1903: Albert Keller (1876 - 1966), a skilled coppersmith, establishes a building plumbing contracting business in Stuttgart.
1920s: "Pipes supplying water can also supply air": Otto Keller, son of Albert Keller, increases the range of products by adding ventilation systems. Air pollution control systems were soon to follow. From its beginnings as a buildings trade, Keller is now an industrial enterprise with approx. 160 employees.
1934: Otto Keller (1901 - 1992) takes over management from his father Albert Keller.
1944: Consequences of the war: The premises in Stuttgart-Obertürkheim were completely destroyed on the 2nd and 3rd of March, 1944, including the ancestral home in Uhlbach.
1948: Otto Keller establishes the "Factory for industrial air and heating systems Otto Keller" in Kirchheim, Jesingen, the present company location.
1952: The third Keller generation assumes management with Heinz-Dieter Keller (1927 - 2007). Keller Lufttechnik now specializes in industrial air polllution control and distributes its systems globally.
1950s: Heinz-Dieter Keller, son of Otto Keller, in association with Helmut Mergenthaler, develops the innovative Venturi wet separator. The system is suitable for explosive, combustible, humid and adhesive types of dust.
1960s: Keller introduces innovative technology for the automatic cleaning of filter elements.
1977: Founding of the subsidiary Keller Lufttechnik AG in Switzerland.
1992: Management transfers to its fourth generation, with brothers Frank and Horst Keller.
1995: Keller Lufttechnik develops its own rigid body filter in conjunction with Gore, Munich. SINBRAN is launched, a filter that combines the advantages of a membrane filter with those of a rigid body filter.
1998: The North American subsidiary Keller USA, Inc., is established.
2003: Jubilee Year - "Keller Lufttechnik Centennial"
2003: Introduction of pre-coating filters with an auxiliary layer of limestone powder, considerably increasing filter service life during the separation of adhesive dust and aerosols.
2011: Founding of the Chinese subsidiary Keller Environmental Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
2014: Brothers Horst and Frank Keller buy out their sister's company shares and are now co-owners of the company. Another milestone is reached in the family-owned business.
2015: Following successful ISO 14001certification in February 2015, Keller set another standard for safeguarding the future: Keller aims to reduce its energy consumption and more efficiently utilize its energy requirements with the ISO 50001 Energy Management System.
2017: Keller Lufttechnik is awarded the Baden-Wuerttemberg Environmental Technology Award presented by Franz Untersteller, Minister for the Environment, for the HydronPlus Compact Wet Separator.
2017: Managing Director Horst Keller (left) is awarded the certificate of enrollment in the list of "100 companies for resource efficiency" by Franz Untersteller, Minister for the Environment (photo: Stefan Longin).
From building plumbing contractor to a global leader in air filtration technolgy
The company was founded by Albert Keller in Stuttgart-Uhlbach in 1903. Following the complete destruction of the factory in World War II, his son Otto Keller opened a factory for air pollution control and thermal process technology in Kirchheim unter Teck, in the foothills of the Swabian Jura.
In 1952 - then in its third generation - Heinz-Dieter Keller assumed the reins of the company and established Keller Lufttechnik's current range of poducts. In 1992, the next generation took over. The tradition of the family-owned company is now carried on by Horst and Frank Keller.
Today, Keller Lufttechnik is a global filtration technology company specializing in the capture and separation of a variety of air pollutants, as well as in the reduction of emissions in industrial applications.
Further information:
Abstract customer magazine: "111 years of Keller Lufttechnik"