Boltac Industries

About Boltac Industries

Precision Jar Testing Equipment for Water/Wastewater Treatment

Designed by water treatment operators/technicians
Refined through nearly 50 years of real plant experience.

Precision G value

Precision G-Value controlled jar testing systems

Made in New Zealand

Designed and manufactured in New Zealand

Boltac Industries is a New Zealand engineering business specialising in the design and manufacture of precision jar testing and sludge settlement equipment for the water and wastewater treatment industry.

Boltac equipment is used in water treatment plants, laboratories, universities, polytechnics, operator training facilities, coagulant sales representatives, plant design engineers, and used by process engineers who require accurate, repeatable testing equipment for coagulation, flocculation, and settlement analysis.

Notably, now used in PFAS removal plant design and practice. Boltac products are built on a foundation of real operational experience in water treatment plants, combined with precision engineering and practical design.

DESIGNED AND
Built by a Water Treatment Operator

Boltac Industries was founded by a New Zealand indentured tradesman Fitter, Turner, and Machinist whose career began in heavy engineering before entering the water treatment industry in 1977. Working his way from plant maintenance technician to plant manager, he gained extensive experience operating and optimising the treatment plant equipment and performance.

Along the way, he obtained formal qualifications including:

  • Water Treatment Plant Technician Certification
  • “B” Certificate in Water Treatment
  • Site Technician Diploma in Water Treatment
  • Executive Staff Management Diploma – New Zealand Institute of Management

He has also trained plant operators in New Zealand and Fiji, using his deep understanding of the practical challenges faced by treatment plants. Today, that experience represents nearly five decades of hands-on involvement in water treatment operations, process optimisation, and equipment design and production.

Built by a Water Treatment Operator

Why Boltac Exists

Boltac Engineering began in 1977, and Boltac Industries evolved from that in 1991, when a client asked a simple question: “Can you build a better jar stirrer?”

At the time, most treatment plants relied on older six-place jar stirrers that were heavy, difficult to transport, and lacked the precision required for reliable testing for today’s standards. Common problems included:

  • Paddle speeds that were inconsistent across jars.
  • Test conditions that were difficult to repeat accurately.
  • Round laboratory beakers that did not reflect real plant mixing conditions.
  • Poor lighting, making floc observation difficult.
  • For plant operators trying to optimise coagulation and flocculation processes, these limitations made reliable testing challenging.
Boltac set out to solve these problems. Engineering a Better Jar Testing System 

Built-In G-Value Control

In water treatment, the G-Value represents the average velocity gradient (mixing energy applied) during coagulation and flocculation testing.

Traditionally, operators needed to manually calculate the paddle speed required to generate the correct mixing energy. Boltac stirrers simplify this process.

Operators simply enter:

  • Water temperature.
  • Required G-Value

The stirrer automatically adjusts paddle speed to generate the correct mixing energy in the test jars.

This removes the need for manual calculations and improves consistency across different operators and facilities.

Why Boltac Uses Square Jars

Most plant mixing chambers are square or baffled. Traditional round beakers fail to replicate these dynamics. In 1991, Boltac introduced square 1-litre jars to simulate realistic plant conditions. And why 1-litre? Half the transport equals twice the testing, not to mention, shifting the decimal point is easier than dividing by “2”.

Torque testing proves square jars generally require about half the paddle velocity of round beakers to achieve identical energy transfer, ensuring accurate plant scale-up.

Improved Floc Observation

Others’ standard stirrers often use bottom-up illumination that often causes reduced light to view the supernatant. Often used fluorescent tubes tend to pale over time. Boltac’s 10-step adjustable intensity LED system illuminates from above and behind the jars, flooding the viewing area with more usable light.

This allows operators to precisely monitor both floc formation and settling phases with the adjustable high-intensity, cool-white clarity.

Why Boltac Uses Square Jars

Designed by Operators

Boltac equipment is designed by people who have worked inside water treatment plants.

That practical experience ensures every machine reflects the real needs of plant operators, engineers, and laboratory technicians.

The result is equipment that combines:

  • Engineering precision
  • Operational practicality
  • Long-term reliability

Boltac by the Numbers

  • 49+ years of water treatment industry experience.
  • Jar testing systems are used in treatment plants and laboratories.
  • Used in educational institutions in New Zealand and overseas.
  • Designed and manufactured in New Zealand, used worldwide.
  • Built by engineers who understand plant operations and requirements
Built for the Real World of Water Treatment

Boltac equipment is designed with a simple philosophy.
Design testing equipment the way experienced plant operators would build it themselves. The result is equipment that delivers corrosion-resistant performance, accuracy, repeatability, and practical usability in real-world treatment environments.

Boltac Jar Stirrers are in use in twenty-six countries globally

They are used in Australia, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Singapore, Indonesia, the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Malaysia, Belgium, France, Azerbaijan, Micronesia, South Africa, Canada, England, New Zealand, Mexico, Lao, Palau, Thailand, China, Solomon Islands, Oman.

Q: Who designs and manufactures Boltac water treatment equipment?
A: Boltac Industries equipment is designed and manufactured in New Zealand by a qualified water treatment plant manager and senior site technician with over 49 years of industry experience. This dual expertise in mechanical engineering (Fitter, Turner, Machinist) and plant operation ensures that every stirrer and SSVI unit is built to address real-world operational challenges, such as floc visibility, G-Value accuracy, and mechanical durability in corrosive environments.
Boltac’s aim has always been to “Never make money from selling spare parts”.