Tradition...

Vilter Manufacturing LLC began in 1867 supplying steam engines to Milwaukee industries. Founded by Peter Weisel and Ernst Vilter, the company was originally known as Weisel & Vilter, and by 1882 the company had developed a horizontal compressor driven by a Corliss steam engine. These compressors, powered by steam and more efficient than their vertical counterpart, ushered in the dawn of industrial refrigeration. Gone were the suppliers of natural ice. If ice were needed, it would be made by a machine rather than Mother Nature.

Vilter sold its first compressors to ice plants and packing houses as well as to Milwaukee's famous breweries' Miller, Schlitz, and Pabst. In 1910, the Santa Fe railroad contracted with Vilter to design an ice-making plant to produce 225 tons of ice needed to chill 150 carloads of fruit daily. In 1917, General Pershing and the War Department asked Vilter for a 500 ton ice plant to store 5,000 tons of beef for the troops in Europe. During World War II, the company built pack ice machines for use in steam ships moving food stuffs to troops in both Europe and the Pacific.

In 1945, Vilter introduced the VMC 440 reciprocating compressor which quickly became the refrigeration industry standard. In 1990, the company introduced the VSS 601 single-screw compressor followed by seven additional models in various sizes.

In 1999, Vilter put the gold standard on the VSS screw compressor by offering the industry’s longest warranty, the Vilter 5/15. Most recently, Vilter introduced the Vission™ micro-controller, a touch screen control system designed to provide customers both flexibility and the latest in micro-controller technology.