Kollmorgen history

One big problem was finding an available facility, so in 1948, Inland Motor started operations out of the duo’s basements, garages, and even the kitchens.

Inland Motor grew quickly, forcing production to move to an expanded garage in Pearl River, New York in 1949.

Sales of printed circuit boards reached $50,000 in 1951 and Photocircuits Corporation was officially formed with John D. Maxwell as President, Bob Swiggett as Executive Vice President, and a support staff of five.

In 1953 Photocircuits received a contract to provide half of the circuit boards needed for the installation of the military's continental air defense system, a contract that would provide some $1 million per year to the company for the next 14 years.

1956 Hugo designed the first “frameless torquers”, which were used by Doctor Charles Stark Draper to develop the first stellar inertial navigation system.

In fact, by 1957, sales of frameless torquers had increased and the Pearl River shop was bursting at the seams with 60 employees.

On November 1, 1958, an advance party of six employees from the Pearl River plant, including Hugo, set up shop on 501 First Street.

By 1960, the company institutionalized the task force concept, creating a separate Proto department, which operated independently of the rest of the company's rapidly expanding operations.

1961 Kollmorgen acquired Instrument Development Laboratories, a manufacturer of motor driven high-speed rotary switches, colormeters, and spectrophotometers.

1962 Solid State Instruments Corporation, a manufacturer of precision rate tables, power supplies, and electronic drives for dc servo motors was purchased.

September 1967 Kollmorgen acquired Macbeth Corp., which was founded by the father of renowned innovator, Norman Macbeth, inventor of artificial daylight.

1968 Photo Research Corporation, a manufacturer of photometers, was acquired.

Kollmorgen and Photocircuits merged in February, 1970.

By 1971, the newly merged Kollmorgen, hit by the recession, was posting an operating loss and revenues were stuck at around $40 million.

1972 Inland Motors was the first to propose a flux forcing concept in motor design; the first to use samarium cobalt and neodymium boron rare earth magnets to enhance motor performance and reduce size; and one of the first to design brushless motors.

As an added incentive, Swiggett introduced a bonus plan in 1975, based on what he called a "return on net assets," or RONA, which would reward all levels of employees with as much as a 20 percent gain on their annual salaries.

By 1976, revenues had jumped to $82 million, providing net earnings of nearly $4.5 million.

1979 Kollmorgen Inland Motor recognized as worldwide core motor design company and leader of magnet designs.

In 1980, Swiggett published a seven-page pamphlet, titled The Kollmorgen Philosophy, emphasizing the company's commitment to the team management approach.

Despite doubling sales again, to $326 million in 1984, the company was struggling to remain profitable.

Compounding the company's losses was the sale, in 1986, of its consistently profitable Photocircuits division, which had accounted for $75 million of the company's annual sales, to that division's management.

By 1987, Kollmorgen's sales had slumped to $301 million.

In 1988, Kollmorgen was approached by Vernitron Corporation, a Long Island-based industrial electronics company, which had been taken private two years earlier in a leverage buyout, to merge the two firms.

By April 1989, however, Kollmorgen gave in to Vernitron and offered to negotiate a merger of the two companies.

As soon as a standstill agreement between the companies expired in May 1990, Vernitron renewed its bid for Kollmorgen, organizing a proxy fight to replace Kollmorgen's board of directors and offering to purchase Kollmorgen for $15 per share.

By the end of 1991, the company's revenues barely cleared $200 million and its losses, compounded by restructuring costs, sank to $36 million.

The company's losses continued into 1992, as its revenues continued to slide, to $195 million.

By 1993, however, Kollmorgen was back in the black, posting a net profit of $4.8 million on $185.5 million in sales, helped by new defense contract awards totaling some $50 million.

In 1995, the Motion Technologies Group accounted for 57 percent of the company's sales.

December 15, 1997 Kollmorgen made an offer to buy Pacific Scientific Co. for about $20.50 a share in cash, or $258 million.

May 4, 2000 Danaher acquires Kollmorgen on May 4.

2001 Kollmorgen helped build the world’s first successful self-contained artificial heart and Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD).

2002 The first Segway models, powered by a Kollmorgen electric motor that delivered 40% more torque per unit of volume than comparably sized motors, were sold to the public.

2004 Motion Engineering (MEI) was acquired, which included powerful integrated motion control solutions with industry-leading, multi-axis motion platforms and SynqNet™ communications network for ultra-reliable machine performance.

2005 G&L Motion Control, a premier supplier of CNC Controls was acquired.

2007 CT Series Step Motors introduced, using less power to provide more torque than comparable standard hybrid step motors.

2009 The LS5 Navigator was the first sensor designed not only for indoor use but also for outdoor environments and cold storage, paving the way for new applications with automated guided vehicles.

2010 Kollmorgen introduces the Power Generation System - a complete, robust power platform that can be optimized to meet virtually any military vehicle’s energy demands, with the flexibility to fit in applications where space is at a premium.

February 2012 Company completed the sale of its Kollmorgen Electro-Optical business for a sale price of approximately $205M in cash.

2013 Kollmorgen was a contributing partner to the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC)/Carnegie Mellon University team’s entry in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) competition Chimp robot.

2014 Stainless Steel AKMH Series Motor designed for strict aseptic machine applications.

July, 2016 Danaher, parent of Kollmorgen, executes a spin-off transaction of several businesses within their portfolio forming a new $6B public entity, Fortive Corporation.