Helm Instrument Co. Marks 50th Anniversary
Maumee, OH - Helm Instrument Company, the leader in strain gage sensor technology and a designer and manufacturer of process control systems, force transducers, and software for the metal-forming industries, is marking its 50th anniversary in business.
The founder, Don Wilhelm, started this thriving, international company in the basement of his home in 1962. While employed at Owens Illinois, the glass bottle maker, he set up the basement workshop to satisfy a need O-I had for measuring temperature in glass bottle furnaces. The Helmsman system was the industry's first digital temperature controller with high and low setpoints.
The company made a change in direction in 1968, when a salesman Don hired knocked on the door of E.W. Bliss, a Hastings, MI, company that manufactured sheet-metal forming and stamping machinery. They needed a special device to monitor tonnage on their presses. Don designed the first instrument used to accurately measure and control the tonnages developed on these presses. Helm sensors and instrumentation are now used worldwide on forging presses, die-casting machines, injection molding machines and stamping presses.
Don, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, was exemplary of the American Dream, noticing a need and using his ingenuity to make useful products that found an immediate market.
In fact, that is Helm Instrument's core technology, reflected in products like the PTM-4500 LoadGard. This newest model includes an embedded PC, color touchscreen display, and Ethernet connectivity for interfacing with plantwide networks. With Helm Webview software, you can view your manufacturing floor from any browser, anytime, anywhere.
Other precision instruments that Helm designs and manufactures under controlled laboratory conditions include the T-2640, which is installed in the drilled hole in the tie bar of an injection molding machine or die-cast machine. Helm's sensors measure deflections as small as one-millionth of an inch. In 1992 Helm became a technology partner with Rockwell Automation, and through this partnership, Helm's strain gages and PLC input modules are used in many applications, including weigh scale, packaging, filling and level control.
Today, 55 percent of Helm Instrument's sales come from outside the U.S., through a global staff of sales and service representatives.
In recent weeks, Helm Instrument Co. celebrated its 50 years in business during an international sales conference in Maumee, with representatives from 15 countries joining the 45 employees at headquarters. Throughout the year, the company will be proudly displaying its Helm 50 logo.
For further information on this and other products, contact Helm at 419-893-4356 , email sales@helminstrument.com or visit their website: www.helminstrument.com.
