January 2008 – In 1908, Wilhelm Wiegand got a patent for a multi-effect circulation evaporator. At that time the inventor worked as the factory manager of his father's leather factory. The new Wiegand evaporator had many advantages over the single-effect evaporators which were used in the glue industries and therefore, it could gain new fields of applications within a very short time. The use of jet pumps for vapour recompression further increased the economy of the evaporators.
On this basis, in 1930 the range of products was expanded to steam jet pumps, steam jet cooling systems and crystallization plants. In 1948, the company moved to Western Germany, to Karlsruhe. In 1958, the Wiegand research and development centre with numerous test benches and test equipments was commissioned. Until today, thousands of evaporation tests and many acceptance tests of jet pumps are carried out in this R&D centre.
The continuous upward trend of the company together with an increase of workforce lead to the move in 1970 to today's head office in Ettlingen. Other milestones were the joining of GEA Group in 1984, and in 1999 the conversion of the vacuum systems business sector into an independent company, GEA Jet Pumps GmbH.
Today, both companies generate sales of more than 100 mio. Euros. The main field of sales of GEA Wiegand GmbH is the chemical industry, the food industry and the bio-ethanol industry, whereas GEA Jet Pumps' main field of activity is the mineral oil industry, chemical industry, steel degassing and sea water desalination. From the technological point of view, both companies are world-wide market leaders in the fields of evaporation, distillation and vacuum systems. Numerous patents and in many cases the first-time application and introduction of processes during 100 years of company history are an impressive substantiation for this.
The centenary will be celebrated with several events in the course of the year. The official ceremonial act for our customers and suppliers is scheduled for 12 June 2008.