A. O. Smith Corporation is an American manufacturer of both residential and commercial water heaters and boilers and the largest manufacturer and marketer of water heaters in North America. It also supplies water treatment products in the Asian market. The company has 24 locations worldwide, including five manufacturing facilities in North America, as well as plants in Bengaluru in India, Nanjing in China and Veldhoven in The Netherlands.
In the past, A. O. Smith has had numerous other product lines. Among them, it was the largest bomb maker in the United States by the end of World War I. Smith ranked 74th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.
History
In 1940, the company acquired Sawyer Electric of Los Angeles, California, a manufacturer of electric motors. In 1942, it once again began to produce bomb casings, as well as aircraft propellers, undercarriages, torpedoes, and air flasks. By 1945, the company had built 4.5 million bombs, 16,750 sets of landing gear, and 46,700 propeller blades. They also built nose frames for the B-25 bomber, water heaters, jeep frames, and components for the atomic bomb project. In 1946, they built a 400,000 square foot residential water heater plant in Kankakee, Illinois. From this plant, they also made waterheaters with the Kenmore name. In 1948, they entered the commercial water heater market after acquiring The Burkay Company of Toledo, Ohio. In 1949, the company began producing Harvestore, a glass-fused-to-steel silo, targeted at dairy and livestock operations.
In the 1950s, A. O. Smith acquired Whirl-A-Way Motors of Dayton, Ohio, and consolidated its electric motor manufacturing operations there. The motor division later introduced the hermetic motor, a critical component of air conditioning and refrigeration compressors. Its water heater division introduced the first glass-lined commercial water heater, the A. O. Smith Burkay B-65, and later the company established a glass fiber division to replace steel in many applications. It also expanded into supplying oil field pipe and pipe for service stations, eventually becoming Smith Fiberglass Products in 1986.
In the early 1960s, the company opened a commercial water heater and boiler plant in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. In 1965, the Motor division invented the enclosed canopy, two-compartment motor, a design that improved the reliability in pool pump motors by separating the switching components from the motor windings. In 1967, fourth generation Smith family member, Lloyd B. Smith, was elected chairman and chief executive officer of the company. By 1969, the company had produced its 10 millionth residential water heater, and by 1972, the company had expanded to Europe. In 1974, the Conservationist line of residential water heaters was introduced. In 1976, the Motor division opened a plant in Bray, Ireland, to supply hermetic motors. In 1978, A.O. Smith began manufacturing storage tanks, beginning with Aquastore, a glass-fused-to-steel tank.
