AMARA OHRMANN Ltd.: History

01 History - The Amara Company Limited and The Amara Company (1992) Limited

1953 The Amara Company was incorporated.
1960 John L. Agnew developed and patented the original Expand-O-Ring Mk1 in the early 1960?s.

The original machine was redeveloped and presented as the Expand-O-Ring Mk2-1 in the latter part of that decade.

In addition, in response to customer requests, a machine was developed to insert seals into the i.d. of pneumatic fittings.
1972 filed for Patent for 1st Amara designed - "Expand-O-Ring" machine. Machine character took on machine green as a base colour that would dominate all machines for the next 20 years.
1979 Amara built its first stand alone automatic, horizontal axis machine. While still pneumatically controlled, these machines offered customers high speed, reliable automation, requiring little operator interface.
1981 First overseas sale - German based company - seal on technical drawing pen for Koor-I-Noor industries. Feed rate of 1200 parts per hour.

First application developed for the automotive industry to assemble external rubber O-Ring on a brake component part.
1982 Developed the first machine to assemble scarf-cut Teflon seals.

1985 Working in collaboration with a customer, Amara built their first PLC controlled fully automatic machine. By the end of that year, all Amara machines were PLC controlled.
1991 Amara was contracted to build three stand-alone machines directly for Saturn. The machines were tooled to complete the assembly of large diameter 'o' rings and Teflon seals to a series of components for the Powertrain division. The experience gained in the mechanical and controls design through this project was instrumental in the development of the standards used in all Amara machines built since that time.

John L. Agnew, the founder of the company passes away.

1992 A new company formed, The Amara Company (1992) Limited was founded and assumed the operations of The Amara Company Limited. Robert Leo & Mary Agnew-Leo are the new owners, Robert Leo president and CEO.

The new company was awarded two separate contracts to provide a total of 42 vertical access stations to two integrators for lines of automation being built for Kelsey Hayes. This begins a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the two companies.
1995 To accommodate an increase of 85% in sales, Amara moved into a larger facility. The range of standard seal assembly equipment, together with the ability to adapt or modify that standard equipment to suit special applications combined with the creativity and expertise to develop unique, one of a kind solutions for all types of external and internal seal assembly contributed to continued growth.
1999 Developed a system to feed and assemble lathe cut square section seals to the i.d. of the bore on brake calipers. This system was provided to a larger integrator as a station on the full caliper assembly line. A designer, from the integrator, who had explored various methods to complete this assembly, commented that he would never have come up with the simple design that was presented. Amara has since provided over 20 of these systems as stations on automated lines.
2001 - 2002 Latest innovations include "Guts-in-a door and Guts-in-a-drawer" easy access maintenance features on bench-top machines and automated vertical access stations.
2006 The Amara Company (1992) Limited becomes part of OHRMANN MONTAGETECHNIK, Europe?s premier manufacturer of o-ring and seal assembly automation.