History

The history of water filtration and the story of The Roberts Filter Group are virtually synonymous. Today’s modern water treatment plants are engineered and built with the skill and care that have been a tradition within the Roberts organization since its development of modest household filters more than a century ago.

The success story of The Roberts Filter Group is more effectively told in deeds than in words. 81 Gravity FilterThroughout the world, Roberts’ filtration systems safely and efficiently purify water for human consumption and a multitude of industrial purposes. If there is a secret to this success, it is the specialization and devotion to one main enterprise through four generations of uninterrupted family management. It is the secret of pride in a family heritage, loyalty to a family tradition and confidence in the outstanding skills and rich experience of the people who make up the Roberts organization.

Since our beginning over two centuries ago, Roberts’ efforts to know and serve the water treatment field have been a primary and expanding endeavor. Today, more than ever, Roberts’ specialized “know-how” assures every customer – large, medium, or small – of the finest quality equipment and completely satisfying service.

Since our humble beginning, Roberts has grown into the largest privately owned US water company. The Roberts Filter Group has successfully completed thousands of projects totaling in the billions of gallons of water. Filter plants in every state of the US and from the far reaches of Canada, China, Jordan, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Brazil have been successfully manufactured and erected by Roberts.

Municipalities and industry alike, throughout the world, have long recognized the complete assurance of trouble free service; year after year, that is built into every Roberts’ water treatment system. This exclusive devotion to thousands of municipal and industrial water treatment plants throughout the world qualifies Roberts as specialists in water filtration plant systems.

84 Early Beginnings                                                                                                                                                                           

Mr. Charles Roberts was a young man with an intense interest and concern for waterborne diseases. Several members of his family were stricken and died from a fever that was caused by waterborne diseases. Disturbed with the way industrial and population growth throughout the Philadelphia watershed was contaminating the quality of the city’s raw water supply, he became particularly interested in various water treatment processes. He was then a contractor for Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, but in his spare time he began making small natural stone filters for household use.

There was an immediate market for these devices and Mr. Roberts was soon after able to quit his regular job and work full time manufacturing household filters. The earliest patent paper still in possession is dated 1889. It is made out to C.V. Roberts for a water filter. As business boomed and additional workers were hired, he expanded his line of filters to serve estates, hotels, industries and municipalities.

History in the Making

With the arrival of World War 1, Charles V. Roberts sensed new duties and challenges. He formed Roberts Engineering Company, setting up a foundry and machine shop in Philadelphia furnishing 75 mm. shells for the Imperial Russian Government and later for the United States.85

Meanwhile, the filter manufacturing company, working day and night on water treatment equipment for military camps and industry developed the first Army mobile water purification units and earned official government commendation for helping to achieve Allied victory.

In 1924, Charles V. Roberts died and was succeeded by his eldest son, Jesse W. Roberts who consolidated the company’s efforts in a drive for new filtration plant installations. As a testament to his drive, there are Roberts filtration installations throughout the world that have been in constant use for more than 100 years. Jesse W. Roberts died in 1935 at the age of 52, after safely guiding his company through the darkest days of the depression.

86 By 1939, with the outbreak of war in Europe, Roberts Filter turned most of its energies from peacetime pursuits to defense manufacturing, and eventually to all-out support of the war effort. Achievements include filtration plant installations at Fort Bragg, Fort Knox, Fort Benning, Fort Dix and many ordnance plants throughout the country. At the same time, Roberts provided process water for the DuPont Company, Hercules Power Company and a number of government-owned companies. The crowning achievement in Roberts’ impressive World War II record was providing water treatment facilities for the world’s first atomic energy installations. Roberts is proud to have participated in the famous Manhattan Project, which was without a doubt the greatest challenge to the waterworks industry and the ingenuity of the Roberts organization.

Roberts’ work on the Manhattan Project led to the introduction of high rate filtration in the municipal market in the late 1950’s. Since its introduction, high rate filtration has become a standard water treatment process in municipal practices today. 

In the 1960’s, Roberts worked with others to introduce Continuous Effluent Turbidity Monitoring into the municipal market. These efforts provided measurement and monitoring tools needed for treatment processes and governing regulatory agencies. Roberts began development of the Roberts Pacer II® packaged treatment system in the late 1980’s. The Pacer II system utilizes an upflow Contaclarifier® and downflow polishing filter to improve the efficiency of treating low turbidity water.

In response to a need for sludge removal from within the sedimentation basins requiring minimum manpower and a high degree of reliability, Roberts developed the Spyder® System in the 1990’s. The Spyder is a fixed in place sludge removal system that minimizes the number of moving parts and provides efficient removal of sludge.

In 1994, Roberts introduced the Aries® Managed Air System, which generally increased the efficiency of filter air scour. This increase in efficiency has provided many economical and production benefits to the industry.

In 1996, the current CEO, R. Lee Roberts, reorganized the company into the Roberts Filter Group; a family of companies dedicated to continuing the tradition of serving the needs of water and wastewater treatment worldwide.

Roberts introduced the Infinity® underdrain in 1997. This underdrain was the first jointless lateral type underdrain introduced in the water industry. This underdrain greatly improves upon the lateral type underdrains that began with the clay tile underdrain of the 1940’s. Eliminating the joints in the lateral runs eliminates failure and leakage points that plague other traditional technology underdrain systems.

Roberts revolutionized filter monitoring in 1998 with the introduction of the Dynamic Probe®. The Dynamic Probe makes it possible to measure differential pressure inside the filter bed during normal filtration and during filter backwash. This instrument holds the distinct advantage of providing real time internal filter information at a glance.

By incorporating the Dynamic Probe into the control system of filters, Roberts was able to introduce Anticipatory Filter Management in 1999. Anticipatory Filter Management allows past operating experiences and conditions to be incorporated into the filter control system resulting in computerized real time adjustments.

Engineering 

Roberts’ aggressive R&D plan ensures our equipment is in line with the needs and requirements of the 21st Century filter. With over 110 years of experience, Roberts Filter Aries®, Infinity®, Dynamic Probe®, Pacer II® and Spyder® are among the most advanced water treatment technologies introduced in the last twenty years.

The ability to take on complete projects or portions of projects for equipment and support, utilizing local contractors and engineers, make Roberts a flexible and dependable water treatment specialist. At Roberts, we are driven by our clients needs.

Personnel

The Robert’s headquarters is located in Media, Pennsylvania, adjacent to the city limits of Philadelphia, and represents the largest company in the water treatment field to remain in continuous family-owner management. With offices in Puerto Rico, Canada and the West Coast of the United States, Roberts’ diversified personnel can rapidly respond to our customers needs.

Extensive facilities, long continuity of experience, modern equipment and skilled personnel has molded a successful and integrated team. The pride of the Roberts team is a “customer conscious” approach to individual requirements.