VAC-U-MAX Reaches Milestone

VAC-U-MAX (Belleville, NJ) reached a milestone of celebrating 65 years of business in providing bulk material handling and industrial vacuum cleaning systems to industries worldwide. They have grown from the dreams of their founder Frank Pendleton, who designed the world’s first industrial vacuum cleaner that operated only on compressed air to service the highly combustible textile mills industry of New Jersey. In addition to servicing niches for combustible dust handling, VAC-U-MAX designed and engineered compressed air-powered industrial vacuum cleaners in 1970 for the evacuation of highly flammable jet fuel for Pan American Airways, recovering jet fuel from the wing tanks of the first Boeing 747 aircraft.

Since 1954, the company designed, manufactured and marketed a full range of compressed air-driven industrial vacuum cleaners for combustible dusts, flammable liquids and reactive powders, with applications expanding to include explosion-proof, electric-powered vacs used in agriculture, chemical and food industries, as well as portable, continuous duty, and central vacuum cleaning systems. In 2018, they designed the first renewable-energy lithium-ion vacuum cleaning system for high volume recovery of post-consumer waste for municipal transit track cleaning applications.

A pioneer with many firsts, VAC-U-MAX entered the pneumatic conveying business in 1965 by designing the first venturi-powered vacuum-generator with patented noise suppression for applications conveying black powder for a U.S. ordnance manufacturer. In 1977, they introduced the vertical-wall “tube hopper” material receiver designed for “difficult-to-convey” materials. Today’s manufacturing environment utilizes pneumatic conveying systems for moving a wide variety of powders and granular materials from sources such as drums, totes and super sacks, to destinations like process equipment or packaging lines, with vacuum conveying technology being the most commercially accepted. In 1989, the company patented the Bulk Bag (Super Sac) Unloading Station, which included massaging actuators that aid material flow from the super sac to the process below.

The organization’s tradition, vertical integration, application expertise, and manufacturing in Belleville spans three generations, with Steve Pendleton as the president of the company. “It gives me great pride to follow our family tradition and entrepreneurial spirit,” said Pendleton. “We are committed to building, expanding, and continuing our legacy by manufacturing high-quality systems for industries worldwide. I am proud of what our company and employees have accomplished and will continue to accomplish, following the legacy of our founder, Frank Pendleton.”

The company is a UL-listed designer and manufacturer of control systems for general purpose and hazardous locations, and furnishes integrated controls that maximize coordination of material movement with tie-in capabilities to existing control systems. With a customer-centric focus at every step of the process, VAC-U-MAX is committed to continual improvement with quality policies, strategies and quality systems communicated within the organization. “The secret to the success of any business is being able to focus not on fighting to keep the old, but also on building and expanding the new,” noted Doan Pendleton, the vice president of the company. “We focus on our customers and their applications and in doing so incorporate 65 years of process expertise.”

With over 6,000 sq ft of available floor space in their Customer Test Facility, the company offers the ability to create a multitude of equipment configurations. Over 10,000 difficult-to-convey materials have been tested throughout the past 65 years, adding to their application expertise in bulk material handling and industrial vacuum cleaning. The test facility is equipped to meet customer demands for full-scale vacuum conveying, flexible screw and aero-mechanical conveying testing, in addition to testing a wide range of industrial vacuum cleaners.

www.vac-u-max.com