Sulzer Brothers
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of Switzerland
Office at 31 Bedford Square, London W.C.1.
Sulzer Ltd. is a Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm established in 1834 in Winterthur, Switzerland, by Johann Jacob Sulzer. His sons, Johann Jakob and Salomon produced cast iron, built fire extinguishers, pumps, and apparatus for the textile industry; later they also started installing heaters.[1]
Today it is a publicly owned company with international subsidiaries. The company's shares are listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange.
1834 Gebruder Sulzer was founded; one of the processes it carried out was wire drawing.
Sulzer Brothers helped develop shuttleless weaving; their core business was loom manufacture.
1839 New and larger works had to be erected, and a steam engine was employed for power purposes.
1840 The manufacture of steam-heating apparatus was undertaken
In 1851 Charles Brown was invited to start building steam locomotives at Sulzer Brothers in Winterthur.
1859 The firm began building steam engines
1879 Rudolf Diesel worked for Sulzer
1889 Triple expansion 100 HP engine exhibited at the 1889 Paris Exhibition. It had a single-acting high-pressure cylinder of 350 mm. (13.78 in.) in diameter, a single-acting intermediate pressure cylinder of 525mm. (20.67 in.) diameter, and a double-acting low-pressure cylinder of 700 mm. (27.56 in.) diameter. The stroke was 750 mm. (29.53 in.), and the speed range 85-100 rpm 85 to 100 per minute. The first cylinder was movable on wheels so that it could be easily drawn back upon the rails, without dismounting any of the pipes; a coupling on the valve shaft enabled the valves to accompany the cylinder in its motion. The three pistons formed a single piece, and to prevent leakage from the high pressure to the low-pressure cylinder there was a double set of piston rings. The steam was admitted first to the rear of the high pressure piston ; then it flowed to the front of the intermediate pressure piston, and from there it went alternately to the front and to the back of the low-pressure piston, which was thus double-acting. The areas of the two sides of the low-pressure piston were not identical. The three cylinders were jacketted ; the passage from the first to the second was by a pipe, while from the second to the third it was direct.[2]. See illustration, which indicates the complexity of the cylinder.
1893 Sulzer bought certain rights to diesel engines.
1898 Sulzer built their first diesel engine.
1909 Sulzer started to build compressors.
1914 The family firm is transformed into three joint-stock companies, one of which is the holding company.
Sulzer developed a series of traction engines (motors?) in the 1930s and 1940s which were used extensively in the UK, Europe and South America . A small number were used in locomotives in South Africa and Australia. Several experimental diesels were built in the US.
1932 Private company. See Sulzer Brothers (London)
1936 Took over the business of Hathorn, Davey and Co of Leeds
1961 Mechanical engineers producing diesel engines for marine, stationary and railway traction purposes; gas turbines; axial and centrifugal compressors for blast furnace and similar duties; pumping installations for water supply, sewage, drainage and similar purposes; boiler feed and circulating pumps for power stations; high pressure pipelines for hydro-electric undertakings; heating, ventilation and air conditioning for factories and commercial buildings; boiler plant; automatic weaving machines for cottons, woollens and worsteds; special plant for the chemical industries; castings and a wide variety of ancillary and associated equipment. 1,000 employees. [3]
1961 Sulzer acquired the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory (SLM), Winterthur, which marked the beginning of the boom in the large diesel-engine business.
1963 Sulzer acquired a 53 percent share in Escher Wyss AG, Zurich
1969 Took over Escher Wyss completely. As a result, employee figures rose to more than thirty thousand.
1968 Material technology activities are intensified and form the basis for medical technology products. The fundamental change from a machine-building company to a technology corporation starts to become apparent.
1982 Sulzer acquired the Rüti machine factory leading to a strong expansion of the weaving-machinery business.
1984 For the first time in many years, the corporation recorded a net loss and does not pay out a dividend to its shareholders.
1985 Sulzer took control of Plasma Technik AG, materials and surface technology business.
1990 Production at the Winterthur factory ended as part of a move to streamline the product areas. The diesel engine business was sold to the new Sulzer diesel company, in which Sulzer owns a minor part.
1997 Sulzer Medica became a public company. Sulzer pursues a dual strategy: medical technology and industrial business.
1998 The engineering sector of SLM (Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory) was sold to Adtranz Switzerland.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Wikipedia
- ↑ Engineering 1890/04/04
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE