Vortex, a global solids and bulk handling components company, marks its 40 years in the industry. Founded in 1977, Kansas-based company has expanded its sales portfolio to more than 50 countries.

Vortex celebrates 40 years of designing and manufacturing slide gates, diverter valves, iris diaphragms and loading spouts for use in gravity flow, dilute phase and dense phase pneumatic conveying applications. Vortex was founded in 1977 by Loren Neil Peterson and his son-in-law, Lee Young. The company was established with its patented Vortex Orifice Gate – the first valve designed specifically for handling dry bulk solid materials. Since then, Vortex has established more than 20 innovative valve designs which are being used by more than 20,000 factories in 80 countries to handle thousands of material types. Vortex has continued to grow and establish itself as the leader in dry bulk material handling components. The traditional line of Vortex components, the Quantum Series features slide gates and diverter valves that have been used for decades to shut off, meter and divert the flow of dry bulk material. In 2006, Vortex opened an international office in Darlington, UK, to establish business activities in African, Asian, and European markets. And now the company has expanded its sales portfolio to more than 50 countries, including Russia, China, Turkey, South Africa, Spain, and France. In 2016, Vortex got record growth of 44 percent. Last year, the company received the Materials Handling Engineers’ Association (MHEA) Excellence Award for Supplier of the Year.