Safety-Kleen was founded in Milwaukee in 1963 by Ben Palmer, and pioneered the practice of recycling the solvents used to clean auto parts.The firm went public in 1979, and then enjoyed an astonishing streak of annual growth rates of 20% or more. Whenever significant competition popped up, Safety-Kleen acquired it.
By the end of the 1980s, it had 160 branches around the USA and owned 2,500 trucks and 350,000 cleaning machines, which handled dirty automobile parts, dry-cleaning solvents, flammable liquids, and other items requiring cleaning, recycling, or disposal.
By the early 1990s, Safety-Kleen employed nearly 7,000 people around the country and grossed nearly $800 million in annual sales. In 1991, the company opened a large oil-recycling plant in East Chicago, Indiana. The company's profits and rate of growth slowed sharply during the 1990s, partly because of environmental violations at one of its solvent-disposal plants in Puerto Rico. In 1998, it merged with Laidlaw, then slid into bankruptcy in 2000. Safety-Kleen emerged from Chapter 11 in 2003, and today is painting its positioning with a green brush:
"Safety-Kleen provides a broad set of environmentally-responsible products and services that keep North American businesses in balance with the environment."
Plano, Texas-based Safety-Kleen has 50 patents, see them here (and here's the short URL: http://cli.gs/Safety-KleenIP).
The first was in August of 1970, titled Washer for Parts and the Like, from inventor Gene Olson.
The latest was on Christmas Day last year, titled Movable Sink Parts Washer from five inventors--
The present disclosure relates generally to a movable aqueous- and solvent-based parts washer used to wash grease, oil, dirt, and other debris from mechanical parts using an cleaning solution, and more particularly, to a parts washer with a movable sink and movable lid pivotally connected to a hollow housing for facilitating the access within the housing for the replacement and maintenance of a cleaning solution reservoir. The third-generation washer is made of molded reinforced polymer in a shell configuration around a tilting reservoir. A pump is also pivotally connected below the sink to retract the pump during change operations of the cleaning solution reservoir. The device includes a molded sink with basin and reinforced pan with an interface to control the release of fumes between the sink and the pivoting lid. The parts washer also includes built-in light is placed in proximity to the work area on the underside of the lid for illumination during washing operations, a support frame for the sink for improved stability of the apparatus, and a latching mechanism equipped with a low fusible link for optimal fire protection response of the thermal fusible.
Today the firm has 4,400 employees and serves 330,000 customers in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
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