Rockwell Automation history

In 1904, 19-year-old Harry Bradley joined his brother in the business.

In 1909, the company was renamed the Allen-Bradley Company.

1910: Compression Rheostat is renamed Allen-Bradley Company.

In 1914, Fred Loock established the company's first sales office in New York.

Upon co-founder Stanton Allen's death in 1916, Lynde Bradley became president.

In 1918 Allen-Bradley hired its first female factory worker, Julia Bizewski Polczynski, who was promoted to foreman the following year.

Rockwell-Standard was established in Wisconsin in 1919 as a manufacturer of truck axles and was initially known as Wisconsin Parts Company.

1923 – Octagon logo debuts as the Allen‑Bradley brand trademark

1924 – As radio skyrockets, manufacturers order millions of Allen‑Bradley rheostats

Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in 1927 generated such interest in aviation that suddenly even small aviation companies were deluged with money from investors.

1928: North American Aviation is established and soon becomes one of the three largest aeronautic concerns in the country.

So much capital was made available by investors (almost $1 billion by 1929) that holding companies created hundreds of airlines and airplane manufacturers.

1930: Collins Radio Company is founded to build and sell radio transmitters.

1934 – The first solenoid starter with a single moving part creates a sensation

1935 – Allen‑Bradley engineers invent hot-molded fixed resistors, revolutionizing electronics

General Motors, which held a substantial amount of stock in Trans World Airlines, sold its holdings in that company in 1936.

By 1937, Allen-Bradley employment had rebounded to pre-Depression levels and company sales reached an all-time high of nearly $4 million.

In 1947 the design and production rights to the Navion were sold to Ryan Aeronautical.

When General Motors sold its share of the company in 1948, North American diversified its product line, becoming involved in the development of rockets, guidance systems, and atomic energy.

1951 – Allen‑Bradley resistors help power UNIVAC, one of the first computers in the world

In 1952 they opened a subsidiary in Galt,Ontario, Canada, that now employs over 1,000 people.

1953: Rockwell merges Wisconsin Parts and two other firms to form Rockwell Spring and Axle Company.

1954 – Allen‑Bradley ferrite magnets are in all color televisions and computer memory cores

The company developed the first modem in 1955, which was as large as a refrigerator and weighed 700 pounds.

1958: Rockwell Spring is renamed Rockwell-Standard.

North American's Redstone rocket was used to launch Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom into space during the Mercury space program in 1961.

1962 – The largest (at the time) four-sided clock in the world is lit for the first time

1965 – Company launches the Sonic Sifter product, used by NASA to sift moon dust

Rockwell-Standard made a $922 million bid for North American Aviation in March 1967.

The primary focus of Allen-Bradley was motor controllers for several decades until they received an unusual challenge from General Motors (GM) in 1968.

It spent much of its first years after the merger manufacturing car and truck parts, printing presses (following the 1969 acquisition of Miehle-Goss-Dexter), tools, industrial sewing machines, and electronic instruments for flight and navigation.

1970 – Allen‑Bradley pioneers the programmable logic controller (PLC)

The request was to build a system to replace their hard-wired relay logic with something more dynamic—Standard Machine Controller. As a result, Allen-Bradley acquired a company called Information Instruments Inc and produced their first functional controller—Programmable Matrix Controller (PMC) in 1971.

North American Rockwell also merged in 1973 with the Rockwell Manufacturing Company, a separate company created by Willard Rockwell, Jr.

Rockwell was trying to establish the firm's business in high profile consumer markets, such as Admiral television, which Anderson sold in 1974.

Rockwell had initially planned to build the B-1 bomber, but in 1977 the administration of President Jimmy Carter canceled the program, favoring instead the development of Northrop's stealth bomber.

Ten years earlier, in 1978, when Beall was president of Rockwell's electronic division in Dallas, he reportedly spent one evening composing some 14 pages of notes delineating what he would do if given control of Rockwell.

1979 – Introduce Data Highway, the first plant-floor network that replaces miles of wiring

1981 – NASA chooses Allen‑Bradley components for its American Space Shuttle fleet

By 1983, however, the Reagan administration had reactivated the B-1 project as part of its ambitious military program.

On February 20, 1985 Rockwell International purchased Allen-Bradley for $1.651 billion; this was the largest acquisition in Wisconsin's history to date.

That venture was indefinitely postponed by the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

Robert Anderson retired in 1988, relinquishing control of the company to its president, Donald R. Beall, who had been priming himself for Rockwell's leadership position for a decade.

Allen-Bradley’s acquisition of Creonics in 1990.

Allen-Bradley’s acquisition and partnership with Metal Leve Controles Eletronicos in 1992 The company specialized in electromechanical industrial control products. (4)

Rockwell’s acquisition of Reliance Electric for 1.6 billion dollars in 1994.

Rockwell solidified its move into industrial automation in January 1995 with the acquisition of Reliance Electric Co. for $1.6 billion, outbidding General Signal Corporation in a several-months-long takeover battle.

In 1996 Rockwell sold off its graphic systems business to Stonington Partners Inc. for $600 million.

Rockwell Collins was beefed up in December 1997 through the purchase of the in-flight entertainment business of Hughes-Avicom International, Inc.

Consequently, for the fiscal year ending in September 1998, Rockwell posted a net loss of $437 million on sales of $6.75 billion.

Rockwell’s acquisitions of Dynapro and EJA Engineering in 1999.

In the final chapter of the dramatic transformation of Rockwell International, the company spun off Rockwell Collins to shareholders in June 2001.

2003 – The Allen‑Bradley brand celebrates its 100th anniversary

Keith Nosbusch was named chief executive officer in 2004.

Rockwell divested itself of Reliance Electric, selling the power systems business to Baldor Electric in 2006 for $1.75 billion in cash and $50 million in stock. (5)

In 2007, Rockwell Automation sold the Power Systems division for $1.8 billion to Baldor Electric Company to focus on its core competencies in automation and information technology.

2013 – First cloud-based mobile access to plant floor data via smartphone

In April 2016, it was announced that Keith Nosbusch would be replaced by Blake Moret, effective July 1, 2016.

Effective January 1, 2018, Keith Nosbusch will step down as Chairman.

In December 2019, the launch of the Digital Partner Program was announced to guide and simplify industry digital transformation.