Boilers powered the Industrial Revolution, but cleaning boiler tubes was a big problem. W. S. Elliott invented a revolutionary tool for removing boiler scale and formed Liberty Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
His business booming, W. S. Elliott renamed his company Elliott Company and moved his 32 employees to Elliott’s present-day location in Jeannette, Pennsylvania.
Elliott acquired Kerr Turbine Company, a leading maker of new, powerful steam turbines that were used for driving dynamos – electrical generators – and other industrial equipment.
The purchase of Ridgway Dynamo and Engine Company gave Elliott the building blocks it needed to become a leader in power generators, turbines to drive them, and electrical motors to put the power to work.
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Elliott acquired turbine and compressor pioneer Rateau, Battu and Smoot, moved its manufacturing operations to Jeannette, and introduced its “Y” line of single-stage steam turbines, the forerunners of Elliott’s modern YR turbine line.
During the Depression, Elliott sells generator packages for factories, hospitals, and towns, motors for industry, and turbines and electrical equipment for hydraulic dredges.
Elliott’s workforce tripled and output quintupled during the war as the company worked around the clock to build machinery for the factories and refineries supplying the war effort. Elliott’s single-stage overhung blowers were widely used by the chemical industry to produce sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and petroleum byproducts.
Elliott licenses Swiss technology to become the first American company to manufacture diesel turbochargers. The business grew quickly as the efficiencies of turbo power became apparent to the military and in industry.
Elliott’s Ridgway division supplies massive hydroelectric turbines to power plants across the United States. These reliable machines are still keeping the lights on in American homes today.
Elliott introduced the YR steam turbine, a redesign of its popular, single-valve Y turbine. The design quickly becomes one of Elliott’s most popular products ever, with more than 40,000 sold. YR turbines are the leader today in industrial mechanical drives.
Elliott’s electrical products division got a big boost with the purchase of the Crocker-Wheeler Company, an established leader in the electrical industry. Elliott could offer a complete line of industrial motors and generators for steel mills, refineries, mines, and other operations.
Elliott had the lead position in the zooming turbocharger market in the mid-1950s. By the time the company exited the business in 2001, Elliott had manufactured more than 42,000 units for trucks, locomotives, ships, and other applications.
Carrier Corporation buys Elliott Company, and over the next 20 years, updated its manufacturing and test capabilities, introduced new products and services, and opened doors into global markets.
The development of petrochemicals like ethylene, a basic component of plastic, accelerated after the war. With advanced designs and technology from Carrier, Elliott quickly became a leader in supplying the compressors at the heart of the plastics industry.
Liquefying natural gas for overseas shipment was a high-growth market in the 1970s, and Elliott compressors were at the heart of LNG plants built throughout the world.
Elliott’s compressor sales grow enormously in the 1970s, crowned by an order from Saudi Arabia in 1975 for 90 compressors. By the 1980s, Elliott had supplied approximately 80% of the ethylene compressors installed worldwide.
United Technologies Corporation (UTC) acquired Carrier, separated the Elliott Company division from Carrier, and created Elliott Turbomachinery Company, Inc.
Elliott introduced its first multi-stage YR steam turbine, and sold more YR turbines in 1981 than in any year since 1971.
Elliott opened its first service center outside of the U.S. in Basingstoke, U.K. Global service operations are consolidated into a new division called Elliott Support Services.
The Elliott management team, led by President Paul Smiy, arranged a leveraged buyout of Elliott Turbomachinery Company from UTC. Other investors include Ebara Corporation, which has been manufacturing Elliott equipment under license in Japan since 1968.
After several years of market contraction, a global ethylene boom began, producing a flood of orders for Elliott.
The 1990s saw new Elliott service centers in Europe, Asia, Canada, Central America, and the U.S. that also repaired third-party equipment.
Ebara Corporation purchased Elliott, and began integrating its operations in Sodegaura, Chiba, Japan with Elliott’s in Jeannette.
The growth of liquified natural gas (LNG) during the early and mid-2000s resulted in demand for Elliott compressors. Equipment was shipped to huge new facilities in the gas fields of the Middle East and Russia.
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Ebara integrated its Japan-based turbomachinery business with Elliott and became known as Elliott Group.
Elliott Group completed the merger of Ebara’s cryogenic pumps and expanders business based in Sparks, Nevada, with its operations in Jeannette, where they are now manufactured.
Elliott completed construction of its $60M state-of-the-art cryogenic pumps testing facility near its headquarters in Jeannette. The 13-acre campus, which includes an indoor enclosed test loop, gives Elliott the capability to test a full range of cryogenic pumps and expanders of all sizes, including large units year round.
Elliott recognizes that its main industry within the oil and gas section is being challenged by the trends toward green transition and decarbonization. Elliott/Ebara is making significant investments in new technologies that address the new energy focus, including in hydrogen compression, carbon dioxide compression, and optimized natural gas pipeline compression.
Ebara Corporation reorganized in 2023 to integrate its custom-pump division with Elliott to better serve energy customers. In 2024, the newly integrated Energy Company became known as Ebara Elliott Energy.