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| Industry | Automotive |
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| Founded | 1924; 101 years ago (1924) |
| Founder | Vincent Bendix |
| Fate | Buyout; 2002 |
| Successor | Knorr Bremse |
| Headquarters | Avon, Ohio |
| Parent |
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| Website | www.bendix.comwww.bendix.com.au |
Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing andengineering company founded in 1924 and subsidiary ofKnorr-Bremse since 2002.
During various times in its existence, Bendix madeautomotivebrake shoes and systems,vacuum tubes, aircraft brakes, aeronautical hydraulics and electric power systems,avionics, aircraft and automobile fuel control systems,radios,televisions andcomputers. A line of home clotheswashing machines in the mid-20th century were marketed as Bendix, though those were produced by a partner company that licensed its name. As of 2025, the company focuses on the trucking and automotive industries.
Founder and inventorVincent Bendix filed for a patent for theBendix drive on May 2, 1914.[2] The drive engages thestarter motor with an internal combustion engine and is still used on most automobiles today. Bendix initially began his new corporation in a hotel room inChicago in 1914 with an agreement with the strugglingbicycle brake manufacturing firm, Eclipse Machine Company ofElmira, 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.[citation needed]
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 acquiredBragg-Kliesrath brakes in the late 1920s.[3] In 1942Ernest R. Breech became president of Bendix, moving from General Motors. After performing brilliantly for Bendix by introducing GM management philosophies, he attracted the attention ofHenry Ford II who persuaded Breech to move toFord 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 inSouth Bend, Indiana, United States. At first it manufacturedbrake systems for cars and trucks, supplying General Motors and other automobile manufacturers. Bendix manufactured bothhydraulic brake systems and a vacuum boosterTreadleVac for its production lines for decades.[citation needed] In 1924 Vincent Bendix had acquired the rights toHenri Perrot's patents forDrum brake/drum and shoe design.[a][4]
In 1956, Bendix introducedElectrojector, a multi-point electronic fuel injection system, which was optional on several 1958 models of automobiles built byChrysler.[5][6][7]
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.
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 inSylmar,California, where they had a large deep indoor pool for testing sonar. Telemetry components for theRIM-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 earlierMaxaret. 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 computerizedABS (anti-lock) system on Chrysler's 1971Imperial. Production continued for several years. Under its present ownership byHoneywell, Bendix continues[when?] to manufacture automotive brakes and industrial brakes for a wide variety of industries.[8] In 2014, Honeywell sold the Bendix trademark for automotive brakes in the US, toMAT Holdings.[9]
Many Bendix automotive, truck and industrial brakes sold in the United States usedasbestos as late as 1987.[10] Bendix's current parent, Honeywell, continues to deal with numerous lawsuits brought as a result of asbestos-containing Bendix brand brakes.[11]
A collaboration betweenFred McLafferty and Roland Gohlke and William C. Wiley and Daniel B. Harrington of Bendix Aviation in the 1950s led to the combination ofgas chromatography andmass spectrometry, and the development ofGas chromatography–mass spectrometry instrumentation. Beginning in the 1960s, Bendix producedscientific instruments such as the Bendix MA-2Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer.[12]
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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 theDashaveyor system – developed for mining and goods movements – in order to use it as the basis for anautomated 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 atTranspo '72, along with three competitors, only one Dashaveyor system was installed, the 5 km (3.1 mi) longToronto 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.
In 1929 Vincent Bendix branched out intoaeronautics and restructured the company as "Bendix Aviation" to reflect the new product lines.[13][14][15]
Bendix Aviation was founded as a holding company for the assets of Delco Aviation Corporation, Eclipse Machine Company, Stromberg Carburetor Company, and other aircraft accessory manufacturers.[16]
Bendix supplied aircraft manufacturers withhydraulic systems, for braking and flap activation, and introduced thepressure carburetor. It made a wide variety of electrical and electronic instruments for aircraft.
From 1931, it sponsored theBendix Trophy, a transcontinental U.S. point-to-point race intended to encourage the development of commercial aircraft.[citation needed]
During and afterWorld War II Bendix maderadar equipment of various types.[citation needed][17]
Bendix ranked 17th among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.[18]
Bendix aviation masks and gauges were modified and tested for use indiving andhyperbaric applications.[19][20]
In the 1950s, Bendix and its successors managedUnited States Atomic Energy Commission facilities inKansas City, Missouri andAlbuquerque, New Mexico. These facilities procured non-nuclear components fornuclear weapons.
In 1956, the computer division of Bendix Aviation introduced theBendix G-15, a mini computer which was the size of two tall filing cabinets. The company sold about 400 of these at prices starting at below US$50,000. The Bendix computer division was taken over in 1963 byControl Data Corporation, which continued to support the G-15 for a few years.
The chief designer of the G-15 wasHarry Huskey, who had worked withAlan Turing on theACE in the UK and on theSWAC in the 1950s. Huskey created most of the design while working as a professor atBerkeley and other universities, and also as a consultant.
The company was renamed to Bendix Corporation in 1960. During the 1960s the company made ground and airborne telecommunications systems forNASA. It also built theST-124-M3 inertial platform used in theSaturn V Instrument Unit which was built by the Navigation and Control Division inTeterboro, New Jersey. It also developed the firstautomobilefuel injection system in the US. In 1966 NASA selected Bendix Aerospace Systems Division inAnn Arbor, Michigan to design, manufacture, test, and provide operational support for packages of theApollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) to fly on theApollo Program.
In January 1963, theCivil Aeronautics Board (CAB) released a report stating that the "most likely abnormality" to have caused the crash ofAmerican Airlines Flight 1 on March 1, 1962, was ashort circuit caused by wires in the automatic piloting system that had been damaged in the manufacturing process. CAB inspectors had inspected units at aTeterboro, New Jersey, Bendix Corporation plant and discovered workers using tweezers to bind up bundles of wires, thus damaging them. The Bendix Corporation issued denials, stating that the units underwent 61 inspections during manufacture, in addition to inspections during installation and maintenance work, and insisted that had the insulation on the wires been breached at some point, it would have been detected and the unit replaced.
Marine
DuringWorld War II, Bendix was contracted to makeengine order telegraphs for theUnited States Navy.[21]
Although popularly connected towashing machines, the Bendix Corporation itself never manufactured them. In 1936, the company licensed its name to Bendix Home Appliances, another South Bend company founded by Judson Sayre, for a 25% stake in the company.
In 1937, Bendix Home Appliances was the first company to market a domestic automatic washing machine.[22] The 1937 Bendix Home Laundry[23] was a front-loading automatic washer with a glass porthole door, a rotating drum and an electrically driven mechanical timer. The machine was able to autofill, wash, rinse and spin-dry. Initially the lack of any vibration damper meant that the machine had to be secured firmly to the floor. The machine also lacked an internal water heater.
By the time the USA enteredWorld War II, 330,000 units had been sold. Production resumed in 1946 and reached 2,000,000 by 1950.[24]
Bendix Home Appliances was sold toAvco Manufacturing Corporation,[25] which was resold toPhilco in 1956.[26]
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Bendix first manufactured domestic radios andphonographs for the retail market after WWII as an outgrowth of its production of aircraft radios. In 1948 Bendix started to sell car radios directly toFord 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 andChrysler started producing their own radios.
Since 2002, Bendix has been a subsidiary ofKnorr-Bremse.[27] In February 2020, Bendix announced that it would be moving its headquarters fromElyria, Ohio toAvon, with an expected opening date for its new facility of November 2021.[28]
In the decades between 1970 and 1990, Bendix went through a series of mergers, sales and changes with partners or buyers includingRaytheon,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 asaircraft flight control systems.[29]
In 1982 under CEOWilliam 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 – thePac-Man Defense. Industrial conglomerateUnited Technologies joined the fray, supporting Martin Marietta in their counter-takeover bid. In the end, Bendix was rescued byAllied Corporation, acting as awhite knight. Bendix was acquired by Allied in 1983 for US$85 per share. Allied Corporation, later namedAlliedSignal, eventually boughtHoneywell 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 2002Knorr-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 featuringArchie Andrews and his friends.[30][31][32]
MAT Holdings Inc. [...] is acquiring from Honeywell International Inc. the exclusive license for the Bendix trademark for automotive braking products sold in the U.S.
Los Angeles Times
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