Корпорация Bendix: История американского производителя

Defunct American corporation

Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company which, during various times in its existence, made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft brakes, aeronautical hydraulics and electric power systems, avionics, aircraft and automobile fuel control systems, radios, televisions and computers. It was also well known for the name Bendix, as used on home clothes washing machines in the mid 20th century, but those were produced by a partner company that licensed their name.

Founder and inventor Vincent Bendix filed for a patent for the Bendix drive on May 2, 1914. The drive engages the starter motor with an internal combustion engine and is still used on most automobiles today. Bendix initially began his new corporation in a hotel room in Chicago in 1914 with an agreement with the struggling bicycle brake manufacturing firm, Eclipse Machine Company of Elmira, New York. Bendix granted permission to his invention which was described as "a New York device for the starting of explosive motors." This company made a low cost triple thread screw which could be used in the manufacture of other drive parts. By using this screw with the Eclipse Machine Company, Bendix had a good foundation for his future business plans.

General Motors purchased a 24% interest in Bendix in 1924, not to operate Bendix but to maintain a direct and continuing contact with developments in aviation, as the engineering techniques of the auto and aircraft were quite similar then. In the 1920s, Bendix owned and controlled many important patents for devices applicable to the auto industry. For example, brakes, carburetors, and starting drives for engines. It acquired Bragg Kliesrath brakes in the late 1920s. In 1942 Ernest R. Breech became president of Bendix, moving from General Motors. After performing brilliantly for Bendix by introducing GM management philosophies, he attracted the attention of Henry Ford II who persuaded Breech to move to Ford where he finished his career. By 1940 Bendix had sales running c. $40 million. In 1948, General Motors sold its interest in Bendix as GM wanted to focus on its expanding automotive operations. Bendix was formally founded in 1924 in South Bend, Indiana, United States. At first it manufactured brake systems for cars and trucks, supplying General Motors and other automobile manufacturers. Bendix manufactured both hydraulic brake systems and a vacuum booster TreadleVac for its production lines for decades. In 1924 Vincent Bendix had acquired the rights to Henri Perrot's patents for Drum brake/drum and shoe design. In the 1960s, Bendix automotive brakes blossomed with the introduction of fixed caliper disc brakes and the "Duo Servo" system (which became, virtually, a de facto world standard for drum brakes). During the 1960s, Bendix also dabbled in bicycle hardware, producing a reliable, totally self contained, 2 speed "Kick Back" planetary rear axle with coaster braking. Also, just as reliable, was the Bendix "Red Band" and "Red Band II" single speed coaster brake hub. followed by the Bendix "70" and Bendix "80" hub. Considered one of the best hubs on the market, at the time. When Allied Signal took over Bendix in the 1980s, it quickly divested the brake and steering division to TRW to focus on aerospace applications and railcars. (TRW had already assumed control over Lucas Girling Brake Division years earlier.) The Bendix Electronic Control Unit division was divested to Siemens VDO; a part of giant Robert Bosch GmbH and formed the foundation of the VW Digifant system and later Bosch Motronic Electronic Control Units introduced in the late 1980s. In the fall of 2018, TRW was assumed by ZF Ind of Germany and the Bendix brake trademark was licensed to Germany's OPTIMAL, where it resides today. Starting in the 1950s or before, Bendix Pacific designed, tested, and manufactured hydraulic components and systems, primarily for the military. In the same facility, avionics and other electronic hardware was designed, manufactured, and documented in technical manuals. Much of this operation was relocated to a new facility in Sylmar, California, where they had a large deep indoor pool for testing sonar. Telemetry components for the RIM 8 Talos surface to air missile included transmitters and oscillators in various frequency bands as well as the missile itself were designed and built by Bendix. They built and installed the telemetry system in all the ground stations for the first crewed space flights. For this program, they developed the first cardio tachometer and respiration rate monitor system which enabled a ground based physician to observe an astronaut's vital signs. MK46 torpedo electronics also came from this facility. Other diverse products included radar detectors in aircraft that identified ground missile tracking and ground missiles launched at aircraft. In the 1960s they produced an anti lock brake system for military aircraft using established technology similar to Dunlop's earlier Maxaret. The technology is similar to the notched wheel and reluctor now used in cars. Bendix Scintilla manufactured MIL SPEC electrical connectors of many styles. Criteria were met for hostile and non hostile environments that provided seals against liquids and gasses. In 1971, Bendix introduced the world's first true computerized ABS (anti lock) system on Chrysler's 1971 Imperial. Production continued for several years. Under its present ownership by Honeywell, Bendix continues to manufacture automotive brakes and industrial brakes for a wide variety of industries. In 2014, Honeywell sold the Bendix trademark for automotive brakes in the US, to MAT Holdings. Many Bendix automotive, truck and industrial brakes sold in the United States used asbestos as late as 1987. Bendix's current parent, Honeywell, continues to deal with numerous lawsuits brought as a result of asbestos containing Bendix brand brakes.

A collaboration between Fred McLafferty and Roland Gohlke and William C. Wiley and Daniel B. Harrington of Bendix Aviation in the 1950s led to the combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, and the development of Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry instrumentation. Beginning in the 1960s, Bendix produced scientific instruments such as the Bendix MA 2 Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer.

Bendix manufactured Radiological Dosimeters for Civil Defense during the cold war, they also made a Family Radiation measurement kit for home use, which included a CDV 746 dosimeter and a CDV 736 Rate meter, which looked like a dosimeter. Dosimeters manufactured by Bendix for the Office of Civil Defense included: CDV 138; CDV 730; CDV 736 Ratemeter; CDV 740; CDV 742, the version most commonly used by Civil Defense; and CDV 746. The Dosimeters measured in Roentgens an hour, which is the standard measurement for ionising radiation.

In the late 1960s Bendix purchased the rights to the Dashaveyor system – developed for mining and goods movements – in order to use it as the basis for an automated guideway transit (AGT) system, during the heyday of urban transport research in the late 1960s. Often referred to as the Bendix Dashaveyor in this form, the system used the basic design of the cargo system, but with a larger passenger body running on rubber wheels. Although it was demonstrated at Transpo '72, along with three competitors, only one Dashaveyor system was installed, the long Toronto Zoo Domain Ride which operated from 1976 until its closure in 1994 following an accident due to poor maintenance. Bendix ceased marketing the system by 1975 after it failed to attract interest.

Bendix first manufactured domestic radios and phonographs for the retail market after WWII as an outgrowth of its production of aircraft radios. In 1948 Bendix started to sell car radios directly to Ford and other auto manufacturers. From 1950 to 1959, Bendix made television sets. Production of radios for the retail trade grew quickly in the 1950s, but stopped quickly in the 1960s when Ford, General Motors and Chrysler started producing their own radios.

Since 2002, Bendix has been a subsidiary of Knorr Bremse. In February 2020, Bendix announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Elyria, Ohio to Avon, with an expected opening date for its new facility of November 2021.

In the decades between 1970 and 1990, Bendix went through a series of mergers, sales and changes with partners or buyers including Raytheon, Allied Signal and others. This diluted its corporate identity, though for some years these companies used the Bendix brand for some of their products, such as aircraft flight control systems. In 1982 under CEO William Agee, Bendix launched a hostile takeover bid of the conglomerate, Martin Marietta. Bendix bought the majority of Martin Marietta shares and in effect owned the company. However, Martin Marietta's management used the short time between ownership and control to sell non core businesses and launch its own hostile takeover of Bendix – the Pac Man Defense. Industrial conglomerate United Technologies joined the fray, supporting Martin Marietta in their counter takeover bid. In the end, Bendix was rescued by Allied Corporation, acting as a white knight. Bendix was acquired by Allied in 1983 for US$85 per share. Allied Corporation, later named AlliedSignal, eventually bought Honeywell and adopted the Honeywell name, and Bendix became a Honeywell brand. Honeywell's Transportation Systems division carried the Bendix line of brake shoes, pads and other vacuum or hydraulic subsystems, and the Bendix/King brand of avionics. In 2002 Knorr Bremse took over the commercial vehicle brake business from Honeywell, and Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems became a subsidiary of Knorr Bremse.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Archie Comics ran comic strip ads for Bendix brakes for bicycles featuring Archie Andrews and his friends.