| Allen-Bradley | |
| Industry: | Factory Automation Equipment Manufacturer |
| Predecessor: | Compression Rheostat Company |
| Successors: | --> |
| Founded: | in Wisconsin, United States |
| Founders: | Dr. Stanton Allen and Lynde Bradley |
| Hq Location City: | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Hq Location Country: | United States |
| Areas Served: | --> |
| Owner: | Rockwell Automation |
Allen-Bradley is the brand-name of a line of factory automation equipment owned by Rockwell Automation. The company, with revenues of approximately US $6.4 billion in 2013, manufactures programmable logic controllers (PLC), human-machine interfaces, sensors, safety components and systems, software, drives and drive systems, contactors, motor control centers, and systems of such products. Rockwell Automation also provides asset-management services including repair and consulting. Rockwell Automation's headquarters is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower is a Milwaukee landmark featuring the largest four-sided clock in the western hemisphere.
The company was founded in 1903 as the Compression Rheostat Company by Dr. Stanton Allen and Lynde Bradley with an initial investment of $1,000. In 1910 the firm was renamed Allen-Bradley Company; for nearly a century it provided the bulk of discrete resistors used for electronics and other products. In 1952 it opened a subsidiary in Galt, Ontario, Canada, that employs over 1000 people.
During the mid-1900s, mid-sized firms such as Allen-Bradley tended to embrace reactionary politics out of a fear that increased government regulation would cut into their profits. Unlike large, multinational corporations that dealt directly with customers, historian Rick Perlstein argues that these smaller companies were less concerned about potential public blowback. Allen-Bradley paid for propaganda posters that asked “Will You Be Free to Celebrate Christmas in the Future?” and circulated allegations that the Soviet Union was using mind-control techniques to keep communist nations in line.[1] One of the company's founders, Harry Lynde Bradley, was a founding member of the John Birch Society and co-founded the Bradley Foundation, a right-wing think tank.[2] [3]
In 1968, the NAACP and the Latino community joined in a march to protest Allen-Bradley's discriminatory hiring practices, an event that marked the beginning of Latino activism in Milwaukee.[4]
In 1985 a company record was set as the fiscal year ended with $1 billion in sales. In February 1985, Rockwell International purchased Allen-Bradley for $1.651 billion (equivalent to $ in), which is the largest acquisition in Wisconsin history.[5] [6] Allen-Bradley essentially took control of Rockwell's industrial automation division.
Rockwell eventually moved its headquarters to Milwaukee. In 2002, when Rockwell split into two companies, Allen-Bradley followed the automation division into Rockwell Automation.