It's time for the next installment of our "Meet the Manufacturer" series, and today we're taking a look at Nilfisk. If you're responsible for facilities maintenance or have just been looking for a high-grade industrial vacuum cleaner you've probably seen their products on our site.
Have you ever wanted to learn more? Well, here's your chance. We reached out to Nilfisk to get a little better understanding of their history, their products, and their company culture. Want to see what we learned? Just keep reading!
Can you provide a short history of Nilfisk?
It was a desire for knowledge and the ambition to create a global company based on the potential of technology that drove Peder Andersen Fisker to establish the company in a backyard workshop in Copenhagen in 1906. The company soon became a leading global supplier of professional cleaning equipment.
Today, the same belief in innovative technology and determination to think big still drives Nilfisk. The first vacuum cleaner launched in 1910; the “C1”, which was the first electric vacuum cleaner in Europe. Since then, innovations continued to be launched - such as the “Silent Dane” in 1932, which introduced significantly lower noise levels in vacuum cleaning. In 1955, Nilfisk introduced the first automatic floor scrubber.
Overall, our mission statement describes our reason to be here; what drives us forward: We enable sustainable cleaning worldwide to improve quality of life. We have a vision of leading intelligent cleaning to make our customer's business smarter. This is about developing new autonomous solutions and digital services that can improve the cleaning result and the productivity of our customers.
Where are Nilfisk products developed and manufactured?
Nilfisk has production facilities in 8 countries, with 11 production sites in total: Main production (assembly plants) takes place in China (Dongguan), Hungary (Sziget and Nagykanisza), Italy (Zocca), US (Brooklyn Park, Fort Pierce, Redlands) and Mexico (Querétaro) with additional production in Denmark (Aalborg), UK (Penrith) and Germany (Bellenberg).
What are some of your most popular products?
Nilfisk’s GM80, although a flagship product, is still one of the most universally used vacuums in high-filtration dependent environments, such as pharmaceutical, laboratories, clean rooms and even in homes with severe allergies. With such robust design and low-wear parts, a GM80 can last a user for decades!
The Nilfisk GD 5 Battery Backpack HEPA Vacuum is also gaining recent attention as it is one of the few on the market to offer true, tested HEPA filtration with substantial run-times. Customers want and need more and more flexibility. This vacuum lets them go anywhere to clean their facilities fast and efficiently.
What's a unique type of technology that Nilfisk is known for?
Nilfisk has built our brand around incorporating exceptionally efficient filtration systems into our vacuums. Every Nilfisk vacuum has multi-stage filtration designed to include HEPA, or even, ULPA filters. You can learn more about Nilfisk filtration systems here.
What are some really unique or interesting locations and situations Nilfisk products have been used in?
Our favorite application to tout is “out of this world”…a Nilfisk GM80 played several important roles in every NASA Space Shuttle flight before the program was retired in 2011. NASA used the vacuums in two particular applications: to eliminate microscopic particles from the cargo bay and to remove hazardous beryllium dust from the shuttle’s brakes. NASA spent as long as 56 hours cleaning every inch of the 60-foot-long, 15-foot-wide and 17-foot-deep cargo bay to remove particles as small as 0.3 microns (one three-hundredth the size of a single human hair) – particles which could migrate during weightlessness into the shuttle’s micro-circuitry and cause “anomalies.”
After hearing about NASA’s success with Nilfisk, some allergists have recognized that the thorough elimination of dust particles – not just dust you can see, but microscopic dust – can help alleviate the suffering of some of their patients. They are recommending that their patients clean their homes just as thoroughly as NASA cleans the shuttle’s cargo bay – using the same Nilfisk vacuum cleaner that NASA uses.
Can you sum up what you are known for and what you offer in just a couple of sentences?
Since the creation of our first, groundbreaking vacuum cleaner more than 100 years ago, Nilfisk has been a leading force of innovation in cleaning technology. We have made it our mission to “enable sustainable cleaning worldwide to improve quality of life.” This is how we empower our customers as a trustworthy partner – and this is what drives our dedication in what we do and how we develop and drive our business forward.
Would any of your employees be willing to provide a quote about why they love working at Nilfisk?
“I appreciate the positive atmosphere and culture here at Nilfisk. When attending to the needs of customers, the sense of teamwork and urgency throughout the group makes my job easier. I feel like everyone has my back.” – Vince Dimento, Sr. Customer Service Representative, 24 years with Nilfisk
Additional Questions
Do you have more questions about Nilfisk or how to find the best product for you? Connect with us on the Sylvane Facebook or Twitter pages, or call us today at 1-800-934-9194. Be sure to check out the other installments of our Meet the Manufacturer series:
