Our History

Over 25 Years of Excellence

RoboVent is part of the Rensa Filtration family of companies. Rensa invests in innovation and the people that drive it to manufacture and market the best-in-class solutions that keep environments safe and industries thriving.

From its humble beginnings as a local dust-collector distributor, RoboVent has grown into a leader in the design and manufacture of ventilation and filtration systems for some of the world's most successful manufacturing companies. It has done this by constantly asking one question: “What else can we do for our customers to make their business better?”

This relentless drive to do more — and do it better — began fueling innovations almost from the start. Launched in 1989 as Great Lakes Air Systems, the company found a steady business in providing dust collection solutions with other brands. It quickly saw the opportunity to create even better products and technologies for its customers.

The company's first big breakthrough came in 1996, when it debuted SparkOut, a revolutionary system for fire suppression in weld cells. The following year brought a major milestone, as Great Lakes began manufacturing its own brand of collectors. Its RoboVent line hit the market in 2001, and soon after the company set up an in-house engineering department to pave the way to even greater growth.

The RoboVent dust-collection systems rapidly made a name for themselves — literally. The line became so well known that customers actually began referring to Great Lakes as RoboVent. Thus, in 2007 the company changed its name to RoboVent.

What remained unchanged, though, was the company's entrepreneurial drive and relentless work ethic, both of which would prove critical during the 2007–2009 financial crisis. With the economy in a shambles and many industries teetering on the brink, RoboVent partners John and Jim Reid were undeterred. In fact, they chose to continue to innovate and expand.

Between 2007 and 2011, RoboVent rolled out three major new product lines — WeldVent, Plaser and Vortex — and debuted the eTech digital controller. To crown things off, the company set up headquarters in a 56,000-square-foot engineering and manufacturing facility in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

In 2014, the same year that RoboVent celebrated its 25th anniversary, it was named one of Inc. 5000 America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies. The honor was a testament to RoboVent's establishing itself as the benchmark for industrial solutions with systems and service that have proven to be efficient, reliable and cost-effective. But it also reflected RoboVent's passion to be the best by solving customers' problems. That passion continues to drive the company today.