MATERIALS & PRECISION
Advanced Manufacturing
Drives measured in fractions of a millimetre, fasteners that hold up skyscrapers, and the quality systems behind them.
The Alpine region's industrial strength is strangely invisible: the motors that moved NASA's Mars helicopters, the anchors that hold up tunnels and towers, the ceramic and steel components inside products whose labels belong to other companies. Precision manufacturing here is an ecosystem of medium-sized, often family-owned firms that dominate narrow technical niches.
Two things sustain this model. One is apprenticeship: a training tradition that keeps fine mechanical skill in steady supply. The other is proximity to demanding customers — Swiss watchmaking, medical technology, aerospace and construction — who tolerate no compromise in reliability.
In this topic the Atlas explains how these products are made, what engineering principles they rely on, and why the region keeps winning work where failure is not an option.
Founded in 1961 in Sachseln in the Swiss canton of Obwalden, maxon builds precision electric drives whose ironless motors have gone to work in NASA's Mars rovers and the Ingenuity helicopter — and in surgical tools, prosthetics and industrial robots on Earth.
Founded in 1941 in Schaan by the brothers Martin and Eugen Hilti, this family-owned group supplies the world's construction sites with fastening technology, diamond drilling and fire-protection systems — around 32,000 team members in more than 120 countries.