Ingersoll Rand, Garrett Motion Partner to Develop Oil-Free Air Technologies

Ingersoll Rand and Garrett Motion signed a multi-year strategic partnership to develop next-generation oil-free air technologies, delivering enhanced energy efficiency, performance, and reliability for customers across several end markets, including food, beverage, and life sciences. Initial products may be introduced to specific Ingersoll Rand customers in 2026, with a broader commercial launch beginning in 2027 across the company’s global sales regions.

“This collaboration reflects our continued focus on delivering differentiated solutions that create superior value for our customers,” said Vicente Reynal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ingersoll Rand. “By working closely with Garrett Motion, we are strengthening our ability to innovate at the system level and address markets where performance, purity, and efficiency are non-negotiables, helping customers operate more efficiently and sustainably.”

The collaboration expands Ingersoll Rand’s position in compression technology, including compressor platforms, proprietary system-level innovation, and application expertise, with Garrett Motion’s advanced oil-free compressor modules. Together, the partners will focus on oil-free innovations that help customers reduce energy consumption, improve process efficiency, and support sustainability goals in industrial applications requiring 100% oil-free air.

“We are excited to partner with Ingersoll Rand to create a distinctive oil-free solution for industrial air compression,” said Olivier Rabiller, Chief Executive Officer and President of Garrett Motion. “Ingersoll Rand is an ideal partner for Garrett as we expand the use of our unique oil-free high speed compressor technology to bring lower lifecycle costs and increased sustainability to operations in the industrial space.”

Oil-free air compression offers benefits that are particularly critical within food and beverage and life sciences industries, where reliability, air purity, and performance are essential and will bring an improved alternative to existing compressor solutions.

Hydraulics and Pump

In early October 2024, Ingersoll Rand acquired Air Power Systems Co. (APSCO), Blutek, and UT Pumps & Systems (UT Pumps) for a combined price of approximately $135 million. These acquisitions add more than $50 million in cumulatively acquired revenue and, in 2024, Ingersoll Rand closed 14 acquisitions under its capital allocation strategy.

APSCO is U.S.-based, providing hydraulic and pneumatic products and engineered solutions for specialty work truck vehicles. The company offers hydraulic coolers, systems, and components, as well as pneumatic consoles, cylinders, valves, and switches. Blutek is Italy-based and specializes in the design and production of engineered solutions for compressed air and nitrogen generation in mission-critical environments. UT Pumps is an Indian manufacturer of screw pumps and triplex plunger pumps, adding new pump technology to Ingersoll Rand’s current portfolio.

Controlled Jetting

In May 2024, Inkbit announced the closing of a $19 million financing round, led by Ingersoll Rand, to advance its multi-material additive manufacturing process, VCJ. In addition to funding from Ingersoll Rand, companies including Future Labs Capital, GC Ventures America, iGlobe Partners, Ocado, Phoenix Venture Partners, Stratasys, Zeon Venture, and others helped to finance Inkbit’s process.

VCJ is a multi-material manufacturing system that scales from prototyping to production on a single platform and utilizes advanced computation, chemistry, and process control to enable the rapid manufacturing of products, including complex industrial fluidics and bio-inspired robots. The VCJ system was initially developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, and combines the scalability, reliability, and throughput of a traditional assembly line with the flexibility and intelligence of 3D machine vision-based feedback control.