To achieve the terrestrial measuring of length changes in gravitational waves, extremely sensitive measuring technology and vacuum technology of the Cologne based company Leybold Vacuum has been used. The tiny waves which are moving with the speed of light could not have been discovered without a gravitational wave detector like the GEO 600 at the Max Planck institute for gravitational physics in Hanover, Germany. The GEO 600 detector has played a strategically important role during the research. The GEO 600 also contains measuring equipment as well as dry compressing screw vacuum pumps of the SCREWLINE series manufactured by Leybold Vacuum. Apart from being easy to operate and as precise as possible, the measuring technology must feature a very fast operational readiness as well as short response times. In order to prove the existence of gravitational waves, further accompanying research projects were carried out simultaneously in Italy (VIRGO) and Japan (KAGRA). In addition, these two research locations were equipped with machines manufactured by Leybold Vacuum.
