History

The company was founded by Richard Coffman who named the company with the acronym “ServoCon.” In the beginning he decided to add Associates to ServoCon because there were others interested in assisting in the development of his ideas. Richard started in his garage where he built a flow stand. Servocontrols are designed, built and tested in a laboratory environment, so his idea was to build a laboratory in which to inspect and overhaul them. The company was named ServoCon Associates and that name was recorded on a license as a “333 Mobile Repair Shop” September 18, 1979 in Charlotte, North Carolina. On September 29, 1979 ServoCon Associates formed a partnership and on January 6, 1984 the company was incorporated.

From 1980 to 1984 ServoCon operated in rented space in Waynesboro, Virginia. In late 1984 a new facility was built in Fishersville, VA. Richard established the direction of the company as he implemented a practical alternative to the wasteful practice of discarding instead of correcting servovalves.

The company grew fast in the early days servicing barrels filled with contaminated servovalves. These valves were used in a grinding process in the final production inspection of automobile tires. He discovered that the sanded rubber residue was contaminating the fluid controlling the servovalves. With a simple cleaning, replacement of seals and recalibration of these valves he found that system malfunctions were quickly resolved. Richard became committed to finding and removing contamination in other places. This proved to be a successful decision and the company flourished.

ServoCon focused on their goals pursuing solutions to contamination and wear related challenges, instead of succumbing to dominating resistant suppliers and original equipment manufacturers. As a result ServoCon became more independent and assembled a successful fluid power team to fill the gap that existed.

ServoCon organized a design group to develop new products. In 1989 the design people were hired and the design team was trained in parametric modeling and computer aided design forming ALPHA Development Bureau, Inc. This group began developing the products that were requested by the growing industry.

ServoCon and ALPHA are an effective team and are now global leaders providing superior fluid power products and services specializing in servocontrols.

In our new facility we manufacture, remanufacture, test, disassemble, ultrasonically clean, reassemble and rigorously test and calibrate servocontrols and their related fluid power assemblies to produce and restore them. Our work is so thorough that when we supply a new product or return a restored unit, it has a warranty that exceeds most manufacturers.

Incoming units are subjected to rigorous emulation testing to verify the nature and magnitude of the problem. We simulate the environment in which the unit operates in real life situations. The wide range of manifold interfaces we have on hand allows us to recreate virtually any dynamic condition found in the industries we serve. We design, develop and manufacture any test equipment needed to accomplish a solution. The unit’s performance and diagnosis are recorded in detail and are provided to the customer.

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