Blackmer Beginnings
In 1899, the rotary pump was synonymous with the gear pump — the industry standard of the day. But it had a glaring flaw: as the teeth wore down, the flow rate decreased. Operators had no choice but to accept the slow, steady decline in performance since this was the technology available at the time.
Robert M. Blackmer refused to accept that. Convinced that the real solution lay in vanes, not gears, he invented a revolutionary rotary vane pump that self-adjusted for wear — maintaining a steady flow rate rather than losing it over time. That breakthrough gave birth to the Blackmer Pump, Power and Manufacturing Company in Petoskey, Michigan. By 1925, the company had put down roots in Grand Rapids, where it has proudly stood ever since.
Innovation Throughout the Years
Blackmer entered the market at exactly the right time. The automobile was driving the petroleum industry into a growth spurt, and a pump that maintained its performance under heavy use was exactly what the industry needed. As demand grew, the rotary vane pump that Blackmer had invented expanded into a family of dozens of application-specific models.
Blackmer expanded into gas compression with its own Compressor Division and added centrifugal pump technology through the acquisition of System One Pumps. A later partnership with Ebsray brought regenerative turbine pumps into the United States. Materials and pump technology design were also improved to handle a wider range of abrasive and corrosive fluids as new industrial application needs emerged.
Through these many years of growth, this ongoing commitment to innovation has remained the same, and every new addition to the Blackmer lineup has been held to the standard set by Robert M. Blackmer in 1899.
Blackmer Today
As part of PSG, a Dover company, Blackmer continues to engineer and manufacture innovative pumps and compressors designed to handle the extreme conditions required to keep mission-critical applications running efficiently, safely and reliably.
Blackmer pumps and compressors move liquids and gases across the chemical, energy, transport, military, marine, general industrial, and oil and gas markets. They are distributed globally through a network of distributors and OEMs and supported by field sales and customer service personnel in each market.
View the Blackmer: Over 125 Years of Moving Fluids that Move the World Blog