Pump and Compressor Solutions for OEM Customers Worldwide
Experience Combined with Innovation
Compact, quiet and efficient, Thomas compressors are found in the world’s finest home and restaurant coffeemakers.
With compressor experience extending back nearly eight
decades, Thomas boasts a base of air-moving knowledge
few companies in the world can match. Add to this a
multi-disciplinary, internationally grounded engineering
staff nearly 100 strong – averaging 20-plus years of OEM
know-how – and Thomas stands alone. But experience is
of little value if you’re stuck in the past.
That’s why Thomas is committed to remaining in the forefront
of pressure and vacuum technology – not only understanding,
but also anticipating our customers’ requirements. You can
see this in revolutionary developments like our invention of
the WOB-L® Piston pump, today’s dominant pressure/vacuum
technology for OEM applications. And you can see it in the
evolutionary developments happening every day – advances
that extend service-free life, pack more flow into smaller
packages, reduce noise and vibration, or deliver pressure
and vacuum with unprecedented operating efficiencies.
The innovative twin-head Thomas Model 1420 miniature diaphragm
pump produces exceptional air flow from such a compact product,
making it ideally suited to many medical and business equipment
applications. The pump is less than three inches high and weighs
under a half pound.
1928 Electric Sprayit Company is founded in Chicago, manufacturing blowers and air compressors. The company later moves to Milwaukee, then to Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
1948-1960 An investment group headed by Lee B. Thomas acquires Electric Sprayit, spurring a period of rapid post-war growth under the name Thomas Industries.
1961 Thomas Industries launches an OEM-focused compressor product line, which has been continually expanded through the years.
1976Thomas employees Arthur Droege Sr. and Richard Bell patent the WOB-L® Piston pump, setting new standards for performance and value, and opening up vast new opportunities for OEM applications in medical, industrial and consumer products.
1985-1987 Thomas forms a joint venture with, then acquires Germany’s ASF GmbH & Company (both Wuppertal and Memmingen operations), a major player in miniature pressure and vacuum pump technology.
1988Thomas acquires FL Pneumotive of Monroe, Louisiana, a specialist in heavy-duty articulated piston compressors.
1996-1999Thomas acquires Welch Vacuum of Skokie, Illinois, a leader in laboratory pumps, then Oberdorfer Pumps of Syracuse, New York, a centrifugal pump maker.
2005 Gardner Denver, Inc., of Quincy, Illinois, the leading worldwide manufacturer of compressors, blowers and pumps, acquires Thomas Industries. OEM pump technologies are now consolidated in Thomas Products Division. Wuxi, China facility opened.
1990-1992 New market development in Asia and South America supplements traditional strongholds in North America and Europe.
2002Thomas acquires Rietschle GmbH of Germany, a large manufacturer of precision-engineered pumps and compressors.
a focus on helping OEMs Succeed
Thomas sales specialists and application engineers draw on a wealth of both technical and commercial experience to help guide OEMs to the optimum product for their needs.
Simply put, we’re specialists in serving original equipment
manufacturers. In fact, over 90 percent of everything we produce
goes into an OEM product, either at the initial manufacturing
point or as aftermarket pumps and components sold through
distribution. While Thomas customers come from a multitude
of industries with diverse applications, they share a common
characteristic. All are looking for better ways, searching for
solutions that improve performance while offering extreme
value – and very often with accelerated speed to market.
Our investment in the people, processes and equipment to meet
essential OEM needs is unmatched in the industry. We routinely
deliver the fi rst prototypes with two weeks of an order, then
consistently beat production and delivery schedules. But we’re
most proud of providing solutions that are exactly on target,
solutions that help make our customers’ products better and
more successful – time and time again.
Product Line Breadth and Depth
Within the vast engineering database at Thomas are detailed
specifications for thousands upon thousands of standard product
designs using a wide range of pressure and vacuum technologies
including WOB-L® Piston, articulated piston, diaphragm, rotary
vane, linear and peristaltic. It is a resource that’s the envy of every
other company in our business. Yet the majority of the pumps and
compressors we deliver to our OEM customers are not in our
design library – not exactly, anyway.
Instead, our standard designs provide a critical, pre-engineered
head start to the custom products that OEMs require. These
products must meet specific application requirements for
envelope size, mountings, electrical connections, service life,
output characteristics, and more. From our proven platforms,
the ideal custom pressure or vacuum solution can be quickly
and efficiently designed, prototyped and manufactured to meet
the customer’s precise needs.
Thomas pumps like these are found in medical and pharmaceutical
equipment, automobiles, business machines, printing presses,
packaging machines, environmental systems and vending machines,
among other applications. Our six major pump technologies deliver
pressure, vacuum, or both – or move liquids at flows appropriate to a
multitude of OEM applications.
Thomas is a true global manufacturing company with operations
on three continents. All share a management mandate to
continuously examine processes and procedures, continuously
improve performance, continuously delight our customers.
And while our quality certifications such as ISO 9001:2000
and ISO 13485:2003 might be viewed by some as factory-based,
they are in fact deployed systemically across all Thomas
business endeavors worldwide.
Most of all, Thomas has focused its operations on the needs
of OEMs for reduced lead times, unwavering reliability, and
seamless adaptation to changing product requirements.
Today, the buzzword is mass customization – the ability to
produce tailored products in significant quantities, then to
deliver with speed and accuracy. As a company dedicated to
serving OEMs for nearly a half century, Thomas defined mass
customization long before the term came into vogue.
Thomas factories – totaling over 744,000 square feet – blend the latest
in flexible automation with the skills and dedication of experienced
employees. Our Quality Management System is structured within an
ISO framework and draws on elements of lean manufacturing, Six
Sigma, Kaizen and other initiatives. The result is an integrated business
practice that makes quality an ongoing imperative in everything we do.
World-Class Manufacturing
Global Strength and Resources
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Gardner Denver, the parent of Thomas Products Division, offers extensive
technological, sales, sourcing, logistics and support synergies benefiting
our customers around the world. Our sister Gardner Denver companies
are widely recognized as international leaders in reciprocating, rotary
and vane compressors, liquid ring pumps and blowers for industrial and
transportation applications, pumps used in the petroleum and industrial
markets, and other fluid transfer equipment serving chemical, petroleum
and food industries.
The Thomas footprint is worldwide. You can see it in our modern
manufacturing operations and major support centers in North
America, Europe and Asia. And you can see it in dozens upon
dozens of countries through the Thomas network of sales and
service locations, as well as through affiliations within Gardner
Denver, Inc., our parent company.
But our global perspective is not built on brick and mortar
locations alone. It also rests on a company-wide drive to
translate the knowledge we’ve gained and capabilities we
offer into exemplary service to our customers the world over.
And at its core is our commitment to engineer, manufacture
and provide customer service that not only meet the needs of a
broad global marketplace, but also the local needs of any given
area within the world.
SaLES OffICES anD TEChnICaL SuPPORT CEnTERS
s Hong Kong
s Toyko
s Alton
Australia
Austria
Brazil
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
s Sales Offices
ManufaCTuRInG LOCaTIOnS (Also handle technical support)
l Sheboygan, WI USA – Headquartersl Monroe, LA USAl Puchheim, Germanyl Memmingen, Germanyl Wuxi, China
Hungary
Italy
Korea
Netherlands
New Zealand
Slovakia
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
1419 Illinois AvenueSheboygan, WI 53082
USA
Tel: +1 920 457 4891Fax: +1 920 451 4237
rtpumps.com/she
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