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Highlights of GEC's Last 50 Years
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Once located in Garland Texas with little more than
engineers, scientist, shareholders and ideas, General Electrodynamics
Corporation (GEC) evolved. From 1955 and three orange diamonds, to 1996 and red
wings, from publicly traded to privately owned, GEC has innovated concepts,
products and services for nearly 50 years. On July 14, 1965, after a 228
day-journey through interplanetary space, Mariner IV looked at Mars through a
vidicon television camera tube developed and manufactured by General
Electrodynamics Corp. A NASA project conceived, and then develop into a
successful Mariner IV mission. That mission stands as GEC's testimonial to the
vision and competence of the thousands of scientists and engineers which made
such a profound mark in our countries' space program.
In the 1960's the vidicon tube market and technology began to diminish with the
evolution of solid-state-electronics. With corporate revenues declining, our
camera division and tube division were acquired, leaving behind assets,
resources, facilities and a fully self-sustaining scale division. With
engineering and technology resources in abundance, GEC patented, designed and
introduced the first heavy-duty portable wheel-load weigher, (MD300 portable
truck scale). The next evolution shortly after the MD300 was the MD400. These
units virtually indestructible, have a capacity of 20,000 pounds, only 3-1/4"
high and physically weighs a mere 40 pounds. As we became experts with very
rugged, harsh and abusive truck weighing applications, the mission continued to
improve our R&D efforts with another patented device, the MD500. This unit
having a larger weighing surface with the same overall height and ruggedness as
the MD400 and MD400E, both units are the work horse "today", of many state,
local and foreign government agencies. There is no other wheel load weigher in
the world today, meeting the salient performance characteristics of the
MD400/500 series. With new standards in motion and NIST certifications required, we enhanced our design characteristics in electronic
and semi-portable versions. We are very proud of our truck scale reputation and
continue producing multiple models, year after year, with tens-of-thousands in
service in more than 120 foreign countries.
As GEC continued its forward vision into new market opportunities, we quickly
identified industry concerns associated with aircraft weight and balance. We
began gathering market intelligence and conducting engineering evaluations to
better understand the problems encountered with determining accurate aircraft
CG. We surveyed the FAA, USAF, and Navy, CAA and many commercial domestic and
international airlines and airfreight carriers. In conjunction with Navy
requirements in 1979, we patented the first man-portable 30,000 pound capacity,
aircraft platform weighing system with .05% accuracy. With our earlier version
MD044 series, no agency believed aircraft could be weighed accurately and economically with portable platform scales. We proved the
industry different, improving the overall accuracy standard to 0.1% in the
AN30, to now the AN60. We are the only manufacture that has a 60,000 pound
aircraft platform weighing system that's been First Article Tested &
Approved by the USAF. Today, we have continued to engineer with
precision accuracy for a worldwide niche market. We are very specialized and
focused on our core business objectives. We embrace technology and remain the
'ONLY MANUFACTURE' that engineers, designs, tests and strives to service the
end user directly. We believe in knowing our customers, their applications and
problems. GEC is the only manufacturer that holds over 21 patents and 2 pending
for engineering and design of aircraft and truck weighing systems. We are proud
of our company's history, contributions to society, employees and reputation
around the world. Our continuous R&D efforts are very focused within
product categories. Unlike our competition, we've made a strategic business
decision to not be an assembly house, outsourcer or reseller of load cells,
pallet scales, hopper scales, crane scales, counting scales, etc. We are
experts in the portable truck weighing and aircraft weighing industry segments.
Since 1995, our FAA repair station license (G2ER273J) requires we have certified weight and balance experts on staff
meeting very stringent academic and field experience standards. We go to our
customer's facility and provide a fully executed weight, balance and aircraft
CG allowing customers to return their aircraft to airworthiness condition. We
are the only manufacture that holds a US Air Force accreditation that allows
our trained specialists to conduct A&B training and certify on the Air
Force's behalf.
Our US military test equipment expertise is indicative of a solid technological
base and breath of related experience. In the early 1990's, GEC
reversed-engineered the CH-47 AFCS Bench Test Set for the US Army saving US
taxpayers hundreds-of-thousands of dollars. Another developmental item for the
Navy was a new generation ETSU which superseded our Ground Fault Isolation Test
Set. Our recent span of programs covers aircraft training panels for L3
Communications, Fatigue Monitors for the F-18, Portable Field Calibration Test
Set, AFCS Aircraft Panels and variety of other specialized Test Sets. Today,
our NSN listings exceed over 300 top level part number assemblies.
GEC's customer service is an integrated part of our growth strategy. Our
investment in NIST traceable, 1st generation calibration and test equipment is
85% automated today. Our capabilities extend beyond electrical and electronic
wiring and wire harness fabrication repair, PC board design and repair, and
complete environmental testing. We have trained and certified staff to conduct
on site training in the proper operation and use of the equipment upon delivery
to a customers site any where in the world. GEC is extremely sensitive to our
customer's needs and our product support staff supports 24 hour expedited turn
around time on service, parts and repairs to reduce a customer's down time.
In conclusion, General Electrodynamics Corporation is dynamically driven with
over 49 years of remarkable history. Embedded inside, is a base of
technological expertise and product advancements in several niche market areas.
Our executive leadership is unmatched and products are far superior to the
competition. While employees are our greatest assets, contributions made to
society through their efforts reflect the organization's commitment to quality,
customer satisfaction and product performance. To this End, we continue our
push upward leaving our mark in history while adding more satisfied customers
along our journey.

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