125 Years Of Engineering That Changed How The World Moves Water
As aging infrastructure, rising costs and more demanding operating conditions put greater pressure on critical systems, Xylem marks 125 years of Flygt engineering heritage and the breakthroughs that have helped make pumping more reliable, efficient and intelligent.
Moving water is one of those basic functions modern life depends on but rarely notices. Water pumps keep wastewater moving to treatment plants, construction sites and mines dry, cities protected from flooding and essential infrastructure operating.
Around the world, Flygt pumps are part of that largely invisible infrastructure. Their reliability can be easy to take for granted. But dependable pumping is the product of generations of engineering, solving problems that once made moving water more difficult, labor intensive and unpredictable. Flygt’s part in that story has surprisingly modest beginnings.
In 1901, blacksmith and mould maker Per Alfred Stenberg established a small foundry in Emmaboda, Sweden, initially serving the region’s glass industry. More than two decades later, Hilding Flygt established a pump and fan sales company in Stockholm. Their paths crossed in 1929, when a newspaper advert brought the two businesses together. The first Flygt pump was produced in Emmaboda the following year.
More than a century later, Emmaboda remains at the heart of Flygt manufacturing, home to Xylem’s flagship Flygt pump factory, producing 160,000 to 170,000 pumps each year. Between those two points lies a history of innovation that has helped reshape how water is moved and managed.
From submersible dewatering to intelligent systems
The first major leap came in the 1940s, in response to a practical problem facing construction and mining sites. Dewatering still relied on pumps positioned above the water, drawing it through suction pipes. As excavations deepened and conditions changed, the equipment had to be moved and adjusted, while the pumps themselves remained vulnerable to flooding.
In Emmaboda, engineer Sixten Englesson approached the problem differently: what if the pump could operate in the water instead? In 1947, he developed the world’s first submersible drainage pump. Nicknamed the “Parrot Cage”, it could operate submerged, changing how pumps could be deployed in demanding environments. That solved one problem. Wastewater brought another.
Conventional pump stations required significant space and could be cumbersome to install and service. In 1956, Flygt introduced the world’s first submersible wastewater pump with an automatic discharge connection, enabling more compact stations and simpler installation and servicing.
By the 1990s, clogging had become another persistent challenge. Solids could accumulate in pump stations and become caught in equipment, driving cleaning, maintenance, and unplanned intervention. The Flygt TOP station, introduced in 1996, was designed to reduce solids accumulating in the sump. A year later, Flygt introduced N technology, with a self-cleaning impeller designed to reduce clogging while maintaining hydraulic efficiency.
By 2016, reliable mechanical performance was no longer the only measure of success. Operators increasingly wanted lower energy use, greater system visibility and technology capable of responding to changing conditions.
Xylem launched Flygt Concertor, the world’s first wastewater pumping system with integrated intelligence. Designed to sense operating conditions and adapt performance in real time, Concertor brought together hydraulics, motors, power electronics and intelligent controls. Field testing reported energy savings of up to 70% compared with conventional pumping systems.
Five years later, that shift towards intelligent pumping extended into dewatering with Flygt Bibo Alpha, which automatically adapts its speed and performance to changing water inflow, reducing manual intervention while helping limit wear and energy use.
Flygt Bibo Alpha 2021 Deawatering Pump
“What 125 years gives us is an extraordinary depth of engineering experience,” said Bala H, SVP & General Manager, Water Infrastructure Transport at Xylem. “The technology has changed enormously, but the expectation from customers has remained remarkably consistent: critical pumping systems need to work when they are needed. That experience gives us a strong foundation as we move from reacting to problems towards identifying and addressing them earlier.”
Engineering tested in the real world
Across the decades, Flygt engineering has been put to work in circumstances its earliest engineers could scarcely have imagined. Flygt pumps played a role in the 1961 recovery of the Vasa,1 helping keep the 17th century warship afloat after 333 years underwater, and later helped keep the Eurotunnel dry during its construction in the late 1980s.2 In 2018, Flygt pumps were also deployed during the extraordinary international operation behind the Thai cave rescue. Xylem dewatering experts worked alongside the rescue team to help improve the pumping operation as crews raced to control water levels in the cave.3
Today, that engineering is at work in equally demanding environments. At New Boliden’s Renström mine, one of Europe’s deepest, Flygt Bibo Alpha’s adaptive capabilities reduced operational wear by 80%.4 At Heathrow Airport, Flygt Concertor has required just one reactive site attendance in eight years at a wastewater station previously affected by chronic clogging, while reducing energy consumption by 53%.5
And beneath the River Thames, Flygt pumps support six pumping stations along London’s new Silvertown Tunnel, helping protect the route from surface flooding and keep traffic moving.6
Different eras, different environments, different engineering problems. What connects them is the need to keep critical operations moving, often in circumstances where failure is not an option.
Today, reliability increasingly means more than keeping a pump running. It means using energy efficiently, understanding system performance, and identifying problems before they result in downtime. Smarter systems and better information can help operators intervene earlier, strengthen resilience, and make more informed decisions.
The technology has changed dramatically. The fundamental expectation has not: keep the water moving.
Source: Xylem Wastewater Solutions