Nordberg Manufacturing Company

Nordberg's distinctive design of diesel pancake engine, used for pumping

The company was founded by Bruno V. Nordberg and Jacob Elias Friend in 1886 in Milwaukee. Nordberg had previously been working at steam engine and sawmill maker E. P. Allis & Co.[2] Friend became the company's president,[3] and later his son, Robert E. Friend, was president and chief executive officer.[4]

In 1917, Bruno Nordberg designed and built the world's largest steam hoist bought by Quincy Mining Company for their copper mine near Hancock, Michigan. It is a cross compound steam hoist and was installed and up and running in November 1920 and used for 11 years. It is currently available for guided historical tours.

By 1926, they were manufacturing diesel engines, steam engines (poppet-uniflow Corliss), air compressors, gas compressors, mine hoists (steam, air, and electric) and blowing engines.[5]

In 1944, they designed and built the largest diesel engine that has ever been built in the United States. It was built for a Victory ship built for the United States Maritime Commission.[6][7]

In 1946, they bought the Busch-Sulzer Diesel Engine Company which was formed in 1911 by Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Busch had acquired the first American rights to the diesel engine in 1898.[8]

Nordberg was acquired by Rex ChainBelt Inc (formerly Chain Belt Company) in 1970, and was to become a division of Rex.[9] By that time, Nordberg had been manufacturing mineral and rock crushing equipment, screens, grinding mills, and hoists, heavy duty diesel and gas turbines, railroad maintenance machinery, hydraulic valves presses and other components.[10]

Nordberg was acquired by Finland's Rauma Corporation in 1989, which was later merged into Metso in 1999.[11] Metso closed Nordberg's former Milwaukee factory in 2004.[12]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nordberg Manufacturing Company.

• Illustrations and photographs of Nordberg factory and diesel engines from sales brochures and private sources