Development of our company
Our company is now based on the experience of 100 years of continuous research and development, project work and designing.
This means more than nine decades of successful market- and especially customer-oriented product development according to the latest technical standards.
1908
Wilhelm Wiegand obtained the patent for a multi-effect circulation evaporator
1920
Foundation of the firm of machine engineers Wilhelm Wiegand GmbH in Merseburg
1930
Opening of the Jet Pump Department
1937
First 5-effect evaporation plant for potassium bicarbonate
1948
Reestablishment of Wiegand Apparatebau GmbH in Karlsruhe
1953
Introduction onto the market of the falling film evaporator
1957
Building of our own test center in Karlsruhe
First evaporation plant with mechanical vapor recompressor
1967
First spiral tube evaporator for high-viscous products
1970
Move to the new company premises in Ettlingen
1971
Delivery of the 1,000th falling film evaporation plant
1973
First 6-effect evaporation plant
1977
20th patent registration since 1948 in the evaporation sector in 17 countries
1984
Entry into the GEA group
1986
Start of our own evaporator manufacture in Beckum
Construction of an evaporation plant for thin juice with an evaporation rate of 475 tons/hr
1990
Foundation of GEA Wiegand Arnstadt GmbH in Thuringia/Germany
1991
Delivery of the 3,000th evaporation plant
Construction of the first fluidized bed evaporation plant
1992
Construction of a rectification and recovery plant for 60,000 l/d alcohol
Delivery of 2 evaporators with a total heating surface of more than 11,000 m²
1993
Commissioning of the first fluidized bed drying plant
1994
Certification according to DIN EN ISO 9001
Manufacture authorized by UDT, the Polish Technical Inspection Board
1996
Modernization of the Research and Development Center
1997
First manufacture of evaporators in China
Authorization to build pressure vessels in accordance with US regulations (ASME U-Stamp)
1998
Commissioning of the first key-turn alcohol line for 60,000 l/d in East Europe
1999
Transfer of the jet pump activities to the GEA Jet Pumps GmbH
2002
Opening of a Membrane Filtration Department
2004
Commissioning of 3 Bioethanol Production Plants with molecular sieve technology
2007
Turn-key Bioethanol plant for 100,000 tonnes/year