LINAK U.S.

In 1976, newly graduated Bent Jensen took over Christian Jensen & Sons, a family business founded by his grandfather. Since its founding in 1907, the company had evolved very little. Its prime focus was still within agricultural manufacturing – e.g., flat belt pulleys, V-belt pulleys, grinding mills, and forges.

Jensen saw no future for this line of business, so it was with some reluctance he took the job. However, he and his wife, Lene Jensen, gave themselves five years to come up with a new and better business idea.

The idea came to Bent Jensen one day in a conversation with a friend from his school days. The friend had a disability, and the two friends came up with an idea of a way to adjust the wheelchair – and thus the electric linear actuator was born!

Bent Jensen loved the idea so much that he decided to develop it further. In 1979 – less than a year later – the first prototype appeared. And, when Jensen received the first large order for 2,000 units for forage harvesters, he never looked back.

In 1984, the company name changed to LINAK – short for ‘Lineær Aktuator’. To this day LINAK is still discovering new potential for electric linear actuators.