Xylem company history
1901 Peter Alfred Stenberg, a blacksmith and form maker, relocates to Lindås, where he buys a workshop with a foundry and starts the company P. A. Stenberg. He wants to develop his business manufacturing moulds and equipment for the glassworks in the area.
1912 The company is converted into a limited liability company, named Lindås Gjuteri & Formfabriks AB (the Lindås Foundry & Mould Factory).
1917 Peter Alfred Stenberg passes on the running of the company to his children.
1922 Engineer Hilding Flygt started sales of pumps and fans in Stockholm.
1929 Flygt advertises in the newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, for a workshop in which to manufacture pumps. Partnership with the Stenberg brothers starts in Lindås, Sweden.
1930 The pumps are designed by professor Hjalmar O. Dahl at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The first pump – the ‘Universal Pump’ – is produced in Lindås.
1947 Civil engineer Sixten Englesson, a Flygt employee, designs the prototype for the first submersible d ewatering pump – the ‘Parrot Cage’. This was revolutionary on building sites and within the mining industry.
1954 The first foreign subsidiary – Flygt Pompen NV – is opened in Holland, quickly followed by companies in Canada (1955), West Germany (1957) and the USA (1959).
1956 Sixten Englesson develops the submersible wastewater pump called the C- pump, with a discharge connection and level regulator. The C-pump quickly became as big a sales success as the B-pump.
1959 A production unit – Flygt Werk – is set up in Langenhagen, Germany. Flygt Werk relocated a few years later to Pforzheim in Southern Germany.
1961 Lindås Gjuteri & Formfabriks AB changes name to Stenberg-Flygt AB.
1968 Stenberg-Flygt AB’s owners sell the company via a share swap to American conglomerate ITT (International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation).
1970s This decade saw continuous expansion of the product range: mixers, manure pumps, large-scale wastewater pumps and propeller pumps. The Lindås plant expands with several new buildings.
1977 The company changes its name to Flygt AB.
1983 Turbine generator production starts.
1984 Manufacturing reorganization creates independent product workshops – each specializing in complete manufacture of its part of the product range. The first productspecific workshop is ready in 1985.
1989 Flygt AB acquires MacTec Control in Kristianstad, Sweden which designs, assembles and sells computerized systems for monitoring and control of pump stations, wastewater treatment plants and waterworks.
1991 The company name changes to ITT Flygt AB. The product range is expanded by two ranges of abrasion-resistant and new large capacity pumps. The company is the co-founder of the Stockholm Water Prize.
1992 A whole new generation of mixers is introduced to the market.
1994 Our pumps and mixers gain CE approval from the EU Machine Directive. A joint venture company is founded in China for the manufacture of wastewater pumps.
1995 The millionth C-pump is sold. The Swedish sales company, ITT Flygt Pump, founds a water supply and wastewater system academy. Owners ITT Corp. listed as 3 separate companies: ITT Corp., ITT Hartford, ITT Industries.
1996 In 1996, the Chinese joint venture company becomes wholly-owned by Flygt under the name of ITT Flygt (Shenyang) Pump Co. Ltd. Our biggest wastewater pump to date, the CP 3800, is launched.
1997 The Lindås factory gains certification from the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System and is registered according to the EU’s EMAS directive.
1998 Pump production passes the two million mark. All ITT Flygt’s units in Sweden are certified according to ISO 14001. The N-pump is introduced to the market.
1999 ITT Flygt acquires the American company Water Pollution Control Corporation (later the Sanitaire Corporation). Two new distribution centers opened, one in Metz, France, and one in Lindås.
2001 The company celebrates its 100th anniversary and opens a museum in Lindås./p>
2002 ITT Flygt acquires Dutch company Robot Pumps, manufacturer and vendor of submersible pumps and wastewater processing systems.
2003 ITT Flygt acquires Italian company Uniservice Wellpoint Srl and signs an agreement with German company Allweiler. These two deals added the manufacture of diesel-powered and electric centrifugal pumps, a system for lowering the water table and PC pumps.
2006 ITT Flygt acquires its biggest distributor, E. K Phelps in Florida, USA. Latin American expansion during 2006–2007 with the acquisition of four companies in Argentina, Peru, Chile and Brazil.
2007 The grid-started permanent magnetic motor is introduced. It provides higher efficiency and output, which mean lower energy consumption and thinner cables.
2008 Acquisition of Irish pump rentals company Arrow Rentals. ITT Flygt and ITT AWT (Advanced Water Treatment) merge to form ITT Water & Wastewater. Introduction of the N-chopper which effectively shreds larger objects.
2009 The adaptive N-pump impeller is launched. To improve resistance against clogging, the impeller can move upwards to allow larger objects to pass through. Active Seal, a genuine zero-leakage seal, is presented.
2010 Acquisition of Godwin Pumps, Bridgeport, New Jersey and UK. Acquisition of Finnish building trade company, Hekes. Expansion in South East Asia with companies in Singapore and Malaysia.
2011 ITT Corporation is three independent companies: ITT Corporation, Xylem and ITT Exelis. Acquisition of the remaining shares in Flygt Spain. SmartRun, an intelligent preprogrammed pump control system for wastewater pump stations, is launched.
2012 Acquisition of American rentals company Heartland Pump Rental & Sale, based in Illinois, USA and Danish water technology company MJK Automation A/S.
2013 Our two showrooms at Emmaboda and Sundbyberg are rebranded under the Xylem logo and reopened. Acquisition of Australian Monitoring & Control company MultiTrode and British company PIMS Group, focusing on water purification services.
