The Wellman Group is a group of manufacturing companies that make boilers and advanced defence equipment. It is one of the main boilermakers in the UK, if not the most common for large-scale industrial applications, having taken over many well-known boiler companies.

History

The main company began as the Wellman Smith Owen Engineering Corporation, a large conglomerate British engineering company. It derived from an English company of Samuel T. Wellman, a steel industry pioneer. It was based at Parnell House on Wilton Road in London, next to

London Victoria station Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, London, Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after ...

. It supplied furnaces to the British steel industry. The site at Oldbury has been making boilers since 1862. In August 1965 it split in several subsidiaries, including Wellman Machines (at Darlaston), Wellman Incandescent Furnace Company (at

Darlaston Darlaston is an industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It is located near Wednesbury and Willenhall. Topography Darlaston is situated between Wednesbury and Walsall in the valley of the Riv ...

, Staffordshire), Wellman Steelworks Engineering, and Wellman Incandescent International. Wellman became a private company in December 1997, when bought by

Alchemy Partners Alchemy Partners is a British private equity firm, which specialises in investing in distressed and undervalued or underperforming businesses and other special situations through debt and equity throughout Europe. Alchemy was founded in 1997 b ...

for £82 million, by setting up a nominal transitional consortium company called Newmall (an anagram of Wellman). In 2003 it formed a commercial alliance with Loos International, a German boiler maker. In August 2005, Alchemy split the company into two – Newmall, for the US subsidiaries and Really Newmall for the other subsidiaries; this became Wellman Group Ltd, owned by Kwikpower International, in the Kwikpower Wellman division. In May 2009 the company formed an alliance with Wulff Energy Technologies GmbH of

Husum Husum (, frr, Hüsem) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home o ...

to form Wellman Wulff.

Robey of Lincoln

Robey of Lincoln was an agricultural firm that went into making boilers in 1870. It was bought by

Babcock International Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

in July 1985 when Robey had a turnover of £7 million.

Structure

It is headquartered on the A457 on the western side of Oldbury, next to the

Birmingham Canal The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England. The name ''Main Line'' was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton rout ...

. It has three subsidiaries.

Wellman Hunt-Graham

Wellman Graham merged with Hunt Thermal Engineering Ltd to form Wellman Hunt-Graham in 2012. It works in the heat transfer industry. It is the UK's largest manufacturer of

shell and tube heat exchanger A shell and tube heat exchanger is a class of heat exchanger designs. It is the most common type of heat exchanger in oil refineries and other large chemical processes, and is suited for higher-pressure applications. As its name implies, this ty ...

s. Wellman Graham began in 1956 as Heat Transfer Ltd. The company changed name to Graham Manufacturing Ltd in 1977, It was sold to Wellman Group in 1995 and Changed name to Wellman Graham Ltd, and was based in Gloucester before moving its design and manufacturing facility to Oldbury in the West Midlands. Wellman Hunt Graham was acquired by Corac Group plc in 2012 and renamed to Hunt Graham Ltd, and in 2013 changed its name to Hunt Thermal Technologies. Corac Group plc was renamed as TP Group plc in 2015 and Hunt Thermal Technologies has since been renamed as TPG Engineering.

Wellman Thermal Services

This makes industrial furnaces. A division of the company, Wellman Process Engineering, makes

evaporator An evaporator is a device used to turn the liquid form of a chemical substance, such as water, into a vapor. Uses Air conditioning and refrigeration Some air conditioners and refrigerators use a compressed liquid with a low boiling point, su ...

s and crystallisers. The company makes boilers for combined heat and power schemes. Wellman-Robey boilers are made at Oldbury.

Wellman Defence

This started as the research division of John Brown Engineers and Constructors Ltd in 1957. It became part of Wellman Group in 1996.Company background
/ref> Its main significance is that it developed the equipment for purified air that allows the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

nuclear submarines A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...

to be submerged for months at a time – Submarine Atmosphere Control. This uses an

electrolyser In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses Direct current, direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of c ...

. Carbon dioxide from the submarine reacts with hydrogen from the electrolyser and is removed. It also supplies oxygen generation equipment to other countries such as France for the new ''Barracuda''-class submarine. Wellman Defence was acquired by Corac Group plc in 2012 and renamed to Atmosphere Control International. Corac Group plc was renamed as TP Group plc in 2015 and Atmosphere Control International has since been renamed as TPG Maritime

Products

* Boilers – 100 kW to 35MW * Steam boilers * Water heat recovery boilers * Furnaces – now part of the Almor Group (www.wellman-furnaces.com] * Combined heat and power schemes * Heat exchangers * Air purifiers for nuclear submarines

Installations

* The Edrington Group, North British Distillery, Edinburgh

References

External links

Wellman DefenceWellman Hunt GrahamWellman Robey BoilersEPCB Boiler WebsiteGraces Guide Profile
Companies based in the West Midlands (county) Boilers Industrial furnaces Heat exchangers Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies Defence companies of the United Kingdom Engineering companies of the United Kingdom Conglomerate companies established in 1919 1919 establishments in England Manufacturing companies established in 1919