Deublin

About Deublin: The World Leader in Rotary Unions

Deublin Company has been engineering precision fluid transfer solutions since 1945, when founders Luke Deubler and Dick Linn introduced an innovative rotating union design built around balanced mechanical seals. That original breakthrough — solving the rapid seal wear plaguing printing presses and industrial machinery of the era — set the company on a trajectory that would make it the world's foremost manufacturer of rotary unions and electrical slip rings.

Headquartered in Waukegan, Illinois, Deublin operates globally with wholly owned subsidiaries spanning Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom. This international presence ensures that engineers and maintenance professionals in virtually every major industrial market have access to Deublin's engineering expertise and product support.

What Deublin Makes

At the core of Deublin's catalog is a comprehensive range of rotary unions — mechanical devices that transfer pressurized fluid from a stationary supply line into a rotating machine component. These unions handle an exceptionally wide range of media, including water, air, hydraulic oil, coolant, steam, cutting oil, MQL (minimum quantity lubrication), nitrogen, and more. They are available in single-passage and multi-passage configurations, with sizes ranging from 1/8" to 12" and pressure ratings reaching up to 1,100 bar in select series.

Deublin's product portfolio also includes electrical slip rings, which transmit electrical power and data signals across a rotating interface — critical in applications such as semiconductor wafer processing, wind turbines, robotics, and automated manufacturing cells. The 2024 acquisition of Diamond-Roltran, the world's leading maker of maintenance-free Roll-Ring® slip rings, further strengthened Deublin's capabilities in this space.

Patented Technologies That Set Deublin Apart

What distinguishes Deublin from competitors is its deep investment in proprietary sealing technology. The patented Pop-Off® system separates seals when fluid pressure is absent, eliminating wear caused by dry running — a common problem in machine tool spindle applications. The AutoSense® technology automatically detects whether the medium is coolant, MQL, or dry air and adjusts seal behavior accordingly, protecting against premature damage. The SpindleShield® system monitors for coolant leakage and alerts the machine operator before spindle contamination can occur, reducing costly unplanned downtime.

Industries Served

Deublin rotary unions and slip rings are found across a remarkably broad spectrum of industries. Machine tool spindle cooling, hydraulic clamping systems, and through-spindle coolant delivery are among the most common manufacturing applications. Beyond the shop floor, Deublin products support renewable energy systems including wind turbines, oil and gas drilling equipment, semiconductor fabrication, paper and corrugating machinery, food and beverage processing, plastics manufacturing, steel continuous casting, and aerospace and defense systems.

In 2019, after 74 years as a family-owned enterprise, Deublin joined the HOERBIGER Group — a Switzerland-headquartered industrial holding company with operations in more than 40 countries. This partnership has accelerated Deublin's product development, expanded its global service network, and reinforced its position as the benchmark name in rotary transmission technology.