The story of Somas

In order to tell you about Somas’ history, let’s begin at the beginning with the name. Somas is an acronym of Sliperi Och Mekaniska Arbeten Säffle (the Säffle Grinding and Mechanical Works). The company has a long tradition as a valve manufacturer, having been founded back in 1945 by Sven Ragnar Hägg and Folke Carlén. At that time, the main focus was on the grinding and polishing of cutlery.

Somas worked with products developed in-house right from the outset. The manufacture of valves was launched in the late 1940s. This arose due to the great need for valves within the local process industry, which at the time mainly comprised the pulp and paper industry. As a result, the idea of manufacturing valves made of acid-proof stainless materials came to us early on.

The first type of valve to be manufactured was known as a throttle valve at the time, although we now refer to it as a butterfly valve. The ball segment valve was introduced in the early 1970s and proved to be the solution for many applications.

The arrival of the metal-seated butterfly valve at the end of the 1970s meant that our range of valves covered a large proportion of the needs of the process industry. We have continued to build on this since then, and our product range now consists of ball segment valves, ball valves and butterfly valves, as well as pneumatic actuators and associated valve positioners.