Mobile Power Solutions® Manufacturer Since 1972About Vanair®, a Lincoln Electric Company

Upfitting an early PTO Underdeck System, c. 1972

Vanair® didn’t enter the mobile power industry – we like to say “We created it.”

In 1972, Vanair® engineers developed the world’s first vehicle-mounted, PTO-driven underdeck rotary screw air compressor, integrating what had previously been a bulky tow-behind machine directly onto the truck’s frame and powering it through the vehicle’s own drivetrain. That single invention eliminated a separate engine, freed the truck’s hitch, reclaimed valuable bed space, and reduced maintenance costs across the board. An entire industry was born from one engineering decision made in New Buffalo, Michigan.

More than 50 years later, Vanair® remains the industry leader in Mobile Power Solutions® — and the only manufacturer that has been defining this category from its very first day.

Today, as a Lincoln Electric Company, Vanair® combines over five decades of specialized engineering expertise with the global manufacturing resources of one of the most respected names in industrial equipment. The result: the most comprehensive, most innovative, and most proven portfolio of vehicle-mounted power systems available anywhere in the world.

The Origin of an Industry: 1972 to Today

Vanair® was founded in 1972 as Sullair PTO®, a division of Sullair Corporation, with a straightforward but revolutionary mandate: bring compressed air to the work truck without a separate engine. The product that emerged — the vehicle-mounted 185 CFM underdeck rotary screw air compressor — changed how utility crews, construction teams, and field service technicians worked.

Before Vanair®, mobile compressed air meant a tow-behind compressor with its own engine, its own maintenance schedule, and its own set of operational limitations. Vanair’s engineers saw a better way. By mounting the compressor beneath the truck’s bed and driving it through the power takeoff (PTO) shaft connected to the vehicle’s transmission, they eliminated redundant machinery and created a leaner, more capable work platform.

The impact was immediate and lasting:

• Freed the truck’s hitch for trailers, equipment, and tools
• Reduced overall vehicle weight compared to tow-behind setups
• Maximized usable bed space for materials and gear
• Lowered maintenance costs by eliminating a second engine
• Improved mobility on jobsites where towing was impractical

From Division to Industry Leader

The company became Vanair® Manufacturing in 1984 and continued expanding its engineering capabilities and product line through the following decades. By the time Lincoln Electric acquired Vanair® in July 2024, the company had grown into the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of Mobile Power Solutions®.

That acquisition wasn’t a pivot. It was a validation. Lincoln Electric President and CEO Steven B. Hedlund described Vanair® as “renowned for their leading high-quality manufacturing, innovation, and engineering expertise in the fast-growing maintenance and repair service truck market.” Those words reflect what Vanair’s customers have known for over five decades.

Engineering That Drives the Industry Forward

Vanair® is not a distributor. It is not an assembler of imported components. It is an engineering-driven manufacturer with over 50 years of R&D invested in one focused mission: making vehicle-mounted power systems more reliable, more capable, and more cost-effective for the people who depend on them every day.

That engineering focus has produced a long list of industry firsts, each one solving a real problem that customers faced in the field.

A Record of Industry Firsts

These aren’t marketing claims. They are documented engineering milestones that shaped what the entire mobile power industry looks like today. Every competitor in this space is, in some meaningful sense, building on the foundation Vanair® laid.

Proprietary Technologies Found Nowhere Else

Vanair’s most recent generation of PTO underdeck systems represents what the company calls the biggest advancement in PTO underdeck design in 50 years. These exclusive, patented technologies are standard on Vanair® systems and unavailable from any other manufacturer:

FailSafe® Dual Sensor Redundancy System Dual temperature and pressure sensors automatically switch to backup operation if a primary sensor fails, with zero interruption to the system. A single failed sensor on a competitor’s system can take an entire truck, crew, and jobsite offline. On a Vanair® system, the crew keeps working until the unit can be scheduled for routine maintenance.

ThermalGuard® Weather Protection Kit Uses the vehicle’s own warm engine coolant to preheat the compressor oil and regulators before the crew arrives at the jobsite. Cold-weather startups, oil starvation, and frozen regulators are eliminated. Crews arrive ready to work, not waiting for equipment to warm up.

UltraLife® 6,000-Hour Air/Oil Separator Element Engineered to last six times longer than the nearest competitor’s spin-on coalescer element and 15 times longer than underhood designs. In practical terms, the coalescer element typically outlasts the vehicle itself, meaning most Vanair® customers will never replace it. That translates to thousands of dollars in avoided maintenance costs over the life of a fleet.

XERO® Rapid Blow Down Tank Delivers near-instant blow down time for immediate compressor disengagement and re-engagement. Reduces leak points by 60% compared to conventional designs and saves an estimated $10,000 over a 10-year period in reduced maintenance costs.

V-TEC® II Total Electronic Control System™ An IP67-rated weatherproof digital controller that requires no third-party engine programming. Infinitely variable engine speed control reduces fuel consumption, noise, and drivetrain wear. Plug-and-play wiring harnesses tested to IPC/WHMA-A-620C standard make installation faster and diagnostics straightforward.

“These are the most advanced improvements in the tank design in our almost 50-years history.” — Ralph Kokot, former CEO, Vanair® Manufacturing, as quoted by Trailer/Body Builders

The Most Comprehensive Mobile Power Portfolio in the Industry

Vanair® offers what no other manufacturer can match: a complete, integrated product line covering every form of power a work truck crew needs, all engineered by the company that invented the category.

From Michigan City, Indiana, Vanair® designs, engineers, and manufactures systems that serve utility companies, municipalities, construction contractors, transit agencies, ground and air transportation operations, and the oil and gas sector, among others.

The Vanair® Product Lineup

• Vehicle-Mounted Air Compressors — PTO-Driven Underdeck Rotary Screw Compressors from 40 to 1,100 CFM, the widest output range in the industry
• Generators — Mobile power generation integrated with or independent of compressor systems
• Welders — Engine-driven and integrated welding systems for field repair and fabrication
• Hydraulics — PTO-driven hydraulic output for powering attachments and tools
• Electrified Power Equipment® — The next generation of mobile power, designed for the evolving work truck
• Chargers/Boosters — 12V, 24V, 36V, and 48V battery charging and boosting capabilities
• Engine Starters — Reliable starting solutions for large diesel equipment in the field
• Custom Mobile Power Equipment — Engineered-to-spec solutions for specialized fleet and OEM applications

The ALL-IN-ONE advantage is real: Vanair’s PTO Shaft-Driven Underdeck ALL-IN-ONE Power System® delivers six distinct forms of power from a single, chassis-mounted unit: 125-185 CFM rotary screw compressed air, 10kW power generation, 330A welding output, battery boosting, battery charging, and up to 30 gallons per minute at 2,000 PSI of hydraulic power. No other manufacturer offers this level of integration in a single underdeck package.

This breadth matters for fleet operators. Standardizing on Vanair® means one manufacturer relationship, one parts ecosystem, one service network, and one engineering team behind every system on every truck.

Backed by Lincoln Electric: Global Scale, Shared Standards

In July 2024, Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: LECO) acquired Vanair®, bringing together two companies that share a fundamental commitment to manufacturing excellence and engineering-led innovation.

Lincoln Electric is a high-performance industrial machinery and technology leader who helps customers manufacture and maintain vital equipment and infrastructure. Lincoln Electric’s innovative solutions enable higher quality and productivity across a variety of processes including welding, cutting, brazing, machining, process automation, and field repair. The Company leverages proprietary technologies and expertise in materials science, power electronics, automation, and intelligent software to help customers build better and achieve resilience in their operations. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Lincoln Electric is the essential ‘Linc’ that keeps the economy running. The Company operates 71 manufacturing and automation facilities across 20 countries and serves customers in over 160 countries. That infrastructure, that quality culture, and that commitment to engineering rigor now stand behind every Vanair® product.

What the Lincoln Electric Partnership Means for Vanair® Customers

The acquisition was not a change of direction for Vanair®. It was a recognition that the company’s engineering culture, manufacturing standards, and market position in the fast-growing service truck segment were exactly aligned with Lincoln Electric’s long-term strategy. Vanair® continues to operate from Michigan City, Indiana, with the same engineering team, the same manufacturing focus, and the same commitment to the customers and industries it has served since 1972.

The bottom line: Vanair® customers now have access to the combined engineering depth of the mobile power industry’s originator and one of the world’s most respected industrial manufacturers.

Who We Serve

Vanair® Mobile Power Solutions® are built for the industries where downtime is not an option and equipment failure is measured in thousands of dollars per hour, not inconvenience.

Industries That Depend on Vanair®

Gas and Utility Crews charging gas lines, installing fiber optics, and maintaining distribution infrastructure need compressed air that arrives at the jobsite ready to work. Vanair’s ThermalGuard® and FailSafe® technologies were engineered specifically for the reliability demands of utility operations.

Construction Breaking concrete, operating pneumatic tools, and powering hydraulic attachments on active job sites require sustained, high-output compressed air. Vanair’s underdeck systems deliver from 40 to 1,100 CFM without sacrificing bed space or adding a tow-behind unit to the equation.

Municipalities and Transit Fleet operators managing large numbers of work trucks across varied conditions need standardized, low-maintenance power systems. Vanair’s UltraLife® separator element and FailSafe® redundancy are purpose-built for high-utilization fleet environments.

Ground and Air Transportation From airport ground support equipment to vehicle maintenance operations, Vanair® provides the mobile power systems that keep transportation infrastructure moving.

Oil and Gas Remote field operations demand equipment that starts reliably in extreme cold, runs continuously without intervention, and keeps crews productive far from the nearest service facility. Vanair’s full product line, including engine starters and hydraulic systems, was designed for exactly these conditions.

Field Service and Maintenance Mobile mechanics, service technicians, and repair crews carry Vanair® systems because the ALL-IN-ONE capability means one truck can do the work of several. Air, welding, power generation, and hydraulics from a single underdeck system change what a service truck can accomplish on a single call.

Why Vanair®: The Case for the Category Creator

When evaluating Mobile Power Solutions® manufacturers, the question isn’t just who makes a capable product today. It’s who has the engineering depth, the manufacturing track record, and the long-term stability to support a fleet for the next decade and beyond.

On every dimension, Vanair® stands apart.

The decision to standardize a fleet on Vanair® is a decision to partner with the company that has been engineering these systems longer than anyone else, that holds patents on technologies no competitor can offer, and that now operates with the full backing of a global industrial manufacturer.

That combination of original expertise and expanded resources is what Vanair® brings to every customer relationship.

Ready to specify Vanair® for your fleet? Explore the complete Mobile Power Solutions® product lineup or contact a Vanair® specialist to discuss the right configuration for your application.