Indiana Oxygen

Eight years after commercial production of oxygen began in the United states in 1907, Indiana Oxygen Company became one of the first producers of the gas in central Indiana. Formed in 1915 by brothers Walter and John Brant, Indiana Oxygen remains a family-run operation today. Now in it's fourth generation, Walter L. Brant, II is the president of the company.

In 1911, the year of the first Indianapolis 500, Walter and John Brant-owners of the Indianapolis-based Lozier car agency and future company founders-sponsered two cars in the race. One of the cars, diven by Ralph Mulford, was first runner up to the winner, a Marmon Wasp, driven by Ray Harroun.

After founding the company in 1915, the Brant brothers continued their interest in racing, In the 1920's, Walter and John Brant served in Otis Porters technical scoring staff, assisting with timing and pit stop data. The methods and techical procedures of inflating race care tires with Indiana Oxygen compressed air became a subject of particular interest to the racing teams, primarily because the use of compressed air decreased pit times. A short time later, as more sophisticated methods of manufacturing became known, Indiana Oxygen began to play a significant role in the development of advanced technologies through its production of nitrogen gas. Nitrogen was first substituted for compressed air in the late 1920's by Firestone, for inflating tires. Indiana Oxygen, seeking new uses for gas, pioneered the use of nitrogen for refueling under pressure. From 1937 to 1964, when pressurized refueling was eliminated from the race, Indiana Oxygen continued to provide gases and welding services to the race teams.

Today, Indiana Oxygen Company's Garage #63(N-15) at the Indianapolis Speedway, still provides race teams with nitrogen for tires, pneumatic tools, and pneumatic jack equipment. With the myriad of new alloy metals used in the production of engines, manifolds and racing parts; Indiana Oxygen has lent its expertise, as well as its garage, to the repair and testing of a host of new racing technologies.

From its inception, Indiana Oxygen concentrated on the sale of gases but in the 1980s we realized that we needed to be a full service company. While Indiana Oxygen is well known for selling gases, we also sell and support a full range of welding, safety and industrial products that complement the industries we serve.

Time and demographics inspired us to move our operations from our long-established downtown location  to the northwest corner of Indianapolis. The purchase of our downtown location by Eli Lilly allowed us to construct our current 31,000 square foot headquarters facility, off I-465 in 1991. Warehousing and cylinder filling operations take up roughly 20,000 sqare feet, with the rest made up of a modern store for walk-in customers and an office wing that contains work areas for use by our outside sales consultants and vendor representatives. In 2011, we installed a new fully automated fill plant that increased our pumping efficiency, and ensured a higher level of accuracy and repeatability in the pumping of mixed gases.

Today, we have a network of nearly 40 warehouses and 9 branch retail locations servicing customers in Indiana, as well as portions of Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. Business growth is attained by capitalizing on opportunities in our marketplace while holding true to the company’s mission: “…to serve our customers so well, and with such a high quality product that they have no interest whatsoever in our competitors.”

Contact

Name: Jay Brant / Gary Halter
Email: jaybrant@indianaoxygen.com and garyhalter@indianaoxygen.com
Telephone: 317‐808‐4060
Website: www.indianaoxygen.com