Month: September 2019

Middlesex Gases & Technologies, Inc. is a family-owned, third-generation distributor of high-pressure cylinders, microbulk and bulk gases, including rare and specialty gases, medical, cryogenic, and electronic gases, as well as all gas-related equipment. The company was founded in 1949 by Joseph Martin, who had a clear vision, “To create and operate a strong independent distributorship that would sell quality products at a fair price and back them up with excellent service.” The company began with a single pickup truck for deliveries and used upside down milk cartons for chairs at the original Everett, Massachusetts location. As the company continued to grow,…

The Cavagna Group was founded in 1949 by Paolo Cavagna and his children. Today, Cavagna is a global company with more than 1,000 employees in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa, as well as a 25-person operation in North America. But through all that growth, The Cavagna Group remains a family-owned company and major decisions within the company are reached by consensus. The group consists of 11 vertically integrated production companies in Italy and seven others spread across five continents. The group sells in more than 145 countries through a distribution network consisting of 15 fully owned additional distribution companies. Cavagna’s mission…

Weiler Abrasives was founded by Karl E. Weiler in 1944 as the Weiler Brush Company in Long Island. Weiler began the company with just $50 and a dream. Now, 75 years later, the Weiler Abrasives Group has grown from a small jewelry polishing brush business into a global abrasives leader with 1,300 employees across eight different countries. But even as the company has grown by leaps and bounds, it remains true to its original key values: integrity, customer focus, accountability, learning and competence, and passion. Today, Weiler continues as a fourth-generation privately owned company under the leadership of CEO Chris…

David S. Pearl, Sr. opened Uniweld Products, Inc. in 1949 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pearl, who was originally from Pittsburgh but was stationed in Fort Lauderdale in the U.S. Navy, purchased farmland in the Dania Beach area and used the original farmhouse as the first Uniweld factory, manufacturing torches and regulators. Today, the company remains a USA manufacturer located in Fort Lauderdale but have since vastly outgrown that original farmhouse and operate out of a 100,000 sq. ft. facility as one of the major manufacturers in the welding, HVAC/R, plumbing and alloy markets. Even as the company has grown and…

“Necessity is the mother of all invention,” says HIAB USA Vice President of Sales and Service Barry McGrane. Three-quarters of a century ago, deep in the forests of Sweden, a ski manufacturer named Eric Sundin needed a solution to simplify the loading and unloading of wood. Sundin designed a hydraulic crane that cleverly used his truck’s engine for power to load the wood. “He didn’t realize it at the time, but he had just created a device that has driven a 75 year industry,” McGrane says. Seeing the potential of this new invention, Sundin started Hydrauliska Industri AB. His innovation…

Atlas Welding Supply Company was originally founded as Temerson & Son in 1944. The Temerson family had a scrap business and found that many of their suppliers needed gases and cutting materials to cut the scrap. Temerson became an Airco distributor and planted the seeds for what would eventually become Atlas Welding Supply Company. The company officially changed its name in 1978 when the Temersons sold the business to an employee, Jack Englebert. Jack, who approached his largest customer, Cain Steel, run by J.M. Cain, to partner in the transaction, changed the company name to Atlas Welding Supply Company…

The history of A-OX Welding Supply Company can be traced back to two separate companies: Dakota Welding Supply, which was founded in eastern South Dakota in 1944, and A&B Welding Supply, which was founded in 1959 by Harold and Bob Elliott in western South Dakota. Harold was a traveling welder and, after trouble finding a secure source of wire as he worked around the country, he finally decided to start his own company.  He founded A&B from his home garage with his son, Bob, and his son Don later joined the company in 1961.  In 1964 they bought Dakota Welding…

Mississippi Welders Supply Company was founded in 1939 in Mondovi, Wisconsin, as Mississippi Welders & Auto Supply. The company had a network of dedicated driver-salespeople that served customers in southeastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa. With so much territory to cover, the company expanded to include a Winona, Minnesota store in 1966, which today serves as the company headquarters. Don Peterson began his career in the industry working for Airco in 1960, calling on distributors in the Midwest. In 1973, the opportunity arose for Don to purchase Mississippi Welders Supply. Don purchased the business with two partners, who were…

A boat’s engine problems laid the unlikely foundation of Huber Supply Company. Elmer Smith was on a boat trip on Lake Erie one weekend when his boat developed engine trouble. He was stranded at a boat works outside of Port Clinton, Ohio, that wouldn’t be open until the following Monday. However, Nelson Schmidt, who was the son of the owner of the boat shop, worked all day and night to help get Smith’s boat up and running. Elmer was so impressed that he told Nelson that if he was ever in Minneapolis looking for work as a welder to look…

Dale Oxygen, Inc. has been a family owned and operated business since the company was founded in 1939. Harry W. Bennear founded the company after working as a welder in the Pittsburgh area during the 1930s. In 1937, Bennear moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to work alongside a relative for the Air Reduction Company. Through connections made at the Air Reduction Company, Harry became an authorized Airco distributor and opened Dale Oxygen, Inc. in the Dale section of Johnstown. He began by selling and delivering Oxygen and Acetylene gas cylinders, oxy/fuel torches and welding electrodes for welding and cutting applications. In…

Robert Norman Goss founded R.N. Goss Gas Products during the Great Depression in 1934 in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Just one year prior, unemployment had risen from 3% to 25% of the nation’s workforce. The original site of Goss Gas was on Seventh Street in Oil City. At the time, no propane or welding cylinders were filled on site. Goss Gas moved to its current location in Reno, Pennsylvania in 1960, shortly after N. Grant Goss joined his brother in business. Together, they operated Goss Gas until the early 1970s. The third generation of the family joined the business in 1974,…

Maine Oxy-Acetylene Supply Company was founded in 1929 in Auburn, Maine, by Joseph W. Albiston under the name Maine Gas Service. The company provided sales and service to home propane customers. Throughout its history, Maine Oxy has been dedicated to providing quality products at competitive prices, superior safety solutions and exceptional customer service. Since its founding, the company has expanded outside of Auburn to include several locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. In 2015, Maine Oxy acquired three locations in Canada, under the name VAC Oxy. In total, the company now operates 19 retail locations throughout New England…

“You’re only as good as your last interaction with a customer.” That’s the attitude that Delille Oxygen Company has adopted as it celebrates its 95th anniversary in 2019. President Josh Weinmann does not want the company to rest on its laurels as it heads toward its centennial anniversary. “What has made Delille successful these past 95 years has been being able to provide solutions to our customers and being innovative,” Weinmann says. “Being able to produce gas and the immense gas knowledge we have been able to provide has gotten us here. To move forward for the next 95 years,…

Arcos started in 1919 as the R.D. Thomas and Company. Until 1931, electrodes were imported from Arcos S.A. in Brussels, Belgium. In 1931, the first heavy coated hand-dipped electrodes for welding stainless and other specialty steels were manufactured in the U.S. In 1936, R.D. Thomas and Company merged with the world’s most advanced producer of coated electrodes, Arcos Belgium. Six years later, the company developed the first 307 stainless steel electrode to weld armor plates instead of the then scarce and expensive stainless 310. In the pinch of war time shortages, this was a real advantage, as the war created…

The American Welding Society was founded in 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a mission to meet a national need to support welding during World War I. President Woodrow Wilson had asked Harvard Professor Comfort Avery Adams to chair the Welding Committee of the Emergency Fleet Corp., which was merged with the National Welding Council to form AWS. Adams served as the first president of the Society. The objectives of the newly formed society were, “To advance the science and art of welding in all the branches. To afford the members the opportunity for the interchange of ideas with respect to…

In 1944, Lawrence Amzy Morgan purchased the Brian Battie Company, a soda fountain service company, established in 1909, that distributed carbon dioxide gas and fountain syrup to drug stores, restaurants and taverns. In 1946, Morgan changed the company name to City Carbonic Sales & Service and incorporated the company in 1964. For the next 53 years, City Carbonic continued to focus on the food service industry, distributing CO2 in high-pressure cylinders that needed to be requalified for continued service every five years. As this became cost-prohibitive with their current vendor, City Carbonic invested in the equipment to provide its own…

Federated Insurance was founded in 1904 by a group of equipment dealers seeking better value for their premium dollar. In the early 20th century, the company began providing property coverage to auto dealers, machine shops, petroleum marketers and contractors throughout the Midwest. From the beginning, Federated’s relationships with associations like GAWDA have strengthened its understanding of the industries it helps protect. Those relationships and input from association members have played a key role in the evolution of Federated Insurance. Industry insights help shape the products and services that Federated offers. “Our growth into a national organization with 35,000+ policyholders can…

Oscar Kjellberg founded ESAB — Elektriska Svetsnings AtkieBolaget (Swedish for Electrical Welding Limited Company) — on September 12, 1904 in Gothenburg, Sweden, a port city. Trained as a ship engineer, Kjellberg developed the world’s first coated electrode to solve contamination and embrittlement issues in ship building, laying the foundations for a totally new epoch of welding, as his invention made it possible to exclude the oxygen in the air surrounding the workpiece. ESAB’s biggest accomplishment is to have established a track record of innovative solutions, whether through internal R&D efforts, acquisitions or collaborations which created entire process and product categories…

Iwatani Corporation (Tokyo Stock Exchange code: 8088) announced that Joseph S. Cappello has been named Executive Officer of Iwatani Corporation and also appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Iwatani Corporation of America (ICA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Iwatani Corporation. Mineharu Okamoto, president of Iwatani Corporation of America, will assume the additional title of Chief Operating Officer. In this new role, Cappello will lead the expansion of ICA’s total businesses including hydrogen and industrial gases across the Americas and have the additional responsibility for mergers and acquisitions in the region. Cappello has served as Executive Advisor to Iwatani Corporation…

Airweld is thrilled to announce that in partnership with Swift-Cut and Hypertherm, it is setting up a fully operational demo-room at the company’s Farmingdale training center. This will include a Swifty44 4′ x 4′ automated cutting table and a Hypertherm Powermax™ 65. Customers will be invited to see the system in operation including the ease of programming and superior cut quality. This new compact addition to the Swift-Cut line is ideal for smaller shops, educational institutions and training centers. We will be doing an email blast when the demo-room is ready and our sales team will invite customers to witness…