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34-437: Intergraph Corporation was an American software development and services company, which now forms part of Hexagon AB . It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the world, and operates through three divisions: Hexagon Asset Lifecycle Intelligence (ALI, formerly PPM), Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure, and Hexagon Geospatial. The company's headquarters

68-589: A Swedish company focused on metrological tools, for around US$ 180 million. Hexagon AB also acquired Leica Geosystems after counter-bidding against Danaher  for the company in 2005. Hexagon AB acquired the Israel-based 3D optics company  CogniTens Ltd in 2007. The software company  Intergraph was acquired by Hexagon AB in July 2010 for US$ 2.1 billion. Hexagon AB acquired Vero Software in 2014. In 2016,

102-430: A carpenter shop, powerhouse, machine shops, warehouses, grinding shop, and steel storage bins. By the early 1900s, Brown & Sharpe was the world's largest manufacturer of machine tools, operating out of the sprawling Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Company Complex . Brown & Sharpe was instrumental in the development of machine tools and machining technology (including toolmaking , metrology, production, etc.). It

136-401: A controlling stake in the company in 1998, and aimed to focus the company's investments. In 2000,   Ola Rollén , former CEO of Kanthal , was appointed by Schörling to be CEO of Hexagon AB. The company began acquiring companies focused on precision measurement technology and software, and divesting in other areas. In late 2001, Hexagon AB agreed to buy Brown & Sharpe ,

170-521: A more modern and larger progression to their established micrometers. The company began to lose money as it shifted production away from machine tools and toward advanced metrology equipment, losing $ 14.6 million in 1990. By 1993, employment in North Kingstown had fallen to 700, compared with 2,000 in 1982 and more than 3,500 in 1976. In 1994 Brown & Sharpe acquired DEA of Italy, an established manufacturer of CMMs. In 2001, substantially all of

204-439: A nod to Brown & Sharpe's history of pioneering manufacture of precise measurement tools, contained 700,000 square feet (65,000 m ) of easily adaptable floor space. Unlike the old Providence facility, Precision Park was built as one story. This enabled the efficient horizontal movement of materials preferred in modern manufacturing, an improvement over the vertical circulation system of its former multi-storey plant. While

238-549: A slump in the post–World War I recession and depression of 1920–21 . The Roaring Twenties brought renewed sales, but then the Great Depression slashed them. The armament-buildup period of 1936 to 1940 again renewed machine tool activity, and then the World War II material effort exploded demand, pushing it to record heights. Brown and Sharpe machine tools were a mainstay of American metal manufacturing until

272-474: Is in Huntsville, Alabama , United States. In 2008, Intergraph was one of the one hundred largest software companies in the world. In July 2010, Intergraph was acquired by Hexagon AB . Intergraph was founded in 1969 as M&S Computing, Inc. , by former IBM engineers Jim Meadlock, his wife Nancy, Terry Schansman (the S of M&S), Keith Schonrock, and Robert Thurber who had been working with NASA and

306-526: Is often considered to be inseparably paired with certain industrial standards that it helped establish, including: Since being acquired by Hexagon Metrology in 2001, Brown and Sharpe has concentrated exclusively on metrology equipment. Brown & Sharpe was founded in 1833 on South Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island by David Brown and his son Joseph R. Brown. The elder Brown retired in 1841, and

340-517: The U.S. Army in developing systems that would apply digital computing to real time missile guidance. The company was later renamed to Intergraph Corporation in 1980. One of Intergraph's major hardware projects was developing a line of workstations using the Clipper architecture created by Fairchild Semiconductor . Intergraph was one of only two companies to use the chips in a major product line. Intergraph developed their own version of UNIX for

374-749: The Intergraph Process, Power & Marine division was rebranded as Hexagon PPM. On June 6, 2022, the Hexagon PPM division was rebranded as Hexagon Asset Lifecycle Intelligence. Official website [REDACTED] Hexagon AB Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden , the predecessor company of Hexagon AB was founded on August 29, 1975. The company was described as a "sprawling conglomerate" investing in diverse industries, for example seafood imports, vehicle hydraulics, and day-care centers. Financier  Melker Schörling  bought

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408-515: The architecture, which they called CLIX. In 1987, Intergraph bought the Fairchild division responsible for the chip. In 1997, Intergraph began pursuing patent infringement litigation against Intel and other computer hardware manufacturers based on the intellectual property developed in Clipper. Intergraph negotiated major settlements with Intel, HP , Texas Instruments and Gateway , earning

442-535: The assets of the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company, including the intellectual property, designs, trademarks, facilities and inventory, were acquired by Hexagon AB, although it did not acquire the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company. The Brown & Sharpe brand of measurement products is manufactured by the Hexagon Metrology division of Hexagon AB , which retained many of the key individuals from

476-485: The city, moving instead to suburban North Kingstown, Rhode Island . Such relocations were aided by the federal subsidies for highway construction and the rapid expansion in automobile ownership in the postwar era; Providence's suburbs developed throughout the 1950s. As the company's workers had become more mobile and the majority had moved to suburban areas, Brown & Sharpe decided to build a new facility on land cheaper than downtown. The new plant, dubbed Precision Park as

510-508: The company established its first overseas subsidiary in Plymouth, England, in 1955. Between 1957 and 1961 the company further expanded through the acquisition of related manufacturers, most notably the machine-producing Double A Products Company. In the aftermath of these changes and expansion, the company outgrew its central plant just west of downtown Providence. In 1964, Brown & Sharpe followed other Providence-based manufacturers out of

544-856: The company listed 24,000 employees in 50 countries. On November 11, 2024, it was announced that Paolo Guglielmini was stepping down as CEO and that Norbert Hanke would be serving as interim CEO. Hexagon also announced its exploration of a possible split of the company into Hexagon AB and a new corporation, which would focus on Enterprise Industrial Software. Hexagon is a technology and software firm  known for specializing in measurement and positioning systems. According to Reuters in 2023, Hexagon's products are used for "measurement and quality inspection in manufacturing processes and engineering plant design, as well as in infrastructure planning, construction, mining, agriculture and energy." With Hexagon developing what it calls "ecosystems" of software programs and technologies for specific purposes, in 2023,

578-418: The company never again reached its wartime peak employment of 11,000, it still employed 3,394 workers in 1976. Company management had a policy of working to smooth production across the recessions of the 1970s and keep employment steady. During this time, President Sharpe and his successor Don Roach sympathized with the workers, who were concerned about job security at a time of reduction in industrial jobs and

612-411: The company over $ 394M. In 2000, Intergraph exited the hardware business and became purely a software company. On July 21, 2000, it sold its Intense3D graphics accelerator division to 3Dlabs , and its workstation and server division to Silicon Graphics . On November 29, 2006, Intergraph was acquired by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman LLC, Texas Pacific Group and JMI Equity, making

646-463: The company privately held. On October 28, 2010, Intergraph was acquired by Hexagon AB . The transaction marks the return of Intergraph as part of a publicly traded company. As part of the Hexagon acquisition, Hexagon moved the management of ERDAS, Inc. from under Leica Geosystems to Intergraph, and Z/I Imaging airborne imaging sensors from under Intergraph to Leica Geosystems. On December 2, 2013,

680-419: The company refocused on the mass production of automatic screw machines as it completed a three-year, $ 4 million refitting program for its Providence plant in 1957. In keeping with the latest management theories, Sharpe also reorganized the company into separate divisions, with each one responsible for its own profit and loss. During this era, Brown & Sharpe began to experiment with international expansion, and

714-594: The company's official website stated it sold products catered to the following industries: autonomous mobility, buildings, cities and nations, defense, farms, industrial facilitates, infrastructure, manufacturing, and mines. Hexagon AB is organized into divisions, listing five internal divisions on its website: Asset Lifecycle Intelligence, Autonomous Solutions, Geosystems, Manufacturing Intelligence, and Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial. Between 2000 and 2022, Hexagon completed more than 170 acquisitions. The following table lists major acquisitions by year, also noting

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748-582: The cyclical nature of machine-tool manufacturing. Despite these policies, Brown & Sharpe management made other demands of its workers and union leaders. In 1981, President Don Roach insisted that the company be able to shift machinists between jobs as needed, but many workers worried that they would lose traditional seniority privileges. In response, 1,600 union workers, members of the International Association of Machinists District Lodge 64, walked out on their jobs in what would become

782-524: The division of Hexagon AB that the acquisition was made a part of. Brown %26 Sharpe Brown & Sharpe is a division of Hexagon AB , a Swedish multinational corporation focused mainly on metrological tools and technology. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Brown & Sharpe was one of the best-known and most influential machine tool builders and was a leading manufacturer of instruments for machinists (such as micrometers and indicators ). Its reputation and influence were such that its name

816-655: The geospatial technology portfolio was split out from under the Intergraph Security, Government and Infrastructure division to form the Hexagon Geospatial division. On October 13, 2015, the Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure division was rebranded as Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure. On January 9, 2017, the Intergraph Government Solutions division was rebranded as Hexagon US Federal. On June 5, 2017,

850-583: The late 20th Century and could be found in most machine shops and factories which worked with metal. Additionally, Brown and Sharpe made calipers and micrometers which were essential to products built to fine tolerances. Shortly after World War II, Henry D. Sharpe Jr. succeeded his father as president of Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company. He led its development as a modern company designed to last. The firm stopped producing its old stalwarts: sewing machines, hair clippers, and certain categories of machine tools (including its line of milling machines ). Instead

884-526: The legal battle, saying that Brown & Sharpe had not illegally forced the strike. By this point, both Brown & Sharpe and its erstwhile work force were retreating from manufacturing in Rhode Island. During the long legal proceedings, Brown & Sharpe continued to change as a manufacturer and as an employer. During the 1980s and 1990s, the company concentrated on developing coordinate-measuring machines (CMMs), devices for dimensional measuring, as

918-423: The longest-lasting strike in the nation's history. It was also characterized as one of the most antagonistic in recent memory. The strike's hostility transcended the debate over the company's labor policy. It prompted questions among management about the future of the Rhode Island work force. On March 22, 1982, some 800 picketers clashed with members of the state and local police forces, who used tear gas to control

952-650: The purchase, giving Koch a 5% stake in Hexagon. Ola Rollén stepped down as Hexagon CEO at the end of 2022, becoming chairman of the board. Former COO Paolo Guglielmini became president and CEO. Hexagon purchased Hard-Line, a radio system company based in Ontario , in July 2023, and in November 2023, Hexagon led a US$ 230 million funding round in the industrial AI company Divergent Technologies. Hexagon's revenues in 2023 were US$ 5.5 billion. Assets were $ 18.1 billion, profits were $ 1.1 billion, and

986-504: The strikers. Governor J. Joseph Garrahy publicly apologized for the actions of the police, which appeared unduly severe to many Rhode Island citizens. Although the strike legally continued after the tear-gas incident, the picket line largely disbanded. Many workers decided to move to other companies or work. In 1998, nearly seventeen years after the strike began, the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled on an appeal in

1020-569: The top five shareholders in Hexagon included Schörling, Ramsbury Invest , SSB CI Omnibus, Swedbank Robur Fonder and JPM Chase . Schorling served as chairman, although he stepped down in October 2016 due to health issues. Hexagon purchased MSC Software  for US$ 834 million in 2017, using the acquisition to boost its portfolio of products related to automated manufacturing.  In 2018, Hexagon acquired both AGTEK  and Spring Technologies SAS . In 2016, Hexagon's CEO Ola Rollén

1054-446: The younger Brown formed a partnership with Lucian Sharpe in 1853, giving the company its name. The early years saw many innovations and inventions, including the first automatic machine for graduating rules (1850) and the precision Gear Cutting and Dividing Engine (1855). The company was incorporated in 1868. In 1866 Samuel Darling joined the partnership and the firm changed its name to Darling, Brown and Sharpe until Darling's interest

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1088-576: Was bought out in 1892. In 1872, the company moved from Main Street to a 33-acre parcel along the Woonasquatucket River in the Smith Hill neighborhood of Providence. The first building was designed in 1872 by Brown & Sharpe employee Thomas McFarlane. It was a huge 66,000 square-foot structure made of brick, cast iron, and concrete, and held space for all the company's functions. Over the years, more buildings were built, including

1122-463: Was detained in Sweden over allegations of insider trading. The transaction did not involve Hexagon and he continued to serve as CEO of Hexagon. Rollén was acquitted in 2018, then again found not guilty by an Oslo appeals court in 2019. Hexagon acquired Infor EAM, a program developed by Infor, from Koch  in 2021. Hexagon paid US$ 800 million in cash and shares worth $ 1.95 billion for

1156-482: Was responsible for the improvement and wider dissemination of milling machines , micrometers , turret lathes , screw machines , and other tools. A thorough account of the details is given in a seminal classic of machine tool history, Joseph W. Roe's English and American Tool Builders (1916). Like most machine tool builders , Brown & Sharpe rode a business cycle rollercoaster during these decades. After being kept very busy during World War I, builders suffered

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