Browsing: anniversary

ILMO Products Company 110 Year Anniversary Like most companies that have lasted for 110 years, ILMO Products Company bears little resemblance to the company founded in 1913. When D.O. Floreth and his father, Henry Floreth, decided to open their doors, the company was a wholesaler of automobile accessories called Illinois Tire and Vulcanizing Company. Later, as the company evolved, it began going by Illinois Tire & Battery. It was through the automobile industry that today’s ILMO Products entered the gas business.  “[ILMO] got into the gas business through the carbide acetylene headlights for automobiles,” says Executive Vice President Liz Standley. “We…

Norton Abrasives In 1858, Franklin Norton and his older cousin, Frederick Hancock opened a pottery shop in Worcester, Massachusetts, called the Water Street Pottery Shop. In 1873, one of the employees of the shop invented a grinding wheel that would set in motion the next century and a half of history. In 1885, seven Worcester entrepreneurs bought the patent for the grinding wheel as well as the company name and so, Norton Company was born. The founders purchased land in the city’s Greendale section, which was then farmland, and built their first grinding wheel plant. Norton has occupied that land…

By Steve Guglielmo, John Ospina, Abydee Butler Moore, Bob Ewing, Gary Halter and Robert Anders We have spent 2020 celebrating GAWDA’s 75th Anniversary. We have shared fun memories, reflected on GAWDA’s founding, its road to independence and everything in between. But 75 years is not the end of GAWDA’s story. Not by a long shot. As we near the end of 2020, we asked GAWDA’s current President Abydee Butler Moore, Executive Director John Ospina, and the next three presidents in line, to answer some questions about GAWDA’s history and what they expect to see as we continue our march forward.…

Generant Company Generant was founded in 1930 by Albert Simon, an engineer and business owner. He started the company with a line of needle valves, filters, lubricators and pressure regulators. Generant held the original patent on the Air Pressure Regulator and began to assemble and market these products to industry. In 1966, Albert retired and sold the business to his accountant, Paul Buren. In 1968, Buren acquired Generant’s largest supplier, Reliable Screw Machine Products. Reliable was a job shop screw machine company. Then, in 1972, the company further expanded the Screw Machine business with the acquisition of Automatic Screw Machine…

AGL Welding Supply Company AGL Welding Supply Company (Clifton, New Jersey) is celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 2020. The company can trace its roots all the way back to a 1920 business called William Rudolph Company in Paterson, New Jersey. William Rudolph was eventually merged into AGL which is an abbreviation for “Auto Gas Light,” harkening back to the days when the company supplied acetylene gas to light the head lamps for automobiles. In 1958, AGL was acquired by Bud Fenelon, along with his brothers, Tom and Bill, and brother-in-law Joe Brancato. The industry was not new to the Fenelons.…

105 Years CPV Manufacturing The CPV story is built on the enterprise of a farmer turned machinist – whose tradition of quality and craftsmanship remains the cornerstone in meeting the challenges of modern technology. In 1915, Isaiah G. Engle, a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer who had become a skilled machinist, started his own one-man business – manufacturing replacement valves for steam-driven reciprocating pumps. When centrifugal pumps came on stream, CPV pump valves were encased and transformed into silent check valves. To meet the need, CPV developed a unique line of soft-seated valves flat-faced O-ring sealed fittings known worldwide as the O-SEAL® SYSTEM.…

Lincoln Electric 125 years ago, a young electrical engineer by the name of John Cromwell Lincoln founded the Lincoln Electric Company on December 5, 1895, in Cleveland, Ohio. Lincoln invested $200 to develop his unique, direct current electric motor for industrial applications. What started as a spark of ingenuity flickered and gained momentum and the company has grown to become one of the most widely recognized and successful brands in the entire world today. John C. Lincoln and his brother and co-founder, James F. Lincoln, who joined John in 1907, continued to innovate, and in 1911 had invented and launched…

While Tekno Valves North America incorporated in 2009, Greg Leumas and Jim Guitreau actually began selling Tekno Valves products in North America four years earlier. Guitreau and Leumas were working together at another company that sold chlorine valves when they met a Tekno Valves representative at a Chlorine Institute Meeting. “We started talking to them about representing their product in North America,” says Leumas, president of Tekno Valves North America. “We began selling the product in 2005.” Four years later, the company that they had been working for was being sold and Leumas and Guitreau decided to strike out on…

Global Calibration Gases Managing Partner Ray Borzio started a consulting business called Special Gas Systems and Technology (now Special Gas Services Inc.) in 1993 to serve the needs of the independent gases and welding supplies distributors desiring entrance into specialty gases manufacturing. . A small training lab was set up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and interest grew rapidly. In 2004, the school was moved to Fort Myers, FL at the then corporate headquarters of CryoVation LLC. This gave Special Gas a forum to teach high end production techniques with hands-on lab demonstrations. In March of 2009 Global Calibration Gases was formed…

CryoWorks, Inc. began ten years ago after an idea from Donna Mast. Tim Mast, CEO and owner of CryoWorks, was working as a salesperson from his home office.  Since Donna was also home with their children, the entire family was gaining first-hand experience in the cryogenic piping industry. Tim was helping a customer who was having issues with the products and services that his previous employer was providing. “I got off the phone that day and Donna said to me, ‘Why don’t we do this ourselves?’” says Mast. “So, we started planning it and about a month later we were…