SIMFLO, a Lubbock-based company that manufactures pumps used in industrial and agricultural applications around the world, ceremonially opened the doors to its nearly completed engineering facility, including a best-of-its-kind pump testing facility, in central Lubbock Tuesday.

The company hosted guests in the facility, located at 605 26th St., including U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, for a tour and lunch. Visitors were able to see the 30,000 square-foot facility, which includes what the company calls "the most expansive vertical turbine test facility in North America."

SIMFLO was founded in 1951 in Lubbock and has been family-owned since. The company manufactures vertical turbine pumps that can move large amounts of water at a high rate and are often used in agricultural or industrial scenarios and municipal water systems. SIMFLO's products are in use from Lubbock, across the nation, to the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

The company's new facility contains wells up to 80 feet deep where new pumps will be tested at their full capacity, explained Troy Pickering, SIMFLO's executive vice president.

"We'll be able to put a pump into here and we'll be able to test it at the service it's going to be operating at," Pickering said. "We will be able to have city officials here, engineers here, contractors here to witness that.

"Water infrastructure is critical, and the failure of that equipment is certainly not anything anybody wants or is acceptable. So, we'll be able to test it here and show them what that pump can do at the operation conditions it is designed to do," Pickering said.

Besides the test facility, the building will include offices and collaborative spaces for engineering staff. But, Pickering explained, the testing facility is the centerpiece.

"This is a unique facility. This is one-of-a-kind in North America," Pickering said. "There's a lot of other manufacturers in the country that have different types of test facilities and can do different types of pumps, but when we're talking about vertical turbines … those opportunities just aren't anywhere else in North America.

Rep. Arrington shared remarks at the event and presented the Pickering family with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol as a token of congratulations on their business milestone.

"I decided to celebrate any time we do things bigger and better, or we're first, best and only — any time we want to celebrate why West Texas matters to the rest of the country," Arrington said. "We're a humble people, and that's a beautiful quality, but my job is to go and tell the world what West Texas does for every citizen of this great country."

"As you guys roll out new pump technology, irrigation systems, water infrastructure, that's good for the entire country," Arrington added.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: SIMFLO celebrates new, innovative pump engineering facility