Several welding companies, merged into one
Through its mergers and acquisitions, Automation International has shown unbroken continuity in the supply of arc and resistance welding machines and metalworking equipment for over 100 years.
Timeline
1886 to today
- 1886
Resistance welding is founded by inventor Elihu Thomson.
- 1911
F.P. McBerty, a Warren, Ohio engineer who built the first spot welder, begins making welders for industry.
- 1917
A patent injunction stops McBerty. The Federal Machine and Welder Company is organized to contest the patent and build welders for the 126 sheet metal manufacturers who become its stockholders.
- 1942
L.J. Berkeley opens the Berkeley Machine Company in Danville, Illinois and develops one of the first automatic longitudinal seam arc welders. About 75 machines are built for the armed services.
- 1955
John Berkeley and Charles Davis start Berkeley-Davis.
- 1957
Federal buys controlling interest in Berkeley-Davis to enter automatic arc welding.
- 1960
Federal merges into the McKay Machine Company of Youngstown, Ohio, which also brings Berkeley-Davis and Berkeley Machine together as Berkeley-Davis.
- 1963
The Federal line is consolidated with Berkeley-Davis arc welders in Danville, as a subsidiary of Wean-United, Inc.
- 1985
Berkeley-Davis buys the assets of the Swift-Ohio Welder Company and merges the two. The company stays in Danville.
- 1991
In July, virtually all assets of Berkeley-Davis are purchased by the newly formed Automation International, Inc.
- 2013
A.I.I. acquires the intellectual property of Hess Industries' Rim and Wheel Division of Niles, Michigan.
- 2014
A.I. Welders, Ltd. of Inverness, Scotland is acquired and brought to Danville, adding friction welding and anode rod aluminum welding equipment.
Today
What the mergers mean for customers
Three well-known industrial machinery companies and two later acquisitions now sit in one Danville plant. That covers automated, flexible welding and forming systems from one machine to a complete production line.
It also means drawings, records and parts for the older machine lines are still available.
Request a quote for sales, service or spare parts
Prefer to talk? Call (217) 446-9500, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST.
- What you need: a new machine, a rebuild, service or parts.
- The part and process: material, size and production rate.
- For parts: the machine's description, model number and serial number. Photos help.