to

the direction of movement, Coriolis forces result. This is the basis

for the measurement principle of the ROTAMASS. Its measurement

tubes are made to oscillate. When a medium fl ows through the

measurement tubes, Coriolis forces are produced. The ensuing

change in the oscillation geometry of the tubes is detected as

a phase difference at the inlet and outlet and is proportional to

the mass fl ow. At the same time, the oscillation frequency of

the measuring tubes is a direct measure of the density of the

medium. To guarantee highly precise mass fl ow measurement, the

temperature dependence of the measuring-tube materials must be

corrected. Consequently, the ROTAMASS has a temperature sensor

that detects the temperature of the measuring tube.

The ROTAMASS is a multi-variable measuring instrument that

simultaneously detects mass fl ow, density and temperature.

Rota Yokogawa’s Coriolis mass fl owmeter, the ROTAMASS, can record the

mass fl ow directly and at the same time accurately measure the density. The

instrument is used in various processes in the oil and gas industries, in refi neries,

the chemical and pharmaceuticals industries and in food production.

The robust ‘box-in-box’ design protects the ROTAMASS from any outside impact that

might interfere with it. Its horseshoe-shaped twin measuring tubes ensure a measuring

accuracy of +/- 0.1% of the measured value for liquids and +/- 0.5% of the measured

value for gases. All this includes excellent zero-point stability. ROTAMASS’s instrument

spectrum covers measuring ranges from 0 - 0.045 t/h to 0 - 600 t/h.

The ROTAMASS can also be used as a density measuring instrument with a specifi ed

accuracy of up to 0.0005 g/cm3. Our competitors typically only offer an adjustment,

but Rota Yokogawa carries out density calibration with different liquids and at different

temperatures. Therefore the densities can be reliably measured in a wide density and

temperature range (0.3 kg/l to 2 kg/l; -50°C to 150°C). If the correlation between the

concentration of the medium and the associated density is known for a dual-substance

mixture, or a solution in a known temperature range, these measuring-substance data

can be stored in the measuring instrument. The ROTAMASS measures the density and

temperature of the medium and calculates the corresponding concentration using the

stored data.

The associated concentration values appear on the display as a percentage, or in the

units °API, °Brix or °Baume (depending on the medium) and can be integrated as an

output signal into the process control system.

ROTAMASS - Measuring technology at its fi nest

ROTAMASS : for direct

measurement of

mass fl ow

22

23

Michael Faraday, 1791 -1867

Luck is also part and parcel of research. In 1820, Prof. Oersted

showed his students a wire that had been made to glow by passing

a current through it. Just by chance, a compass was nearby ¬and

Oersted saw the defl ection of the needle when the current was

switched on. This was fi nal proof of the link between magnetism

and electricity that had often been presumed.

Nevertheless, a lot of research still had to be done. In England,

Michael Faraday knew about Oersted’s experiments, but he

wanted to know more. In his diary he wrote: ‘Transformation of

magnetism into electricity’. In vain, he spent a long time trying to

create currents by using magnets until luck was also on his side in

1831. While he moved the magnetic core into and out of a coil, he

observed a temporary defl ection on the galvanometer connected.

Electromagnetic induction had been discovered.

Magnetic-¬inductive fl owmeters use induction. The moving

conductor is the fl owing medium. The magnetic fi eld is caused by an

electric magnet outside the measuring tube and the induced voltage

is measured by two electrodes in the insulated wall of the fl owmeter.

The generated voltage is proportional to the fl ow velocity. Faraday

could not have anticipated that magnetic-inductive instruments

would today be among the most widely used fl owmeters. And he

would also have been much more surprised at how accurately

ADAMAG dual-frequency instruments measure even under diffi cult

conditions.

23

ADMAG:

Measuring

with Induction

The purpose of magnetic-inductive fl owmeters is to measure conductive

liquids. Over the last few years, they were among the top sellers worldwide

– which is no surprise considering the immense variety of applications.

However, it depends on what exactly needs measuring. Rota Yokogawa makes the

magnetic¬-inductive RXF for simple water applications, but other instruments are

called for when things start to get more complex.

Where magnetic-inductive fl owmeters are concerned, the ADMAG AXF stands apart:

the instrument has a patented dual-frequency excitation mode for even the most

diffi cult of measuring tasks. Low conductivity, pulsating through¬fl ows and fast

fi lling pose no problems to the ADMAG AXF. As a standard, a conductivity of only 1.0

µS/cm is required. The ADMAG AXF can even reliably measure liquids with a high or

variable viscosity, and with extreme precision of up to 0.2% of the measured value.

The ADMAG AXR is the latest member of Yokogawa’s magnetic-inductive family.

The ADMAG AXR fl owmeter with dual-wire technology lowers the installation costs

for the customer considerably. It also has almost identical features to the ADMAG

AXF, since Yokogawa also uses the proven dual-frequency technology for the dual-

wire ADMAG AXR.

Different designs and linings, as well as smart electronics with numerous evaluation

features, make this MIF a very versatile and user-¬friendly fl owmeter. Integration

into process communication is of course a must. HART, BRAIN, Foundation Fieldbus

and PROFIBUS are available.

ADMAG - Performance that pays

24

Edited byRota Yokogawa GmbH & Co KG

Rheinstraße 8

D-79664 Wehr

Concept and Editing:

Pressebüro Thomas Ricken

Text:

(unless specifi ed otherwise)

Pressebüro Thomas Ricken

info@thomasricken.de

www.thomasricken.de

Translation:

Peter C. Thompson

Peter.Thompson@t-online.de

Photos:

Yokogawa: 1, 2, 16, 17 (r), 18, 19, 20 + 21 (center), 22 + 23 (center)

U. Delhey: 12 (r), 14 (l), 14 (air photo), 15, 17 (l),

Wikimedia Commons: 4, 6, 10, 20 (l), 21 (r), 22 (l), 23 (r)

M. Schefold: 7, 8, 9, 12 (l), 14 (center)

Bundesarchiv: 13

Copyright:

Rota Yokogawa GmbH & Co KG

Wehr, 2009 / 2011