SART Von Rohr will celebrate its 100th anniversary on 23 June 2030.

In more than 90 years of history, SART Von Rohr has acquired unique know-how in all areas of industrial fluid control.

SART Von Rohr’s know-how has been gradually built up through the research, projects and experiences of the thousands of employees who have participated in the SART Von Rohr adventure since 1930.

Whether they are polytechnicians, engineers, senior technicians or skilled workers, everyone has been able to contribute their experience and knowledge to develop the SART Von Rohr know-how with the aim of satisfying tens of thousands of customers.

Of all the technical fluids mastered by SART Von Rohr, a fluid that is very common in industry is particularly well known in SART Von Rohr : It’s Steam.

In France, and until 1985, two companies were leaders in steam control, providing solutions and products that made French industry great for much of the 20th century.

It is of course the SART (Société Alsacienne de Réglage Thermique), which began manufacturing condensate traps in 1938, but it is also the SIC (Société Industrielle des Charmille) which invented the BYVAP B1 thermobimetal thermostatic steam trap in 1947.

The Société Alsacienne de Réglage Thermique – SART was founded on 23 June 1930 in Strasbourg. Its activity is the design and production of thermostatic temperature controllers. After a few years of activity, SART decided to move closer to its customers in the Mulhouse area and set up in Bitschwiller les Thann, in 1935. In December 1935, SART presented a brand new concept of water/steam mixing valve that could be supplied with either cold water/hot water or cold water/steam. A revolution at that time.

SART created its first steam traps in 1938, but while SART continued to develop its know-how on control valves for all industrial fluids, SIC developed the world’s widest range of thermobimetal steam traps, marketed under the BYVAP brand, and in 1985 produced more than 100,000 quality thermobimetal steam traps per year.

All the great French industrial adventures have been built with SART steam traps and control valves, but also with SIC’s BYVAP steam traps.

SART began by developing know-how in thermostatic control valves as early as 1930, but it wasn’t really until 1938, when it became a 95% subsidiary of Manurhin, that SART began its adventure in the production of steam equipments : steam traps would be the first, followed by pressure regulators.

The war put a stop to the industrial development of the SART, from 1939 onwards, when its employees and site were requisitioned by the occupying forces to work in the DWM.

But in November 1945, production resumed and SART was once again ready to serve its industrial customers.

From the 1950s onwards, SART became an increasingly important player in the energy and defence markets. The projects multiplied, each one more interesting and enriching than the last.

In the 1970s, it was energy savings that gave SART the opportunity to strengthen its expertise in steam.

New products are created to satisfy a very demanding clientele. Thermostatic steam traps, flow metering, magnetic level indication, appear.

But it was in the 1980s that SART made the most progress, thanks to its investments in research and development and the work of its engineers on superheated steam, who developed a range of expansion and desuperheating valves as well as plunge desuperheaters with high turndown.

In 1994, SART acquired the Swiss company “VON ROHR”, which specialised in the design and manufacture of high-quality industrial control valves.

The acquisition of VON ROHR has made a significant contribution to strengthening SART’s expertise, particularly in pneumatic servomotors, whose technology is unique. Later SART von Rohr invest a lot to improve these pneumatic actuators.

Wishing to best integrate this new know-how and the talents present in the VON ROHR company, SART has decided to change its corporate name to :

SART Von Rohr

SART Von Rohr, as soon as it was born, remained focused on consolidating its technical know-how, forgetting that recent globalisation and the change in the purchasing behaviour of French customers also required it to develop its main weak point: “Communication and advertising”.

Thus, faced with international competitors who are very aggressive commercially and very trained in “Communication and advertising”, but very weak in know-how, many customers were tempted.

SART Von Rohr was forced to strongly increase its communication at the same time as its competitiveness.

To remain competitive, SART Von Rohr has made very heavy investments for reindustrialisation in its historic French factory at Bitschwiller Les Thann.

In 2007, acquisition of the BYVAP brand who rediscovered the know-how on thermobimetal traps of its former boss, Erick BRAQUET, who had joined SART Von Rohr a few years earlier.

The combined expertise of BYVAP and SART Von Rohr gives birth, in 2008, to a new range of thermobimetal steam traps: the BTX, GMA, BTHP steam traps and a new thermostatic steam trap, the CTX.

Between 2008 and 2015, the entire historic factory was renovated :

– All machines were replaced by modern machines in 2008,

– All historic buildings were demolished and replaced by more functional buildings that meet the latest environmental standards in 2008 and 2015.

To complete its industrial transformation, SART Von Rohr also reinvested heavily in research and development in 2007.

Based strongly on its historical know-how, the entire SART Von Rohr product range has thus been renewed, standardised and reindustrialised between 2008 and 2012.

Capitalising and still developing its historical know-how, SART Von Rohr has modernised or created many new products: Modernisation of desuperheaters, high pressure valves, pumps and pumping traps, etc…

On the strength of its successes, SART Von Rohr decided, in 2017, to continue optimising its industrial tools by moving into the “4.0” production, both in terms of organisation and the replacement of its machines and means of production (assembly, testing, etc.).

In 2018, the SART von Rohr decided to start a new international adventure which began with a commercial establishment in Turkey and continued with an industrial establishment in the suburbs of IZMIR in 2019.

After the first works, the production of the first products for the Turkish market started in January 2020.

In summary : 

The history of SART Von Rohr is the history of a company, recognised worldwide, with multiple know-how acquired over more than 90 years of history, whose objective has always been to satisfy its customers by offering them sustainable and quality products and solutions.