Crane Co.: Asbestos History, Valve Products & Litigation

Crane Co.: A Century of Valves, Fittings, and Asbestos

Crane Co. was founded in Chicago in 1855 by Richard Teller Crane, who began manufacturing plumbing and steam fittings to serve the rapidly industrializing American economy. Over the following 170 years, Crane grew into one of the most significant diversified industrial manufacturers in the United States, expanding through organic growth and a long series of strategic acquisitions to encompass valves, pressure measurement, aerospace components, payment solutions, and other product lines.

The company's core industrial identity — as a manufacturer of valves, fittings, and plumbing products — was established in the late nineteenth century and remained central through the twentieth. Crane valves were installed in virtually every category of industrial facility: refineries, chemical plants, power generating stations, paper mills, textile mills, shipyards, hospitals, commercial office buildings, and residential construction. The ubiquity of Crane products in the built environment is a key factor in the breadth of the company's asbestos litigation exposure.

Asbestos entered Crane's product story through two principal pathways. First, the valve packing used to seal valve stems from leakage was manufactured with asbestos fiber because of its heat resistance and durability under the pressurized, high-temperature service conditions in which industrial valves operate. Gate valves, globe valves, check valves, and other Crane products contained asbestos packing as an integral component. Second, Crane supplied gaskets — either attached to valves at flanged connections or sold separately as sheet gasket material — that contained compressed asbestos fiber.

These asbestos-containing components were present in Crane products throughout most of the twentieth century, from the early decades of asbestos adoption through the phase-out period of the late 1970s and 1980s. Workers who installed, maintained, and repaired Crane valves and fittings over careers spanning those decades accumulated asbestos exposure with each valve repacking and each gasket change.

Crane Co. today operates as a publicly traded company and has gone through numerous restructurings. At one point the company traded as Crane Holdings following a reorganization of its various business segments. Despite these corporate evolution steps, the legal successor entities responsible for Crane Co.'s historical asbestos liabilities remain defendants in ongoing civil asbestos litigation. The company has not sought bankruptcy protection and continues to contest asbestos cases in the civil court system.

How Workers Were Exposed to Crane Co. Asbestos

The exposure pathways associated with Crane Co. asbestos products differ somewhat from those of packing specialists like John Crane or Garlock, because Crane Co.'s primary products were valves and fittings — assembled components rather than raw packing or gasket material sold to end users for field fabrication. This distinction affects both the type of exposure and the occupations most at risk.

Plumbers and Pipefitters in Commercial and Industrial Construction

Plumbers and pipefitters who installed Crane valves in commercial buildings, industrial facilities, hospitals, and other large construction projects encountered asbestos packing as a component of the valves they installed. New Crane valves came from the factory with asbestos packing already installed in the valve stem gland. While the installation of new valves did not typically generate significant asbestos dust from the packing itself, the valve installation work frequently occurred in the same environment as other asbestos-generating trades — particularly insulation work on the same piping systems — creating bystander exposure.

More significantly, plumbers and pipefitters who maintained and repaired Crane valves throughout the operating life of a building or facility performed valve repacking operations that generated direct asbestos exposure. Repacking a valve requires removing the valve from service, disassembling the gland assembly, boring out the worn packing material, and installing new packing rings — the same exposure-generating sequence encountered with pump packing, but performed on valve assemblies.

Industrial Maintenance Workers

Industrial maintenance mechanics and pipefitters at refineries, chemical plants, and manufacturing facilities who maintained process piping systems encountered Crane valves throughout their work environments. The scale of valve populations in large industrial plants — often thousands of valves requiring periodic inspection and maintenance — meant that workers assigned to valve maintenance performed repacking operations repeatedly over the course of a career.

In industrial settings, the gaskets at flanged valve connections were also frequently disturbed during maintenance. Replacing a flanged valve requires breaking the flange connections on both sides of the valve, removing the old gaskets (which may be Crane-supplied or third-party gaskets), and installing new gaskets when the replacement valve is installed. This gasket removal and replacement work generated asbestos dust whenever compressed asbestos fiber gaskets were used.

Shipyard Workers

The U.S. Navy and commercial shipbuilders were major consumers of Crane valves for shipboard piping systems. Steam systems, seawater systems, fuel oil systems, and other shipboard fluid systems used Crane valves extensively. Shipyard pipefitters and machinists who installed valves during new construction, and Navy repair facility workers and aboard-ship maintenance personnel who maintained valve systems, were exposed to Crane asbestos packing in the confined machinery spaces where valve maintenance was performed.

Building Maintenance and Facility Operations Workers

Maintenance workers at hospitals, universities, hotels, and other large commercial buildings who maintained heating, cooling, and domestic water systems also encountered Crane valves in their work. These workers, who may not have identified themselves as industrial tradespeople, nonetheless performed the same valve repacking operations that generated asbestos exposure in industrial settings. The broad commercial and institutional market for Crane plumbing products means that the asbestos exposure universe extends well beyond identifiable industrial worksites.

Crane Co. Subsidiaries and Acquired Brands with Asbestos Liability

A critical aspect of Crane Co.'s asbestos litigation profile is the company's history of growth through acquisition. Over the course of the twentieth century, Crane acquired numerous manufacturing businesses, absorbing their product lines, manufacturing operations, customer relationships, and — importantly — their asbestos product liabilities. Understanding which Crane subsidiary brands a claimant may have worked with is therefore essential to building a complete exposure claim.

Cochrane

Cochrane was a significant manufacturer of heat transfer equipment, including feedwater heaters, deaerators, and boiler accessories for power generation and industrial steam systems. Cochrane products were found in power plants, industrial boiler houses, and marine propulsion systems. The high-temperature, high-pressure nature of these applications meant that asbestos gaskets and packing were standard materials in Cochrane equipment. Workers who maintained Cochrane heat exchange equipment encountered Crane asbestos materials in boiler room and turbine hall environments.

Chapman Valve

Chapman Valve Manufacturing Company was an Indian Orchard, Massachusetts manufacturer of industrial valves that became part of the Crane family of companies. Chapman valves were widely used in industrial process piping, particularly in the paper and textile mills of New England and in naval applications. The Chapman brand valve line had its own asbestos packing and gasket legacy, and workers who identified Chapman valves in their work history are pursuing claims that fall under the Crane Co. umbrella.

Deming Pumps

Crane acquired Deming, a manufacturer of centrifugal and turbine pumps, bringing another set of rotating equipment products with asbestos packing into the corporate family. Deming pumps were used in water supply, agricultural irrigation, industrial process, and building services applications. The stuffing boxes of Deming pumps used asbestos compression packing, and mechanics who maintained Deming pumps performed the same packing removal and replacement tasks that generated exposure from packing specialist manufacturers.

Additional Crane Holdings Businesses

Crane's acquisition history encompasses many other businesses beyond the most frequently cited subsidiaries. Industrial products, building products, and engineered materials businesses were absorbed into the Crane family at various points, some bringing asbestos product histories with them. An experienced asbestos attorney investigating a Crane-related exposure claim will research which specific Crane subsidiary brands and products were present at the claimant's workplaces, using historical industrial supply records, plant maintenance records, and corporate acquisition timelines to build the complete product identification picture.

Crane Co. Asbestos Litigation: The Bare Metal Defense and Product Identification

Crane Co. has been one of the most active defendants in the development and use of the "bare metal defense" — a legal theory that has been litigated in multiple jurisdictions and ultimately considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. The bare metal defense holds that a manufacturer of a component product (such as a valve) is not liable for asbestos diseases caused by replacement asbestos-containing products (such as replacement gaskets or packing) that were manufactured by third parties and used with the original equipment after sale.

The U.S. Supreme Court addressed the bare metal defense in Air & Liquid Systems Corp. v. DeVries (2019), ruling in the context of maritime law claims that a product manufacturer can be held liable for injuries caused by post-sale replacement parts if the manufacturer could reasonably have foreseen that its product would be used with asbestos-containing parts, the product required asbestos-containing parts to function, and the manufacturer failed to warn about dangers from such use. The DeVries decision was a significant development for claimants pursuing valve and pump manufacturers under maritime law.

State court application of similar principles varies by jurisdiction. Crane Co. and its subsidiaries have argued in various state court cases that they should not be held liable for asbestos exposure caused by replacement packing or gaskets purchased from third parties rather than from Crane. Plaintiff attorneys counter that Crane valves were manufactured with asbestos packing as original equipment, that Crane's installation instructions and product specifications called for asbestos packing during maintenance, and that Crane had actual knowledge that replacement packing would be asbestos-containing given the era of the equipment's use.

These legal arguments make product identification — establishing specifically which Crane products a claimant worked with, and whether the asbestos exposure came from original or replacement materials — an important element of Crane Co. cases. An experienced asbestos attorney will gather the evidence needed to address these arguments effectively.

Crane Co. Asbestos Product Categories

The following table identifies the principal categories of Crane Co. asbestos-containing products across the company's various brands and subsidiaries, along with the primary applications and worker populations affected.

Frequently Asked Questions