Our founder, Renard P. Adams, was an inventor at heart, and this characteristic has shaped the trajectory of our company.

R.P. Adams began in 1937 as a manufacturer of air filters with ceramic elements. The company’s early products were the origin of many lines we offer today, including GP filters for air, gas and steam; aftercoolers; heat exchangers; cyclone separators; and liquid filters.

As Mr. Adams gained experience supplying water cooled heat exchangers, he tackled a problem that plagued the heat exchange industry and its customers: dirty cooling water used in heat exchangers caused fouling and maintenance problems with the equipment.

Thus R.P. Adams developed the first multi-element automatic backwash strainer in the United States. The Automatic Water Strainer (AWS) patent was awarded in 1965, and proved invaluable for the efficient operation of heat exchange equipment. Adams went on to improve the original design within a few years and replaced it with the HWS/VWS line of automatic water strainers, which we still offer today.

Straining and filtration are a hallmark of R.P. Adams’ business. We have honed our expertise in potable water filtration and chemical filtration. For example, we are a leading manufacturer in the bleach manufacturing market because of the cost savings we offer the industry through our filtration technology. An equally important hallmark of R.P. Adams is our expertise in heat transfer products. We manufacture both our filtration and heat exchanges with the same dedication to quality and serving our customers’ needs.

Straining and filtration was the first area in which Adams made a breakthrough innovation, but it wasn’t the last. Adams saw another key opportunity for greater efficiency in customers’ operations. Their plants and equipment were throwing off heat that was being wasted, while they were also paying energy costs for warm, dry air that was necessary for many of their industrial processes. To address this problem, Adams developed and patented the Economat reheat system to capture that lost heat and translate it into an energy-saving system customers needed.

These many innovations across the industry as well as R.P. Adams’ reputation for quality have contributed to the company’s success through the years.

R-P-Adams - Model IWF - Multi-Element Filter Brochure