GOMACO Corporation Revenue and Competitors

GOMACO Corporation has never been content to follow. It's a principle the company was founded on and one that still holds true. You have to value your past to continue being the leaders in the future. The new G21 controller and digital operating system is an example of the GOMACO philosophy. The very first GOMACO controller consisted of a cork with contacts on it floating in water. It was used for slope control. The next controller was an on/off grade line control system. It had lights to indicate up and down. Contractors nicknamed the controller the bang-bang system. Adjustments were made by banging the lever up or down according to the direction the lights indicated. In the early 1970s, Gary Godbersen, GOMACO's president and CEO, was frustrated with the standard controllers of the time. He wanted something better for his machines. GOMACO had designed a new system and turned to Honeywell to help build it. The result of their partnership was the Analog system, a proportional control system consisting of a sensor, amplifier and servovalve. Control system technology was advancing into the micro processor age and GOMACO took advantage of it. In 1986, GOMACO introduced the computer-based Micro controller. The Micro was the first programmable controller on the market and, for the first time, had diagnostics to troubleshoot the machine. A new modular hardware controller started development in the 1990s. The two-wire system controller was introduced in 1993. GOMACO named the new system the Network Controller. The Network is basically a derivative of the Micro, but it has more capabilities. It allows for more diagnostics, more programming and more features. It has a built-in volt meter to monitor the sensor and servovalve voltages and made it possible to change machine set-up parameters such as left grade, right grade, left slope, or dual grade. While GOMACO continued to develop the Network system, the competition kept saying to keep a machine's control system simple and the Network technology was too complicated for contractors. Meanwhile, 99.9 percent of GOMACO's customers chose the Network system over the Analog. As Network Control technology was being released to other concrete paving manufacturers, GOMACO was looking towards the future. GOMACO and Sauer Danfoss teams have continued to research and develop the next generation in control systems through the years of the Network. We took advantage of the advancements in digital technology and cost-effective computers' abilities to process and do more while still remaining user-friendly. The result of the years of development and state-of-the-art technology is the G21 controller, GOMACO's new proprietary digital operating system. "This is a culmination of what we've been doing over the past three decades with control systems," Godbersen said. "The G21 builds on past technologies and it will take us into the future. The G21 is the technology of tomorrow." The G21 has more computing power than any paver operator ever dreamed of having. It features simple to use push-button steering setup with patented smart cylinders; easy-to-read, red, LED display; more memory; more software and programming capacity; more computing power; more speed; more inputs and outputs; durability; and the list goes on and on. "The G21 is so exciting because we can now do whatever we can dream of doing and the controller won't be a limiting factor," Kevin Klein, Research and Development manager, said. "With the G21, we can plug-in stringless systems, interface with new technology, and provide pin-point diagnostics at high-end processing speeds. Nobody else can offer what we have in the G21."