Elge was originally founded in 1873 in Linkoping, Sweden. In the early days the company focused on casting components for electrical power distribution equipment. As the company grew, it expanded into the research and development of heat exchangers in the 1950s. The combination of quality engineering and skilled craftsmanship resulted in the first shell and coil heat exchanger being manufactured in 1977. The Elge heat exchangers soon became the leader in the district heating market in Europe by virtue of this technological breakthrough Elge developed the idea of constructing heat exchangers with copper tubing that was wound in concentric circles. This relatively simple principle prevented leaking by eliminating the need for seals and greatly increased the capacity. One Elge heat exchanger that was approximately five feet high and two feet in diameter had the same capacity of ten tubular bundle type heat exchangers or of a boiler that occupied a thousand cubic feet of space.