Galion Iron Works is the name of the company that build Galion brand construction equipment. World famous for their grader

Grader

A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, a blade, a maintainer, or a motor grader, is a construction machine with a long blade used to create a flat surface. Typical models have three axles, with the engine and cab situated above the rear axles at one end of the vehicle and a third...

s that shaped the roads of the world, a saying emerged that "All roads lead to Galion." They also manufactured rollers, cranes, asphalt millers and even riding sqeegees among other machines.

History

The Galion Iron Works Company of Galion, Ohio

Galion, Ohio

Settlers arrived in the area as early as 1817. The location was at the crossroads of a north-south road from Columbus to Portland , and the east-west route that later became the Lincoln Highway and subsequently the Harding Highway....

, was founded by David Charles Boyd in 1907. In its early years, the Galion name appeared on a wide range of road-building and other construction equipment, such as drag scrapers, plows, wagons, stone unloaders, rock crushers, and a variety of other "experimental machines". By 1911, Galion had begun production of a light-duty, horse-drawn road grader.

The company's success and product diversification brought about its reorganization in 1923, and a change of the name the Galion Iron Works and Manufacturing Company. The "Light Premier" was an early grader produced in 1915. It was billed as light enough for two horses, but strong enough for four. Its blade could be raised, lowered, angled, tilted, and shifted sideways, just like the blade movements on a modern grader.

Galion was famous for building some of the largest pull-type graders in the industry. Popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s, these huge machines were pulled by the largest traction engines and crawler tractors available. These graders outperformed other motor graders of the day. Galion continued selling its pull-type graders until 1945, long after other manufacturers discontinued pull-type graders.

In 1922, Galion was one of the first companies to develop a self-propelled motor grader. The tractor engine and transmission were located in the rear of the frame, and the operator cockpit was located near the center of the machine. Also in the 1920s, development work began on one of Galion's greatest achievements- the Galion hydraulic control. Used on both pull-type and self propelled graders, this hydraulic system was one of the first to be applied to grader controls.

In 1929, Jeffery Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, purchased the Galion Organization, but the name of the company remained unchanged.

The motor grader line received the first power-shift transmission, which was a big leap forward, in 1955. Called the Galion Grade-O-Matic drive, it utilized a torque converter, output shaft governor and power-shift transmission, providing simple two-lever control of speed and direction. The Galion T-700 garnered the worlds largest grader title in 1955. Larger than anything else in the grader industry, it boasted 190 hp and an operating weight of over 40,000 pounds.

After exactly 60 years with the same name, the Galion Iron Works and Manufacturing Company was renamed the Galion Manufacturing Company in 1973. The following year a transaction was completed making Galion a division of Dresser Industries

Dresser Industries

Dresser Industries was a multinational corporation headquartered in Dallas, Texas, United States, which provided a wide range of technology, products, and services used for developing energy and natural resources...

, Inc.

Galion introduced its modern -looking articulated grader line in 1979. It featured a distinctively sloped rear engine hood and was identified as the A-series for "Articulated". Initially three models were introduced, the A-500, A-550, and A-600, weighing up to 30,000 pounds. These models joined the rigid-frame models, which continued in the Galion line until the mid-1980s.

In 1986, the grader products took on the name of the parent company, Dresser, and the Galion name was temporarily dropped. In 1988, the grader line was consolidated into three articulated models named the 830, 850 and 870. That same year, Galion became part of the Komatsu

Komatsu

orKomatsu is a multinational corporation that manufactures construction, mining, and military equipment, Industrial equipments such as press machines, lasers, and thermoelectric generators.Its headquarters is at 2-3-6, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan...

Dresser Company (KDC) joint venture. The Galion name reemerged in 1992, when the Galion division of KDC was established. (Galion back by popular demand!) From 1995, the three basic Galion graders were badged and renumbered to fit into Kamtsu's GD series, and featured modified specifications. The Komatsu-designed GD825A-2 is its largest grader, weighing 58,250 pounds and producing 280 hp.