KSB Company

KSB Company

Trading name	Aktiengesellschaft
Industry	Mechanical engineering
Founded	1871
Headquarters	Frankenthal, Germany
Key people	Peter Buthmann Werner Stegmüller
Products	Pumps, valves and related services for industrial applications, building services, water and waste water management as well as energy and mining processes
Revenue	2.247 Mio EUR (2013)
Number of employees	16500 (2013)
Website	ksb.com

KSB Aktiengesellschaft is a supplier of pumps, valves and related services with headquarters in Frankenthal (Pfalz), Germany. The KSB Group has sales and marketing organisations, manufacturing facilities and service operations on all continents. The company has more than 16,500 employees, with annual consolidated sales revenue of over two billion euros; it claims a global market share of 7 percent.

1896-1945

The mechanical engineer, Johannes Klein, received a patent in 1871 on the boiler feed apparatus he invented, and founded Frankenthaler Maschinen- & Armatur-Fabrik Klein, Schanzlin & Becker with Friedrich Schanzlin and Jakob Becker From 1887 the company operated as an Aktiengesellschaft (public limited company) with Johannes Klein at its head.^[1]

KSB’s first subsidiary outside Germany was founded in Great Britain in 1896, managed by Jacob Klein, the younger brother of Johannes Klein. Between 1924 and 1934 KSB acquired further plants in Germany and set up European subsidiaries. KSB Compañía Sudamericana de Bombas in Argentina was KSB's first subsidiary in the Americas and commenced operations in 1941.

Key people in the company's history
KSB price list from 1880
Historical advertising

From 1945

The company's first Asian-Pacific subsidiary was set up in Pakistan in 1953. The companies of Pumpen AG (Homburg), Kleinschanzlin-Bestenbostel (Bremen) and AMAG-Hilpert-Pegnitzhütte AG (Nuremberg/Pegnitz) were amalgamated into Klein, Schanzlin & Becker AG.

In 1960 the KSB-Stiftung (KSB Foundation) was set up with stated aims of encouraging research in the natural sciences and supporting education in technology, natural science and economics. Otto Klein-Kühborth transferred a qualified majority holding of the company's share capital to the KSB-Stiftung (KSB Foundation) in 1964.

KSB took over French pump manufacturer, Paris-based Pompes Guinard S.A., in 1986 and acquired the world’s second-largest butterfly valve manufacturer, Paris-based Amri S.A., Paris, in 1989. In 1988 KSB entered the slurry pumps market with the acquisition of GIW Industries, Inc., Grovetown, USA. In 1990 KSB consolidated the eastern German Hallesche Pumpenwerke GmbH as part of the overall AG. The joint venture KSB Shanghai Pumps Co. Ltd. was founded in 1994. MIL Controls Ltd., Mala (Kerala), India, producer of ANSI valves and control valves, was acquired years later.

In 2003 KSB took over Dutch pump supplier DP industries B.V., producer of pumps made of deep-drawn stainless sheet steel for building services and industrial applications. In the same year, KSB acquired a majority interest in Bombas ITUR, S.A. of Zarautz, Spain, with sales in industry, building services and marine applications . KSB establishes Dalian KSB AMRI Valves Co. Ltd. in the Chinese foreign trade zone in 2004, specialising in the manufacture and assembly of butterfly valves for industrial and building services applications. One year later, KSB acquired the valve business of IVC S/A Indústria de Válvulas e Controles, a Brazilian company whose products are primarily employed in the oil and gas industry, in power stations, paper mills and other industrial applications.

In 2006 KSB received an order for valves to the value of roughly €17 million, its largest valves contract. In December 2006, the 60,000th Eta pump leaves the factory.

In 2007 the Supervisory Board approves a large investment to construct of new halls and modern production and test facilities at the Frankenthal and Halle sites. KSB’s Microchem is the first centrifugal pump for handling the very small quantities in micro-process engineering applications.

In 2008 KSB establishes joint ventures with two Asian companies. The German-Japanese cooperation Nikkiso-KSB GmbH develops and sells canned motor pumps for the European and Middle Eastern markets. The German-Chinese joint venture company Shanghai Electric-KSB Nuclear Pumps and Valves Co. manufactures safety-relevant pumps and valves for the Chinese nuclear power station market.

The German-Chinese joint venture SEC-KSB Nuclear Pumps and Valves Co. Ltd. starts constructing a factory construction in Lingang, near Shanghai, in 2009. 125 employees produce pumps, and later valves, for Chinese nuclear power stations.

In 2010 KSB acquired an 80 percent interest in ITACO s.r.l., an Italian drive specialist, producer of a new kind of energy-efficient motor that exceeds EU requirements for high-efficiency motors. The South Korean company Seil Seres Co. Ltd., manufacturer of valves for marine applications, making KSB a supplier of package and system solutions in the East Asian market.

Site in Frankenthal
Production hall and test facility for large products at the Frankenthal site
Site in Halle (Saale)

Research and Development

KSB’s technological strengths are in hydraulic engineering, materials technology and automation, with an international network of research and development facilities. The company collaborates with universities, research institutes and partner companies with a view to turning new business ideas into products as quickly as possible.

KSB Pumps Arabia Ltd

KSB Pumps Arabia is a joint venture between Luxembourg’s KSB Finanz S.A. and Abunayyan Trading. Since 1993, the company has offered a wide range of services and activities in the water, wastewater, building services, industry and energy applications such as business development and marketing, supply chain, manufacturing of booster sets and pump assemblies, selling pumps, valves and systems and technical service activities as well as training.

KSB Pumps Arabia has been heavily involved in most of the biggest district cooling projects in the Kingdom, with a market share of the more than 75 percent. KSB PA, with its qualified sales and technical support, has ensured the smooth running of these plants, some of which exceeding capacities of 100,000 tonnes of refrigeration (TR). These pumps have been designed, manufactured and tested under the toughest conditions to be able to meet the most challenging environments in Saudi Arabia.^[2]

Technical milestones

1871 Johannes Klein receives a patent on his newly invented boiler feed apparatus.
1890 Production of UNA pumps starts. This steam-driven or belt-driven, double-acting plunger pump with just a single (lat. “una”) gland packing is characterised by a high level of reliability and a long service life.
1903 KSB gradually expands its product range to include centrifugal pumps. This covers high- and low-pressure boiler feed pumps, mine drainage pumps and oil/hydrocarbon transport pumps.
1914 Modular-design ring-section pumps yield superior efficiency. Pumps can be designed for various discharge pressures by appropriate combinations of stages.
1936 KSB launches the Eta series of energy-efficient, single-stage volute casing pumps for industrial applications.
1937 With its "BOA" globe valve, KSB is the first company to market a hydraulically optimised globe valve manufactured in large numbers.
1954 KSB builds the first-ever barrel-type boiler feed pump for a steam power plant run by Chemische Werke Hüls, Germany. The pump set delivers a discharge pressure of 409 bar.
1955 KSB's first automatic production lines help assemblers put together globe and gate valves and, later on, Eta pumps.
1964 Together with German chemical companies, KSB develops the standardised chemical pump series CPK in compliance with the recently established standard.
1968 The first boiler recirculation pump with a flow rate of over 1000 cubic metres per hour is put into service. It has an efficiency of more than 84 percent.
1971 KSB engineers develop an NC vertical lathe for machining pump casings on several sides in a single machining operation.
1972 Construction of a 15 MW large pumps test facility in Frankenthal for testing reactor coolant pumps for nuclear power stations under realistic operating conditions (at 300 °C)
1973 BOA-H, the first maintenance-free, standard cast iron valve is launched on the market.
1973 The first submersible borehole pump with a 10 kV drive goes on duty at Rheinische Braunkohlenwerke in Cologne, Germany.
1975 At the new acoustics centre in Frankenthal, KSB engineers work on the development of low-noise pumps.
1977 KSB's proprietary NORI materials prolong the service life and extend the application range of KSB products.
1978 KSB puts the BOA-W line onto the valve market. The first soft-seated standard valve is able to cope with dirt in the fluid.
1980 Completion of the KSB Research Centre in Frankenthal
1982 The new Etanorm pumps are designed to be selected from a standardised performance chart.
1987 Etachrom makes its market début – a standardised pump made of rolled chrome nickel steel.
1988 KSB launches Exachem, a hermetically sealed, explosion-proof canned motor pump for chemical applications.
1989 KSB introduces BOA-Compact, a shut-off globe valve with short face-to-face length.
1998 KSB takes compact valve technology a step further and starts marketing the BOA-SuperCompact globe valve with slanted soft seat.
1999 The new BOA-Control IMS balancing valve works on the calorimetric principle of heat-flow measurement.
1999 KSB launches the Hya-Rain plug-in rainwater harvesting system with integrated mains water back-up function for building services applications.
2000 The Hya-Drive electric motor with integrated frequency inverter enables continuous pump speed control.
2001 KSB presents the first intelligent submersible motor pump. Ama-Porter ICS is sensor-controlled and needs no float switches.
2001 The largest boiler feed pump ever produced by KSB, with a drive rating of 40 MW, goes into service at the lignite-fired Niederaussem power station near Cologne, Germany.
2004 KSB introduces a new system for use in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination. The system, called SalTec, enables energy costs to be reduced compared with conventional turbine solutions through hydraulic power transmission.
2010 KSB presents a river turbine that is able to use the kinetic energy of flowing water (see also Pressure to generate electricity. Unlike storage power stations no barrier structures are required, however for the same reason the energy yield is significantly lower
2012 At the end of March 2012, series production of the high-efficiency electric motor type series KSB SuPremE® commences at the Halle (Saale) site of KSB Aktiengesellschaft. It is the world's first synchronous reluctance motor to be series-produced. Presented as a prototype at the Hannover Messe back in 2009, the drive achieves efficiency level IE4 to IEC/CD 60034-30 Ed. 2 without using magnetic materials.[6].^[3]
2013 The new Etanorm is the seventh generation of standardised water pumps to be launched on the market. The first Eta generation was introduced in 1963.

References

External links

Official website

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