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.