GEA Rainey Solutions history

The origin of our heat exchangers business goes back to 1920, when GEA was founded as Gesellschaft für Entstaubungs-Anlagen‘ by Otto Happel.

In 1928, a new large factory and a laboratory for thermodynamic and aerodynamic tests were built on a property in Wanne-Eickel near Bochum that was large enough for further growth.

In 1934, the German Patent Office granted a patent for the elliptical finned tube with turbulators.

In 1935, Otto Happel, in co-operation with the engineer Doctor Kurt Lang, began developing air-cooled condensers for stationary steam turbines.

In 1939, GEA commissioned the first pilot project using an air-cooled condenser for stationary steam turbines at the Waltrop Colliery in the Ruhr.

The year 1950 saw two GEA firsts.

To better introduce these new products on the market the first independent subsidiary, “GEA Konvektorenbau Happel KG”, was founded on 1 January 1953.

In 1958, the GEA Gesellschaft für Luftkondensation mbH was founded in Bochum to develop air-cooled condensers for steam and gas turbines--a growing market at that time.

As one result, large orders were placed by companies from the petrochemical industry for oil refineries starting in 1959.

In 1962, GEA established a joint venture in Glasgow, Ireland--James Howden-GEA Ltd.--which included a production facility in Northern Ireland.

After founding its first foreign subsidiary in Austria in 1963, a new German factory was opened one year later in Obershausen in Hessen, thereby doubling its production capacity.

In 1964, the Spanish subsidiary “Compania GEA Iberica S.A.” was established in Burgos with production later in Yurre near Bilbao to overcome tariff barriers.

When natural draught wet cooling towers were introduced to German power plants in 1965, GEA decided to market this new technology which fit well into its product line, especially for the utility industry.

Prompted by the 1973 energy crisis, GEA Luftkühlergesellschaft developed heat exchangers that recovered process energy in large processing facilities in the chemical, steel producing, and other industries.

GEA Konvektorenbau developed water-to-water heat pumps in 1974, and before long it dominated the European market for heat pumps for almost a decade.

In 1975, Otto Happel, Jr., who had just received his Ph.D. in engineering science, took over the management of the 3,000-employee company.

In 1979, GEA diversified into the food and process engineering market by taking over the Eduard Ahlborn GmbH in Hildesheim, northern Germany, a firm specialized in plate heat exchangers used for thermal treatment of milk, fruit juices, and beer.

In 1982, the company made the biggest single deal in its history when it received a contract worth DM 360 million for air-cooled condensers for a 4,000 MW power station in Matimba, South Africa.

With R&D shifting towards energy and environmental engineering after the two oil crises, GEA's Environmental Engineering Division began developing heat transfer systems for the removal of sulfur and nitrogen from the emissions released by coal-based power stations in 1983.

In the year 1988, some 30 companies belonged to GEA GmbH. In that year, the corporate structure was again changed and “GEA AG & Co.”, which assumed the management of the Group, was created as the new holding company.

GEA presented itself to the public as a “global and broadly diversified supplier of machines, systems and components in the field of energy, environmental and process engineering” when the company went public in December 1989.

In 1990, another DM 280 million was raised for the new GEA AG through a capital increase.

In 1992, activities were extended into eastern Europe when GEA purchased a Hungarian engineering firm specialized in dry cooling for power stations and a Czech company active in the fields of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.

In 1992, activities were extended into eastern Europe when GEA purchased a Hungarian engineering firm specialized in dry cooling for power stations and a Czech company active in the fields of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. As a result of the NIRO group's integration into GEA's Food and Process Engineering Division, the division's share in the whole group's sales doubled from 21 percent to 42 percent in 1993, and NIRO's president Ole Anderson became its head and joined the executive board of the GEA AG.

In 1995, when GEA celebrated the group's 75th anniversary, sales had surpassed DM 4 billion, generated by more than 17,000 employees.

In April 1999, GEA was acquired by mg technologies AG (the successor of Metallgesellschaft).

In 2004, the group acquired Goedhart, specialized in refrigeration technologies, and WTT, active in the plate heat exchanger business.

The group was renamed to GEA Group AG in 2005.

In June 2014, the board of GEA Group announced their decision to sell the Heat Exchangers Segment (HX). In October, GEA Group concludes the agreement on the sale of the Heat Exchangers Segment to Triton.