Graco is an American industrial company specializing in the development and manufacturing of fluid-handling systems and products. The company is headquartered in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and markets its products to customers worldwide.

History

Russell Gray, a Minneapolis parking lot attendant, founded Gray Company, Inc. in 1926 with his brother Leil Gray to produce and sell Russell's air-powered

grease gun A grease gun is a common workshop and garage tool used for lubrication. The purpose of the grease gun is to apply lubricant through an aperture to a specific point, usually from a grease cartridge to a grease fitting or 'nipple'. The channels beh ...

, invented in response to cold weather making hand-powered grease guns inoperable. Sales their first year of operation were $35,000. By 1941, annual sales had reached $1 million. They capitalized on opportunities in defense-based

lubricating Lubrication is the process or technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction and wear and tear in a contact between two surfaces. The study of lubrication is a discipline in the field of tribology. Lubrication mechanisms such as fluid-lubrica ...

needs during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After World War II, Graco began expanding outside of lubricant handling, developing a

paint Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...

and direct-from-

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

industrial fluids pumps. By the mid-1950s they had expanded to $5 million in sales and 400 employees, and were servicing fluid handling needs in a wide variety of industries. Leil Gray died in 1958, and was succeeded as president by Harry A. Murphy. He was succeeded in turn by David A Koch in 1962. The company continued to expand, helped by the 1957 introduction of the airless

spray gun Spray painting is a painting technique in which a device sprays coating material (paint, ink, varnish, etc.) through the air onto a surface. The most common types employ compressed gas—usually air—to atomize and direct the paint particles. ...

. By 1969, when Gray Company went public and changed its name to Graco, it had annual sales of $33 million. After acquiring H. G. Fischer & Co, a manufacturer of electrostatic finishing products, sales continued to climb, reflecting an industry-wide shift in automobile painting from air-based to electrostatic technologies. By 1979, sales had climbed to $100 million. In 1981, Graco started a joint-venture called Graco Robotics, Inc. (GRI) with Edon Finishing Systems.

Divisions

Contractor Equipment Division

Graco currently has airless sprayers, line striping units, fine finish equipment, texture sprayers, roof coating rigs, and pressure washers on the Contractor Equipment Division (CED).

Lubrication Equipment Division

In the Lubrication Equipment Division (LED), Graco produces automatic lubrication equipment, vehicle lubrication maintenance and repair equipment, and a variety of activators and switches for the lubrication process.

Industrial Products Division

In Graco's Industrial Products Division (IPD), there are a wide range of pneumatic, hydraulic, and electric pumps created to withstand tough finishing applications. IPD also has different fine-finish pump packages which can spray with air, assisted by air, or airless.

Markets served

Graco serves a wide variety of markets, including painting, anti-corrosion, fluid transfer, gluing and sanitary applications, automotive, aeronautic, body refinish, wood, building and construction, and marine. They distribute through a global network of equipment dealers and retail stores.

References

External links

* The
historical corporate records
of Graco are available for research use at th
Minnesota Historical Society.
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Manufacturing companies based in Minneapolis Manufacturing companies established in 1926 Industrial machine manufacturers American brands {{US-manufacturing-company-stub