History

POWERING PROFESSIONALS SINCE 1898

 
AEG POWERTOOLS promises to draw upon its heritage and deliver exciting, high performance, innovative working solutions for the professional trades men of today and the future.
 
Since being founded, AEG POWERTOOLS has been leading the way in new product development. By introducing the first transportable drilling machines in 1898, portable powertools were born. Over 100 years later AEG are still offering the professional user innovative, powerful solutions… PROUD PAST… EXCITING FUTURE…
 

A POWERTOOL LEGACY

 
TTI’s acquisition of Atlas Copco’s power tool and accessories business in 2005 brought the Group not one but two world-beating brands in the professional power tools sector. Along with Milwaukee, AEG Powertools gave TTI a globally recognized stable of high-performing products with strong appeal for construction professionals, and tradesmen. Drawing on the brand’s German heritage and long history of innovation in both products and design, AEG has helped to enhance TTI’s global presence, particularly in Europe, while TTI investment and strategic repositioning of AEG from the DIY sector back to its roots as a professional brand have created a powerful synergy from which to move forward into the future.
 

FUELING INDUSTRIALISATION

The history of Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (General Electric Company), better known around the world today as the brand AEG, extends back over 120 years and includes not only a ground-breaking heritage in electrical tools and engineering but a formative role in establishing the field of industrial design through its connection with the multi-talented German designer Peter Behrens. Initially founded in 1883 as Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft (DEG), the company took the name AEG in 1887. Company founder Emil Rathenau (1838-1915) was a keen proponent of efficiency and had been one of the first to bring in assembly line production to Germany. A man who thought nothing of working 15-hour days himself, Rathenau drove the company forward in its field of electro-technology, setting out to innovate and rationalize the industrial process. While the first product under the AEG brand was electric light bulbs, the company was also exploring the potential for different appliances that made use of electricity. At the end of the 19th century, Germany was industrializing fast. Coal, iron and steel production began to rival that of the UK, the early industrial leader. Ship-building thrived and the highly regarded automobile industry got underway. In electrical industries, the country was becoming a sophisticated pioneer of new technologies.

With industrialization came the need for better tools to assist the workforce in producing ships, cars, and the machinery to fuel the industrial boom, creating a fresh market opportunity. Not only would such improvement help AEG itself as a rising industrial powerhouse with interests ranging from electrical power engineering and transportation to household appliances, it opened up potential for supplying other enterprises with such products. In 1898, AEG introduced the first portable electric
drill. It weighed 7.5kg and could drill holes of up to 6mm in steel. Bringing mobility to the world of industrial assembly proved a dynamic innovation whose time had come. By the start of the new century, AEG electric tools had become global sellers and the company’s commitment to providing superior quality power tools for professional use in construction, woodworking and industrial use was here to stay.
 

PIONEERING CORPORATE IDENTITY

 
AEG was not only a leader in the type of products it produced but the way it presented them. In 1907, the company hired Peter Behrens (1868-1940) as an artistic consultant after a successful first venture together designing advertising material. Behrens, one of the most influential creative minds of his time, was a leading innovator in painting, graphic design and architecture, whose work has continued to echo through the generations to the present time. Among the many contemporaries he inspired were Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school, and Swiss designer and architect Le Corbusier.
In his work for AEG over the next seven years, Behrens enjoyed a wide remit that took him from product design to publicity materials and even ground-breaking factory buildings such as the AEG Turbinenhalle in Berlin, made of exposed steel, concrete and a curtain wall of glass. His design for
electrical appliances employed standardized components which enabled them to be interchangeable, adding to rationalization. He also tackled sales room design as well as brochures, and catalogues. Among the revolutionary concepts that Behrens introduced during his work with AEG was that form as well as function was important as a way to appeal to customers. Breaking with the conventions of the day that looked only to a product’s technical capabilities, Behrens said: “Design is not about decorating functional forms – it is about creating forms that accord with the character of the object and that show technologies to advantage.” A key element was the AEG logo, which went through several evolutions under Behrens.
The new designs centered on the integration of art and industry, combining an antique typeface, clean, simple lines and a geometric form that reduced the exterior flourishes of the company’s previous Art Nouveaustyle logo to focus symbolically on the strength, power and efficiency of AEG and the industrial age. From this concept, and his work throughout the company, Behrens was able to develop a consistency of approach leading to an identifiable look and feel to products, materials and buildings associated with AEG. The creation of such a unified corporate identity was unparalleled at the time. But the power of such a persona to assist the company’s business goals
and boost recognition and loyalty among consumers was quickly recognized. This eventually led to the development of brands in industries all over the world while Behrens himself is now considered the father of industrial design and corporate identity.
 

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

 
As the company’s attention was drawn more toward the combination of technology and design, breakthroughs of lasting impact occurred in power tool development. In 1908, AEG produced the first portable drill with a pistol grip, a design that gave the user added flexibility and remains among the most popular for this type of tool today. Further advances saw drills with speed regulation introduced and in the 1920s the first electric tools with universal motors. Lighter and compatible with different electrical currents, the latter helped to extend AEG’s reputation for advanced performance tools that boosted the user’s capabilities and in turn productivity.
 
By the early 1930s, production capacity was becoming stretched at AEG Berlin and a dedicated tool factory set up in Winnenden, near Stuttgart, to help expansion continue. The area around Stuttgart at the time was an inspiring technological hub, ranging from Germany’s leading automobile industries, including Daimler, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, to lens and cameramaker Zeiss and power tool producers Fein and Metabo.
 
At AEG, the years following the expansion certainly proved to be creative ones. The company produced the first double-insulated electric drills that protect users against electric shock. It launched its first hammer, the 5.5kg rotary/chipping EH 200, and straight grinders and polishers soon followed. AEG’s guiding corporate principle was also set down: the continuous development of innovative technology for intelligent solutions serving industry and trade professionals.
In the wake of the Second World War, the company lost most of its production facilities located in the newly created Eastern Bloc but production began again in West Germany, including Stuttgart. With the German recovery and boom in construction in the 1960s and 1970s, fresh innovation in the form of percussion drills emerged, with AEG Powertools moving into the number one position in this segment. A new state-of-the-art plant was also opened in Winnenden, with a capacity of 20,000 tools per day to further raise production capacity.
Lighter mechanical rotary hammers to cater for advanced drilling performance as the construction industry evolved and electronic hammer drills with fullwave electronic control were among AEG’s technological leaps during this period. The company also set up an ultra modern power tool plant in Connecticut in the US to supply the professional market there. By the 1980s, AEG was incorporating
micro-chip technology into its products and starting to pioneer the way in the cordless market with its Accu System 2000. One particularly outstanding achievement was a custom-made cordless drill screwdriver for NASA Space Shuttle missions. In 1984, astronaut Bruce McCandless made use of the screwdriver on one of his spacewalks, 350km above the Earth.
However, AEG as a conglomerate was beginning to struggle amid financial concerns and fierce competition, and in 1991, AEG Powertools become part of the Atlas Copco group (AEG as a manufacturing company was dissolved in 1996). Joining the Swedish global leader in professional and industrial tools in 1991, AEG Powertools continued to produce world-class innovations in its sector. AEG’s FIXTEC technology for jigsaws created a rapid-change system that made it super-easy for users to change accessories. The Multihammer Pneumatic 3000 Super X2 put the company in a world-leading position in the two-speed rotary hammer segment, providing more torque and greater speeds, and marking the introduction of planetary gears for hammers. A celebration gold tool series was
also brought out in 1998 to commemorate the centenary of AEG’s electric tools. By 2003, AEG was able to offer more than 100 high-performance tools and a range of accessories with more than 2,500 items.
 

REFOCUS UNDER TTI

 
Such a dynamic heritage and dedication to quality and performance made AEG a highly appropriate fit for TTI when it acquired Atlas Copco’s electric tools division in 2005. AEG also enabled TTI to strengthen its distribution and marketing reach across Europe.
 
Prior to joining TTI, AEG POWERTOOLS had been moving toward the positioning of a DIY brand but it has since been refocused to concentrate on the professional market. The impact of TTI’s impressive capabilities in integrating product development and expanding operations has been ongoing since the first year that AEG Powertools joined the Group.
 
In 2006, additional products were brought in, along with new distribution in existing markets and expansion into other geographic regions including Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.
Another key development has been a brand revitalization in 2009 that saw the company take on a vibrant orange color identity to provide a new look along with its product development. As set forth
by Behrens’ development of corporate identity at AEG a century earlier, and adopted by companies worldwide since then, the re-branding took shape across the whole spectrum of its design from product development to communication materials, catalogues and merchandising.
 
Power and personality were emphasized along with a focus on quality and tools that offer top performance while also being designed for ease of use. Products introduced in the re-branding included the Compact 12V range of ergonomically advanced tools that based around a lithium-ion battery platform, and the Powerful 18V range for tradesmen; a revitalized woodworking portfolio; and new two kilo SDS plus hammers. Through its special historical combination of design leadership and technological expertise, form and function, AEG POWERTOOLS has established an influential presence and a reputation for innovation and solid performance under the most testing of conditions.
 
As the re-branding shows, driven by TTI’s successful leadership, it looks set to now rapidly move forward to further pioneering achievements. And this will ensure thatAEG POWERTOOLS continues its essential role of “Powering professionals since 1898”.