[3][4] In 1996, the company set up a subsidiary, Thermo Fibergen, which it in turn made partially publicly traded, to focus on technologies to recover products from paper-making waste products; that company in turn acquired Granulation Technology, Inc. and created a division called GranTek that produced granules from sludge that were used, for example, as a carrier for agricultural chemicals and pesticides.

[5] The granule business became the focus of Fibergen, helped in part by enzymologist Anatole Klyosov.

The company also provides fluid-handling systems (e.g. rotary joints, syphons, turbulator bars, precision unions) widely used in the dryer section of the papermaking process, and the production of corrugated boxboard, metals, plastics, rubber, textiles, chemicals, and food.

Kadant also provides individual components, widely used in pulping, de-inking, screening, cleaning, refining recycled.

[9] Kadant's Research and Development facilities are based in Europe and the US, engaging in fiber processing, heat transfer, doctoring, and fluid handling.