A man with foresight is 60

One who is located in the fluid power industry, associates with the name Christian H. Kienzle mainly two things: the globally successful ARGO-HYTOS Group and the Association Fluid Technology in the VDMA.

Born in 1955, Christian H. Kienzle has been leading the ARGO-HYTOS Group as CEO since 1990. Since 1999 he has been engaged in the Professional Fluid Power Association of German Engineering Federation (VDMA). 2005 Christian H. Kienzle was elected chairman of the association Fluid Technology for the first time, in the in autumn 2014 scheduled forthcoming election he was confirmed in office for another three years.

Formation and starting years
The today‘s ARGO-HYTOS group has its seeds in the former company Argo GmbH for precision mechanics and has been in the possession of the Kienzle family for several generations. The Argo GmbH was established on 7th July 1947 in Stuttgart and has developed from the former sales company for Kienzle taximeter, located in Stuttgart. Argo originally was a brand name for taximeters produced by the company Kienzle Apparate. In the early years, Argo GmbH started to produce its own products in a former cigar factory in Menzingen / Baden while continuing to repair and lease taximeters for the Kienzle company. Soon an autonomous production program for magnetic filters and strainers was developed and in 1952 Argo filed a patent for magnetic filters. Shortly thereafter, the portfolio was expanded to hydraulic filters for the mobile and industrial hydraulics.

From component manufacturer to worldwide operating system supplier
The production program has been continuously expanded and international expansion has been promoted.
In 1993, ARGO purchased shares in the Czech hydraulic manufacturer HYTOS, a company already having a 50 year experience in the production of components for fluid & motion control. Since 2003, both companies have traded under the name ARGO-HYTOS.
Meanwhile, ARGO-HYTOS develops and produces a multitude of standard components as well as individual system solutions for fluid technology.
Today, the ARGO-HYTOS Group employs more than 1300 people in its production companies in Germany, the Czech Republic, India and China as well as many proprietary international sales and assembly companies. The company has established itself as a leading supplier, especially in the field of mobile hydraulics. Especially in the division of the industrial and mobile hydraulics, the company was able to establish itself as one of the leading suppliers with products of the hydraulic fluid and motion control, sensor technology, hydraulic filtration and oil service units. A special focus is the development of customer-specific solutions which are based on proven series products and tailored to the particular requirements.

Filtration: ARGO-HYTOS manufactures sophisticated filter solutions together with hydraulic and lubrication systems. The range of implemented solutions extends from fixed-position industrial plants to mobile applications.
Fluid Management: As well as reducing maintenance and servicing costs, effective fluid management is also a key factor in boosting the reliability, productivity and cost-effectiveness of the operation. ARGO-HYTOS supplies application-oriented products for manual and automatic cleaning of hydraulic fluids.
Sensors & Measurement: Systems that provide reliable assessment of the condition of hydraulic fluids are the key feature of continuous fluid monitoring. Sensors and measurement technology from ARGO-HYTOS precisely targets this range of tasks. Our fluid monitoring products comprise equipment and system solutions to enable online monitoring during continuous operation as well as analysis of bottled samples under laboratory conditions.
Fluid and Motion Control: ARGO-HYTOS expertise in control technology is composed of more than 65 years of experience. The focus lies on a wide range of valves, solenoids, power units and control blocks featuring all commonly used design features and functions, together with proportional valves and the associated control electronics.

Strong brand in the fluid technology
Today, the ARGO-HYTOS group is - as component and system supplier – an important part of the supply chain of the global market leaders in mobile work machines and general mechanical engineering. In order to offer the usual support from a single source to successful global customers, ARGO-HYTOS has built up an international network of production and sales companies which are able to offer customer-oriented value and competence at the site of the customer. In an era of increasingly complex technical issues it is important to have system partners who think holistically, contribute many years of solid experience in a project and offer solutions in fluid technology.

Christian H. Kienzle – since 1990 CEO of the ARGO-HYTOS group and son of the company founder Jochen Kienzle – characterized in the past 25 years the continuous development of the company. He was born in Fribourg in 1955 and studied after high school from 1975 to 1980 business economics at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. From 1980 to 1987 he went on to study law at the Albert Ludwig University in Fribourg. His professional career began in 1988 as assistant manager of the Busch Holding KG in Maulburg. 1990 he joined the family business as managing partner.

Christian H. Kienzle 6.0
A man with foresight and visions, a driver in a positive sense for his company and for the fluid power industry, is 60 years old. At the recent meeting in Hanover as part of the MDA it could be stated that Christian H. Kienzle continues having ideas and burning for “his” fluid technology.
Publisher and editors congratulate and wish all the best and continuing success for the “round” birthday!

Contribution to the sixtieth birthday of Mr Christian H. Kienzle written by Hartmut Rauen, Deputy Managing Director of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) and Managing Director of the associations "Drive Technology" and "Fluid Technology":

Should we congratulate a young at heart to round sixtieth? Yes, we should. Work under high pressure obviously keeps one very young, how could it be otherwise in the hydraulic and fluid power. I would thus - on behalf of the fluid technology - like to take the opportunity to stop for a moment at this station of our current chairman.

Since 2005 Christian H. Kienzle has been chairman of our Association Fluid Technology, of which he has been a member since 1999. In the main board (since 01.10.2005) and in the closer board (since 18.10.2013) of the VDMA, he represents the interest of the fluid technology beyond the professional association also in the head committees of the mechanical engineering. He is our friendly face of the sector at home and abroad.

He has marked the fortune of the association by an increasing internationalization of our networks, intensification of research activities and a forward-looking development of the sector in the field of exhibition activities.

Christian H. Kienzle is a cosmopolitan, who manages to bring together in a good sense the interests of the international fluid technology. Countless visits to international press conferences, exhibition openings, summit meetings are included in the diligence route just like a fine intimately diplomatic sense to elicit the maximum at the end of the balance sheet.

Christian H. Kienzle has positioned the Association Fluid Technology internationally by international conventions (e.g. the ISC), management circles in India or China or recently the establishment of the MDA technology magazine series. That the strong and technologically leading position of German fluid power is based on high innovative capabilities of our employees, the companies and the surrounding research community, is his credo.

Thanks to Mr. Kienzle, the expenses of the industry for the research fund Fluid Technology have been significantly increased and we have been able to build new networks for the sector such as the supporting association Mobile Machines and the Endowed Chair in Karlsruhe. Knowledge and young staff for the sector are important to him.

Many in the sector are not even aware, that one of our main drivers of the innovative ability of our sector the mentor of striving towards the best technological power is a merchant, trained in St. Gallen. How naturally Mr. Kienzle is perceived as an engineer, what he is not, became obvious at the IFK, where he was referred to as such as opening speaker in the program.

Christian H. Kienzle loves his hydraulic and fluid power. He is fighting for a good image, whether lately in the matter of energy efficiency or most recently regarding the role of the fluid power in the mega topic Industry 4.0.

Today we wish to thank Mr. Christian H. Kienzle for his outstanding achievements within the sector, for the professional association. But we must also thank him for living this volunteering with so much commitment and success, even though he has to do enough “at home” in the company as many of his colleagues in the volunteer work. The fact that by the way ARGO-HYTOS, which he took over in 1990 as managing partner, developed into a world-positioned leading fluid technology company may perhaps be his most beautiful gift that he could make himself and his staff. We look forward to many more years working together, give a thousand thanks and wish him all the best!

(This article was published in the German magazine O+P 5/2015)