History

Oseco and Elfab have merged to bring you OsecoElfab

Before the merger in 2020, each of our two manufacturing facilities were separate companies, each with their own, unique histories.

Through their stories, both locations have developed a distinct identity and character. As a joint company, we recognize and celebrate our differences and similarities. Embracing the unique strengths and perspectives of everybody, regardless of where they are located, adds strength to our brand and enables us to deliver higher performance at a global level. Read the unique histories of our two manufacturing facilities below.

Elfab’s history (North Shields, UK)

The place? North Shields, near Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.

The date? 1965.

Elfab was originally formed as a subsidiary of Torday Ltd, a metal finishing and plating business in North Shields. Named the Electrofabrication & Engineering Company Limited, the company initially produced nickel foil using a process known as electroforming. However, the company's director, John Torday, soon recognized the potential of using this foil to produce bursting discs, and from 1967 onward rupture disc manufacturing became the company’s core focus.

During the 1970s, the company purchased a local rupture disc manufacturing division called FA Hughes Ltd. As a result of this acquisition, the company was renamed Elfab Hughes.

Elfab Hughes' first reverse acting rupture disc – the RK76 – hit the market in 1976. The innovative disc featured a unique leading edge blade design and anti-fragmentation ring, and differed significantly from other disc designs at the time. Further innovations included the RK80 welded disc assembly in 1980 and the reusable Flo-Tel burst sensor, which was developed in the 1990s and is still the only burst sensor of its kind today.

In 1993 the company was acquired by Halma plc and subsequently shortened its name to simply Elfab. Elfab began working alongside Oseco in the early 2000s, and both companies rebranded to show their linked identities.

‍Art, History, and Engineering

Laszlo Torday was not only a renowned physical chemist, he was also an accomplished amateur photographer. His photos of North Shields, Jesmond and Newcastle in the 1960s and 1970s are now part of the local heritage collection in Newcastle City Library. You can view nearly 1,000 of his photos online in the Flickr album Torday’s Newcastle.

Laszlo’s grandson, Paul Torday, joined the business as a director. Paul eventually retired and wrote the best-selling novel and film inspiration Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Oseco’s history (Broken Arrow, USA)

The place? Broken Arrow, near Tulsa in Oklahoma State, USA.

The date? 1980.

This was the year five people took a leap of faith to begin their own safety equipment company. A group of employees joined Jerry Allen and his co-founders, and together they built Oklahoma Safety Equipment Company, known as Oseco.

Oseco positioned itself on the market as an innovative company providing products and services that gave the end users maximum safety. The first rupture disc was manufactured in February 1981, and by the mid-1980s, Oseco was on its way to establishing itself as an industry leader. Rapid growth allowed the owners to expand to a new facility and hire more staff.

In 1991, Oseco registered its first patent, for a tension-loaded composite rupture disc. More innovations followed, including the Oseco Safety Plug for oilfield environments, and the Oseco Safety Cartridge, which supports companies in achieving their climate targets and reducing fugitive emissions.

The company was acquired by Halma in 1999. Oseco began working alongside Elfab in the early 2000s, and both companies rebranded to show their linked identities.

Popular Culture & Pressure Safety

The popular science experiment show, Mythbusters, employed Oseco rupture discs throughout their series to determine if explosions in varying scenarios could be survived.

In the “Fire in the Hole” episode, the MythBusters crew tested the Hollywood myth of a movie character finding a bomb and stashing it in a nearby household item to survive the blast. They used Oseco’s rupture discs to measure the strength of the shock wave of one pound of C4 explosive placed inside four different items – a filing cabinet, a bed, a water-filled fish aquarium, and a trash truck – to determine if each item could contain the bomb’s blast enough for a person to “survive.”

After conducting several impressive explosions and checking to see if Oseco’s rupture discs had broken from the blast’s force, the MythBusters team concluded that the Hollywood movie myth was “Plausible” – the blasts from the bomb placed in the bed, the fish tank and trash truck were survivable.