High vacuum engineers and makers of emission abatement technology of Lower Sydenham (to 1953)
of Crawley (post 1953)
1919 F. D. Edwards began importing vacuum equipment.
1919 Company founded by William Edwards and Frederick David Edwards in Allendale Road, Camberwell, South London helped by the latter's wife - Edwards Equipment and Services
1939 F. D. Edwards began manufacturing vacuum equipment
1940 Private company: W. Edwards and Co
1953 The company moved from Lower Sydenham to new head office and factory in Crawley
1954 W. Edwards and Co (London) Ltd incorporated as a public company
1955 The name of the company was changed to Edwards High Vacuum Ltd[1].
1955 Acquisition of Alto Vuoto SpA, a freeze drying manufacturer in Italy
1956 Joint venture company, Efco-Edwards Vacuum Metallurgy formed with Efco to offer complete metallurgical installations[2]
1958 Acquisition of J. H. Holmes and Son Ltd of Shoreham, a major manufacturing operation, machining under sub-contract (now the base for primary and dry pump manufacturing operations).
1961 High vacuum engineers, makers of rotary vacuum pumps, compressor and vacuum pumps, mechanical and vapour booster pumps, diffusion pumps, all types of high vacuum measuring instruments, high vacuum valves and accessories and vacuum plant.
1960s public company
1968 Supplied vacuum pumps for IMI when they opened the first liquid-metal-cooled vacuum titanium-melting furnace at Birmingham.
1968 Edwards acquired by BOC
1974 Mr. R. H. Robinson was appointed group director of Edwards High Vacuum International, a member of the BOC Group of companies.[3]
1984 Edwards patented the Drystar dry (oil-free) vacuum pump; launch of the dry claw pump into the semiconductor market.
1992 Acquisition from Electrotech Ltd. of Plasma Products, a start-up company focused on developing semiconductor exhaust gas management and scrubbing systems.
1997 Acquired Systems Chemistry, manufacturer of chemical management systems.
1997 BOC Edwards formed with the integration of Edwards vacuum business with BOC electronic gases business to serve the semiconductor industry.
1999 Acquisition of the chemical management division of FSI International.
2001 Acquisition of the vacuum and pressure business from Smiths Group, which included Stokes Vacuum, Hick Hargreaves and Hibon. Acquisition of the turbomolecular pump business from Seiko Instruments Inc.
2006 BOC acquired by Linde AG; the Hibon pressure business was sold to Ingersoll Rand.
2007 Edwards became an independent, privately-owned company
2008 Edwards announced iXH NEXT-Generation Vacuum Pump
2010 Edwards' first screw pump released
2012 Edwards Group shares listed on NASDAQ
See Also
Sources of Information
- 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- The Engineer of 10th May 1968 p742
- Edwards website [1]
- The Times, Monday, May 31, 1954
[2] Science Museum Collections