72 | The Fisher Story
1992 Emerson purchases Fisher Controls from
Monsanto. Fisher Controls has 7000 employees;
annual sales of $928 million; representatives and
direct sales offices in 75 countries; 23 manufacturing
plants in 13 countries; and 60 training, manufacturing
and service centers in 22 countries.
J.W. Fisher Soccer Complex opens in Marshalltown
next to Governor Road plant.
Fisher Controls Hong Kong Ltd. and Tianjin Fourth
Automation Instrumentation Factory form a joint
venture company in Tianjin, China.
Asia-Pacific sells 108 sets of remote operations
controllers to the waterflood oil and gas field at
PT Caltex.
Nippon Fisher’s Sakura team passes the 1,500,000hour milestone of continuous labor with an
accident- free and disaster-free record.
Fisher, Rosemount, Johnson-Yokogawa, Siemens and
others form the interoperable systems project for the
development of a common international
fieldbus standard.
1993 Fisher-Rosemount ™
family of companies is
formed. It’s structured into
eight divisions: Fisher valves, Fisher regulators,
Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Rosemount Analytical,
Brooks Instrument, Rosemount Measurement,
Micro Motion and Xomox. New logo used.
Tianjin Fisher Controls Valve Co., Ltd.
Three manufacturing plants earn ISO registration:
Marshalltown, Iowa; Woodstock, Canada; and
Cambridge, Canada.
Dave Hunter succeeds Bill
Landholt as president of the
Fisher valve division.
Vee-Ball attenuator, emergency shut-off valve, a
turbine bypass steam valve and Design SC cryogenic
globe valve are introduced.
Emerson
I
n 1890, two Scottish-born
brothers, Alexander and
Charles Meston, founded
Emerson Electric Manufacturing
Co. in St. Louis, Missouri.
The two inventors developed
uses for alternating-current
electric motors, which were new
at the time. The company was
named after former Missouri
judge John Emerson, who
financed the enterprise and
became its first president.
Early products included an
electric fan introduced in 1892,
followed by forced-aircirculating systems in 1910.
The Depression brought
Emerson close to bankruptcy,
but a hermetic motor for
refrigerators revived it.
By 1973, annual sales had
climbed to $800 million. A
commitment to acquisitions and
global expansion also played a
role in the growth of Emerson’s
process control business.
In 1992, Emerson bought
Fisher Controls International
from Monsanto for $1.275
billion.
Today, Emerson has five
primary business segments:
appliances and tools; process
management (including the
Fisher valve division); climate
technologies (compressors and
thermostats); industrial
automation (motors and drives);
and network power.
Emerson worldwide sales in
fiscal 2004 were $15.6 billion.