Quincy Air Compressors: A Company Overview
Unlike Ingersoll Rand, a huge international conglomerate of businesses ranging from Schlage locks to Bobcat construction equipment, Quincy Compressor, as you can tell by its name, focuses solely on air compressors and all of the associated tools and services that go along with them. They've actually been in the compressed air market since 1920, but they have less brand name visibility than Ingersoll Rand. What exactly are Quincy air compressors, and how do they differ from the rest of the compressed air market?
The company began in 1920 in Quincy, Illinois after three entrepreneurs created a reciprocating vacuum pump for milking cows. This new technology was later applied to compressed air, and the company changed its named from The Wall Pump and Compressor Company to Quincy Compressor in 1924. By 1937, the company introduced the QR-25, a reciprocating compressor that to this day sets Quincy apart from the competition. In 1966, Colt, a company involved in developing rotary screw technology, purchased Quincy, earning the company a name for this sort of technology as well. In 1980, Quincy began manufacturing rotary screw compressors and other equipment in a large facility in Alabama, which was expanded even more in 1996, six years after Colt became Coltec Industries. In 1999, Colt became a part of BF Goodrich, which changed its name to Goodrich a year later. Goodrich was a multinational, extensive corporation with a variety of resources and state-of-the-art technology at its fingertips. In 2001, Goodrich integrated Quincy with Air Science Engineering, Inc. in order to improve Quincy's expertise on compressed air systems. Quincy also joined with other Goodrich companies in its Engineered Industrial Products sector to form EnPro Industries in 2002, the same year that Quincy began marketing AirMaster portable compressors for contractors. Largely as a result of Quincy's merger with Air Science Engineering, in 2004 Quincy was able to introduce the QGV variable speed rotary compressor, a revamped product that is supposed to be state of the art in energy efficiency. Finally, in 2005, Quincy began marketing EQ, which means efficiency quotient, a way for businesses to cheaply and effectively analyze the energy efficiency of their compressed air systems.
While Ingersoll Rand currently has the market cornered on portable air compressors, it appears that Quincy is quickly becoming a major player in the compressed air systems market. After being acquired by Goodrich, it had the backing of a multinational corporation, which has allowed it to expand its compressed air system offerings from just products to services as well. Quincy air compressors are likely to become even more visible in the future.