The Company was founded by Samuel G. Frantz in 1935, and incorporated in New York in 1940. Business and manufacturing operations were carried out in New York City until 1950, when they were moved to a new plant in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. This building, enlarged in 1956, still houses business and manufacturing operations.

The Company specializes in the design and manufacture of magnetic separation equipment. During the life of Samuel Frantz, all of its products were based on his inventions. The principal product lines which he developed are solenoidal high gradient electromagnetic separators for removing fine ferromagnetic particles from fluids and dry materials, permanent magnet separators similar in design (both sold under the trademark FerroFilter^®), and a laboratory unit for separating components of samples of minerals according to susceptibility (sold under the trademark Isodynamic^®). Broad patents covering the laboratory separator and the solenoidal high gradient separators were issued to Frantz in 1936 and 1937, respectively.

The principal initial market for the Company's lines of FerroFilter^® magnetic separators was the ceramic industry, which still uses them to remove ferromagnetic contamination from clays (slurries, slips and dry powders), frits and glazes. During Frantz's life, markets were expanded to include applications for purifying pigments, foods, chemicals and pharmaceutical products. The FerroFilter^® lines became well known and established as standard equipment for such applications in substantially all of the industrialized countries of the world.

By 1971 the Isodynamic^® separator was in use in virtually every leading mineralogical laboratory in the world with the exception of those in the Soviet Union and China, and possibly some laboratories in England and Commonwealth countries.

During Frantz's life applications for FerroFilter^® permanent magnet separators in the magnetic filtration of lubricating oils and hydraulic fluids were well established. Major O.E.M. customers were manufacturers of heavy duty, high pressure pumps for oil well service. Units, which provided combined magnetic filtration and mechanical straining, were also used in applications similar to those for which electromagnetic separators were used, either for reasons of economy or to reduce explosion hazard.

During the last years of his life, Frantz worked with a major kaolin producer to develop a method for removing fine paramagnetic contaminating particles from the product to improve its brightness and whiteness. Large high intensity, high gradient magnetic separators used in the industry today were the result of this work, plus further development.

During the 1970's and 1980's, the Company's lines of FerroFilter^® electromagnetic separators for processing fluids were substantially expanded by increased processing capacity, temperature, and pressure; adding ASME code pressure vessels to some models; and adding models with 2,500 Gauss background field (Series F2). More recently, series F1E models have been added with 1,500 Gauss background field, which is intermediate between the series F2 and the original series F1 separators. The F1E series provides greater economy, while both the series F1E and F2 provide better magnetic separation under difficult processing conditions. Systems designed for automatic cleaning have been manufactured for many years. Frantz has also designed and manufactured high intensity, high gradient solenoidal separators with matrices. These units produce magnetic fields up to 20,000 Gauss.

Improvements in the line of FerroFilter^® electromagnetic separators for processing dry materials during the 70's and 80's were modifications to adapt them to applications requiring clean conditions (such as pharmaceutical products), high product temperatures, and large-scale production with automated operating and cleaning cycles. More recently series F2 separators for dry materials have been made available. Other improvements have been made to improve substantially the effectiveness of magnetic separation of fine, flowable powders.

Improvements in the FerroFilter^® magnetic separators powered by permanent magnets have included higher processing capacity and higher pressure. More recently units are being designed to utilize rare earth magnets for processing both wet and dry materials.

Efforts to improve and expand the Company's products for mineralogical investigation, begun in 1972, have been highly successful. Based on the patent, the Barrier separator (Model LB-1) provides magnetic energy gradient, or force on particles of a given susceptibility, more than three times greater than the force available in the Isodynamic^® separator. This gives it capability for separating minerals of susceptibilities much weaker than those that can be separated by the Isodynamic^® separator and, with improvements in particle feed and travel systems, quality of separations is substantially improved and processing times are much reduced. The LB-1 is capable of exploiting differences in diamagnetic susceptibility to separate – for example, relatively pure zircon or diamond crystals from others containing slight impurities. Beginning with highly effective applications at U.S. Geological Survey agencies (NIST), the barrier is now used in many mineralogical facilities worldwide. Complete units as well as retrofit kits for the older model L-1 Isodynamic^® separators are being sold.

An accessory device (Model LFC-2 Low Field Control) has also been developed for use with either the Isodynamic^® or the Barrier separator to give them the capability for separating ferromagnetic materials according to differences in their magnetic properties, a separation which Frantz considered more difficult than any other.

Research and development are ongoing processes at Frantz. Continuous efforts yield improvements to both industrial and laboratory equipment, enhancing separations that have been successfully performed in the past, and opening new applications. A recently granted patent for “Method and Apparatus for Making Continuous Magnetic Separations” discloses principles underlying new equipment development.

Applications for the industrial units have been broadened. Uses in the chemical, food, pigment, paint and other processing industries have expanded into many new areas. Numerous successful applications in new processing industries have been developed, such as ink producers, who have come to depend on Frantz industrial magnetic separators. Series F2 units have further broadened applications by providing better separations under more difficult processing conditions, for example, in ceramics (including those used for electronic applications), frits, pigments and pharmaceuticals. Seeking and investigating new applications are continuing processes at Frantz.