Nordson Corporation

Nordson Corporation strives to be a vital, self-renewing, worldwide organization which, within the framework of ethical behavior and enlightened citizenship, grows and produces wealth for our customers, employees, shareholders, and communities. Nordson Corporation is a leading manufacturer of precision dispensing equipment that apply liquid and powder coatings, adhesives, and sealants to a wide variety of consumer and industrial products during the manufacturing process. Nordson-built machines are used in the appliance, automotive, bookbinding, construction, container, converting, electronics, food and beverage, furniture, medical, metal finishing, nonwovens, packaging, pharmaceutical, and various other industries. The company also manufactures systems that are used in curing and surface treatment processes. Nearly 50 percent of the company's annual sales stem from operations outside the United States, and Nordson products are found in 31 countries across the globe. The firm's manufacturing plants are located in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The firm traces its history to 1909 and the founding of U.S. Automatic Company in Amherst, Ohio, near Cleveland. The predecessor firm manufactured high-volume, low-cost screw machine parts for the emerging automobile industry. When the company went bankrupt in 1929, Walter G. Nord acquired control and in 1935 reorganized it as U.S. Automatic Corporation, shifting production emphasis to lower-volume precision parts, which proved vital to the U.S. armed forces during World War II. In the years following the war, Walter and his sons, Eric Nord and Evan Nord, acquired patents for the "hot airless" method of applying paint, coatings, and adhesives whereby machines sprayed materials through tiny openings at high pressure. The Nordson Division expanded into thermoplastic adhesion in the early 1960s. Machines developed during this period applied hot glue for such packaging as cartons and boxes as well as product assembly. Nordson soon emerged as a leader in this industry, which eventually became one of its primary businesses. The subsidiary grew quickly during the early years of the decade, establishing European marketing branches and absorbing parent U.S. Automatic in 1966. Walter G. Nord died the following year, leaving a legacy of beneficence in the Nordson Foundation, which was endowed with 5 percent of the corporation's pretax earnings. Eric Nord advanced to the company's presidency, a position he occupied for 20 years. He was later to be credited with guiding the company's growth and providing an example of innovative thinking; before he retired, Nord was granted more than 25 patents for inventions. One noteworthy Nordson innovation of the late 1960s was a device that recovered and recycled over-sprayed powder coatings, thereby eliminating solid waste and pollutants while simultaneously saving customers money. Nordson established a foothold in the burgeoning Japanese manufacturing market with the founding of Nordson K.K. in 1969 to distribute American-made machinery. Over the course of the 1970s, the corporation also increased its domestic packaging operations through the purchase of Domain Industries Inc., a manufacturer of packaging machinery, and the acquisition of a controlling interest in American Packaging Corporation, producer of Ampak brand flexible film and die-cutting equipment. Technological advances in hot melt adhesives and other thermoplastic compounds expanded Nordson's client base during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Soon the company's devices were modified for many applications within the automotive, off-road equipment, appliance, and woodworking industries for joining, caulking, and sealing. Not all of Nordson's ventures were successful, however. In 1978, the company began manufacturing industrial robots. These spray-painting machines, which were less costly than human labor a