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Draft:Tamturbo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tamturbo Oyj (also trading as Tamturbo Plc) is a Finnish technology company that develops, manufactures and sells fully oil-free industrial air compressors.[1] The company's registered domicile is Tampere and its head office and factory are located in Ylöjärvi, in the Pirkanmaa region.[2][3]

Tamturbo's compressors are direct-driven high-speed centrifugal (turbo) machines whose rotors are supported by active magnetic bearings, a design that contains no lubricating oil at all. The company was founded in 2010.

History

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Foundation and early years

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Tamturbo was founded in Tampere in 2010 by Kimmo Laine and Jaakko Säiläkivi. Laine had worked in air compressor research and development in the Tampere region since the 1960s, including at Tamrock's Tamrotor division, while Säiläkivi specialised in high-speed turbomachinery using magnetic bearings, among other things during a ten-year period at the Finnish high-speed blower maker HST.[4] According to an interview given to Compressed Air Best Practices in 2018, the founders' aim was to build a company focused exclusively on bringing oil-free high-speed turbo compressors to the industrial medium-pressure market of roughly 6–9 bar (85–130 psi) and 60–350 kW (80–500 hp), a segment then dominated by oil-free rotary screw machines.[4]

Product development took several years and required substantial investment before the company sold its first air compressors.[5][6]

Withdrawn listing and the Sulzer holding

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Tamturbo began co-operating with the Swiss industrial group Sulzer in 2018 through a sales and supply agreement, under which Tamturbo's medium-pressure compressors complemented Sulzer's low-pressure offering for the pulp and paper, food, metals, mining and chemical industries.[5]

In May 2020 the company announced an initial public offering and a planned listing on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland. The subscription price was set at EUR 3.00 per share and the company sought gross proceeds of about EUR 6 million, with a pre-money valuation of approximately EUR 19.2 million.[7] The offering was oversubscribed by roughly 2,000 investors, but on 29 May 2020 Tamturbo withdrew it and cancelled all subscriptions; the company stated that a strategic industrial partner had invested in it on the condition that the shares would not be listed for the time being.[8][9] On 2 June 2020 Sulzer disclosed that the partner was Sulzer, which had acquired a 25 per cent stake in the company.[5][10]

In 2022 Tamturbo selected SKF as the supplier of the magnetic bearing technology used in its high-speed turbo motors.[11]

Change of ownership and later developments

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In January 2025 Tamturbo announced that it had raised a total of EUR 22 million. About EUR 1.1 million came from a rights issue to existing shareholders that closed on 12 December 2024, and the remaining EUR 21 million from a directed share issue to domestic and international institutional investors at the same subscription price. The round was led by Finnish industrial families and family offices, with Ahlstrom Invest among the largest investors, and brought new members to the board. The company stated that part of the proceeds would be used to repurchase and cancel the shares held by Sulzer AG.[12][13] The repurchased shares were cancelled and new directors elected in May 2025.[14]

Timo Pulkki served as chief executive from 2012 to 2025 and was succeeded by Igor Nagaev.[15][12] In February 2026 Janne Leinonen was appointed CEO, while Nagaev moved to head the Central and Southern Europe and Middle East business area.[16]

Technology

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Tamturbo markets its compressor technology under the Touch-Free trademark. In conventional rotary screw compressors sold as "oil-free", the compressed air itself is free of oil, but the machine's gearbox and bearings are still oil-lubricated and the oil must be changed periodically; the air and the oil are separated only by seals.[17]

In a Tamturbo compressor, titanium impellers are mounted directly on the shaft of a high-speed permanent magnet motor and the rotor levitates in a magnetic field, so that rotating parts make no mechanical contact. The design uses no gearbox, couplings, mechanical bearings or oil seals, and therefore contains no lubricating oil.[18][19] Capacity is controlled with variable speed drives, and the units are remotely monitored, with the company stating that the majority of service interventions can be handled remotely and that maintenance is condition-based rather than interval-based.[20] The product models covering roughly 115–350 kW, and heat recovery options are offered for reusing the heat generated in compression.[21]

Writing for SKF in 2023, then-CEO Igor Nagaev said that only about 12 to 15 per cent of the energy supplied to an air compressor is converted into compression of the air, the rest normally being lost as heat, and described the company's aim as reducing that waste.[19] Industrial compressed air production is commonly estimated to account for around 10 per cent of industrial electricity consumption and roughly 5 per cent of total global electricity use.[20][12]

Business

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Tamturbo's customers are industrial users of compressed air, in particular sectors in which oil contamination of the air is unacceptable, such as food and beverage production, electronics, pulp and paper, automotive, textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.[22]

Alongside conventional equipment sales, the company offers its technology as a service, marketed as Air-as-a-Service, in which Tamturbo retains ownership of the compressor and the customer pays either for the compressed air consumed or a fixed monthly fee.[22][15] In August 2026 the SET Alliance published a case study of one such installation, in which a 185 kW Tamturbo TT185 unit replaced a legacy system at a food ingredient plant in the United States Midwest that had drawn 200–250 kW continuously; the study reported an estimated 10–30 per cent reduction in electricity consumption for compressed air production and no upfront capital cost to the customer.[20]

The group consists of the Finnish parent company Tamturbo Oyj and its United States subsidiary Tamturbo Inc., based in St. Louis, Missouri. Products are sold through the company's own sales organisation and a network of local distributors and partners.[3][1]

References

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  1. 1 2 "Tamturbo Oyj:n toimintakertomus ja tilinpäätös 31.12.2025" [Tamturbo Oyj's Report of the Board of Directors and Financial Statements, 31 December 2025] (PDF) (in Finnish). Tamturbo. 23 April 2026. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  2. ↑ "Ote kaupparekisteristä: Tamturbo Oyj" [Extract from the Trade Register: Tamturbo Oyj] (PDF) (in Finnish). Finnish Patent and Registration Office. 23 April 2026. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Contact". Tamturbo. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  4. 1 2 Smith, Rod (28 March 2018). "Oil-Free Turbo Air Compressors from Finland". Compressed Air Best Practices. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 "Sulzer to make significant investment in Tamturbo Plc". Sulzer. 2 June 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  6. ↑ ""Monesti mietin, yritämmekö jotain mahdotonta" – tamperelaisyhtiön läpimurto vei vuosia ja miljoonia euroja" ["I often wondered if we were attempting something impossible" — a Tampere company's breakthrough took years and millions of euros]. Kauppalehti (in Finnish). 30 September 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  7. ↑ "Tamturbo Plc announces a fixed subscription price for its initial public offering". Tamturbo. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  8. ↑ "Tamturbo Plc withdraws oversubscribed IPO due to investment from strategic partner". Tamturbo. 29 May 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  9. ↑ Erkkilä, Jorma (30 May 2020). "Tamturbo peruu listautumisen – sai sijoituksen strategiselta kumppanilta" [Tamturbo cancels its listing — received an investment from a strategic partner]. Salkunrakentaja (in Finnish). Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  10. ↑ "Sulzer invests in Finnish compressor company Tamturbo". Pumps Center. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  11. ↑ "Tamturbo Selects SKF's Magnetic Bearing Technology for Their High-Speed Turbo Motors". MarketScreener. S&P Capital IQ. 10 October 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  12. 1 2 3 "Tamturbo Oyj secures €22 million financing to accelerate international growth". Tamturbo. 17 January 2025. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  13. ↑ "Suursijoittajat iskivät kiinni pörssiin pyrkineeseen suomalaisyhtiöön" [Large investors take a stake in the Finnish company that had sought a listing]. Kauppalehti (in Finnish). 28 March 2025. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  14. ↑ "Tamturbo kiihdyttää kasvuaan uudella omistuspohjalla – takaisin ostetut osakkeet mitätöity, hallitukseen uusia jäseniä" [Tamturbo accelerates growth with a new ownership base — repurchased shares cancelled, new board members] (in Finnish). Tamturbo. 8 May 2025. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  15. 1 2 "Tamturbo offers compressed air as a service: "We are creating a technological revolution in factories"". Sitra. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  16. ↑ "Muutoksia Tamturbo Oyj:n johdossa – Janne Leinonen nimitetty toimitusjohtajaksi" [Changes in Tamturbo Oyj's management — Janne Leinonen appointed CEO] (in Finnish). Tamturbo. 10 February 2026. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  17. ↑ "Öljytön kompressori teollisuuteen" [Oil-free compressor for industry] (in Finnish). Tampereen Insinöörit ry. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  18. ↑ "Touch-Free. Oil-Free. Care-Free" (PDF). Tamturbo. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  19. 1 2 "Welcome to the clean air zone". SKF. 4 January 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  20. 1 2 3 "Achieving Sustainability with CAaaS" (PDF). SET Alliance. August 2026. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  21. ↑ "Tamturbo turbo compressors". Tamturbo. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  22. 1 2 "Business". Tamturbo. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
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Category:Manufacturing companies established in 2010 Category:Finnish companies established in 2010 Category:Technology companies of Finland Category:Companies based in Tampere Category:Industrial machine manufacturers Category:Compressors

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