WEST HARTFORD, CT — On June 9, Automation, Inc. of West Hartford, CT celebrated 50 years in business. An outdoor luncheon reception on the premises was held to thank their many loyal, local customers and the representatives of the national brand lines they sell and service.

Bob Dodge, employee since 1988 and now the president and owner along with his wife and VP, Stephanie, were proud to host the event in recognition of the occasion, but also to honor remaining founder of the company, Ronald D. Hall.

Founded in 1966, the company has grown to become one of the leading specialty industrial distributors in the region, covering all of New England and Upstate New York.

Dodge was quick to give credit for the business’ success to Mr. Hall and presented him with a plaque stating, among other things “Your ability to lead by example, coupled with your constant support, guidance and determination to be successful, has allowed us to reach this milestone event. In a very competitive marketplace, and through uncertain economic times, you guided Automation to become the company it is today, a known leader in providing quality brand name products and offering exceptional customer service and support.”

The company provides the area’s industrial manufacturing, construction & transit base with SKF/Lincoln lubrication systems and Eaton/Weatherhead Hydraulic Hose & Fittings, to name a few of the many products offered. Sales reps and executives from SKF/Lincoln and Eaton/Weatherhead were on hand as well as reps from Lubriplate, Coilhose Pneumatics, Heypac, Inc., ZSI-Foster and Safeway Hydraulics.

Several of these manufacturers and the sales reps themselves have been with Automation from the very beginning and took advantage of the opportunity to display some of the newest innovations in the lubrication industry and the peripheral product lines associated with them.

Lubriplate’s Jim Zappulla was accompanied by Perma’s representative from Germany, May Patel. They were on hand to explain the Perma Automatic Lubricators—available for a variety of applications. They also had samples of Lubriplates ATB Biobased EP-2 Grease.

Executives and other representatives from SKF/Lincoln were on hand to present Dodge and Automation, Inc. with a plaque commemorating the accomplishment.

Hal Morrow from Coilhose Pneumatics has been dealing with Automation, Inc. since the very beginning and couldn’t say enough nice things about the business and employees. “They’ve built a wonderful business over the years, a first class operation,” he said.

Past achievements include being recipient of Lincoln Industrial’s “Distinguished Distributor Award” in six of the ten past years. In addition, they have received the “Distributor of the Year Award”, the ‘Superior Performance Award” and the “Superior Achievement Award” from Eaton/Weatherhead.

Says Dodge, “We have found over the years that one of the biggest problems customers have today is getting reliable answers to their questions. Many times customers come to us instead of the big box houses because of the years of knowledge our in-house sales and service team can offer. We provide solutions to our customers problems when they need more than just an off the shelf part, but we can certainly do that too.”

He continues, “We have found with lubrication systems that many customers don’t fully understand how they work. In today’s modern industrial factories, aggregate quarries, and heavy construction industry we find the same problems — that the maintenance departments are understaffed and find themselves with less and less time for preventive maintenance. A lot of what we do is provide service and training not only for new systems we install, but also for older existing units including Lincoln, SKF/Vogel, Alemite, Bijur, Lube, Trabon & Showa to name a few. We become an extension of their maintenance department, it’s all part of our Preventive Maintenance Inspections (PMI).”

For more information contact them at 707 Oakwood Ave, West Hartford, CT 06110, 800-243-1862, local 860-236-5991, email them at sales@automationincct.com, or visit them online at www.automationincct.com.