WELCOME TO PIAB - Innovators in Vacuum Technology

PIAB USA, founded in 1981 and a subsidiary of PIAB in Sweden, specializes in vacuum products and vacuum technology solutions for a wide variety of industrial applications. All distribution, sales, and marketing activities for the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico are conducted at the North American Headquarters in Hingham, Massachusetts. Hingham is approximately 20 miles south of Boston. There is a well-equipped laboratory on the premises where testing of vacuum conveying equipment, as well as vacuum pumps is carried out. The activities conducted there assure that customers are provided with the correct solution to their material handling needs.    

Also, the Hingham facility is the home of the PIAB Vacuum Academy. Educating customers and PIAB personnel in vacuum technology and how it can be best applied in industrial applications is on-going. It is only then that there can be a clear understanding of how PIAB products can provide cost-saving benefits. It also allows for new areas of usage to be discovered.

Eighty percent of the product development and manufacturing takes place in Sweden, however, the Hingham MA headquarters has as a full technical and engineering staff to support customer requests throughout North America. They are available to travel to customer locations, provide solutions, and make sure PIAB products are applied with efficiency in mind.

In addition to the 46 PIAB Associates representing the North American Group, are an additional 50 professional pneumatic specialty companies and 30 material handling companies serving local markets in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. These local relationships are more important than ever in providing integrated solutions for PIAB customers. PIAB has been very careful to select local partners that can offer complimentary product lines that are market leaders and specialists in their area of expertise.

PIAB North America has the facilities, knowledge, skills and customer support around the globe to assure its ability to compete now and in the future. The goal is to strive even harder to educate and provide customers with advanced vacuum solutions. This strategy combined with a very high skilled workforce in Hingham will provide the impetus to further develop the North American operations and our competitive position.

THE COMPANY’S STRENGTH LIES IN A POWERFUL CONCEPT

The company is distinguished by the quality of its products, its innovative designs, and its interest in its customers.

PIAB was founded in 1952 by Sven Axel Tell, a design engineer who, in the 1940’s, had been employed by Swedish Telecom. The PIAB of today was laid on solid foundations…two very unique products designed by Sven Tell: a dynamometer which was patented and exported worldwide, and a pair of compasses by which circles of large and small diameters can be drawn by means of interchangeable bars, and which gave the Company its name-“Pi” (ratio of diameter to circumference) and “AB” (incorporated)...PIAB. 

A decade later the second generation of Tells were ready to take active participation in the future of the Company….Goran, Anders, and Peter. Continued development in the force measurement area was supplied by Anders….and still is today. Peter Tell’s work and ideas in the early 1970’s on the development of patented vacuum ejectors introduced a new movement which laid the foundations of the Vacuum Department which is now the largest business entity within PIAB.

The most rapid growth is with the compressed air-driven vacuum pumps, suction cups, filters, and vacuum controls. These are used in a wide range of industries and provide solutions to a wide variety of material handling requirements. Where there is a need to automate or enhance productivity, PIAB vacuum pumps and suction cups are often the chosen alternative. An offspring of the PIAB vacuum pump is a complete selection of vacuum conveying equipment. These stainless steel units are typical PIAB quality and are most commonly used in transferring powders, plastic granulates, food stuffs etc. Major development is going on in all facets of the Vacuum Department and will be introduced on this web site.

A PERMANENT STATE OF EVOLUTION AND INNOVATION

It is part of the Company philosophy to continuously develop and improve, look for new solutions, and a new and better way of doing things. Along with this is PIAB’s uncompromising adherence to the highest standards of precision in design and manufacture. Putting all these concepts together enables the Company to remain strong and provide the reliability customers have come to expect from PIAB products. Striving to stay one or two steps ahead insures that the Company is always in a permanent state of evolution and innovation. 

ENTERING THE 21^ST CENTURY

The Company is strong and well organized to cope with today's and tomorrow’s competition. With a strong ear to customer needs, a third generation of Tell’s continue the philosophies laid down by their Grandfather. In November of 1998 Jacob Tell, Goran’s son, was chosen to take the leadership position of PIAB Sweden as the Managing Director. Jacob is in his mid-thirties and graduated with a degree in Business Economics from Stockholm University in 1990. After graduating, he worked at the Group Controller's Department of Electrolux for two years. He then joined the PIAB organization, first serving as the start-up person for their German subsidiary. To gain additional experience, Jacob worked as an Area Sales Manager in the United States for two years learning about customer needs and channel management. Moving back to World Headquarters in Taby, Sweden, Jacob became involved in the business development sector of the Vacuum Division, and held this position until his latest appointment as Managing Director. Subsequently, the well experienced Tell, going to school nights, received his Masters Degree in Business Economics in the Spring of 2000.

Information Technology is and will bring changes to how we transact some portions of the business. In a recent corporate newsletter, Jacob Tell commented on the importance of IT development within PIAB:

“By listening to the needs of customers and picking up the trends on the market, we endeavor to strengthen our status as leading innovator in vacuum technology. Added values offered by PIAB lie in the collective competence within the Company, and its experience, resources, and world-wide distribution network. The more IT is developed, the greater will be its influence on the way business is done. So we must accept that selling our products on the Web will become a reality for PIAB too.”