Celebrating 25 Years of Helping Companies Increase Yields, Cut Waste and Improve Efficiency
In February 2020 HPS will be celebrating its 25th birthday. This marks 25 years since CEO Gilbert Murphy formed Hygienic Pigging Systems, which later became HPS Product Recovery Solutions.
In February 1995, to be precise, HPS was formed in a garage with the vision to be the best product recovery solutions provider in the process industries. For a short time, the company operated from here, before quickly outgrowing it and moving to more appropriate premises in Nottingham’s Science and Technology Park.
25 years later, HPS is one of the world’s leading product recovery, pigging, and liquid transfer technology companies.
We have significantly expanded our product range over the years far beyond anything we could have imagined when our CEO started the company from a tiny garage.
Our head office is now located at larger premises in Beeston, Nottingham, UK. We also have a worldwide presence with offices in Colorado, USA, and Edwardstown, South Australia as well as a network of agents and partners throughout the world. These include Brazil, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, China and a range of other countries.
From 1995 to 2020 – What HPS have Achieved
So, what have we achieved since 1995?
In 25 years, HPS has installed thousands of pigging and liquid transfer solutions throughout the world for hygienic, sanitary and other process applications. This includes simple single-pig solutions right through to more complex multi-line matrix systems.
Over the years, we’ve also focused on innovating and conducting research to develop world-leading products. One of our proudest innovations is our patented hygienic (sanitary) pipeline pig. Its full-contact, fully moulded design and silicon-based magnetised core along with its long working life, robustness, flexibility and importantly effectiveness make HPS the clear leader in its field.
Other proud accomplishments since 1995 include building new strategic partnerships, entering new markets and assembling an excellent team. We’ve also built a pigging system demonstration facility, which is housed at our headquarters in Nottingham, UK and rebranded and changed our trading name from Hygienic Pigging Systems to HPS Product Recovery Solutions. In addition, since 1995 we’ve launched the Automatrix and Rotomatrix liquid distribution systems, introduced pigs in a range of sizes, colours and for different applications. We’ve also launched specialist valves and other devices.
We are delighted to reach this milestone and work like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers and staff for your support over the years. It’s greatly appreciated!
How has the Process Pigging Industry Changed?
A lot has happened in the process pigging industry over the course of a quarter-century. It’s incredible to see how far HPS has come over the years.
In 1995 our very first pigging systems were simpler pigging solutions using manual control. Although simpler pigging solutions such as the single-pig pigging system are still popular with our customers, they now tend to be controlled automatically or semi-automatically.
Many process systems now have multiple sources and multiple destinations, so liquid transfer solutions such as the HPS Automatrix and the Rotomatrix are more popular than ever.
What Else Has Changed?
Objectives for pigging are also more diverse than they were 25 years ago. Pigging systems were originally deployed by processing companies for product recovery. Although this is still important, we’re finding companies implementing pigging for other reasons such as reducing waste, increasing efficiency, profit maximisation and so on. In particular, environmental concerns are really driving the adoption of pigging systems.
Since 1995, we’ve also seen many production facilities evolve from using dedicated production lines to utilising shared lines. In many production facilities, dedicated lines are no longer practical due to companies having to contend with different formulations and configurations of product.
Therefore, in the past few years, we’ve found companies deploying pigging systems to make cleaning easier and faster and speed up changeover times so there’s less downtime when changing from one configuration to another.
Looking to the Future
We are proud of the progress we have made and are thrilled to see what the future holds for the company.
We have some very exciting new product developments coming soon. These latest innovations will be rolled out to some of HPS’s existing customers very shortly. Watch this space!
The future certainly looks exciting for HPS and the next 25 years look set to bring even more innovation and growth for the company. We look forward to helping even more companies increase their yields, cut waste, speed up changeovers times, improve efficiency and improve their processes through our product recovery, pigging, and liquid transfer solutions. Here’s to the next 25 years!
Find Out More
HPS is the World’s Leading Pipeline Pigging, Product Recovery, and Liquid Transfer Specialists. In addition to providing high-quality products and a comprehensive range of pigging services, HPS also places great emphasis on delivering excellent customer service.