1931 Incorporation of "Electric Sorting Machine Company" in Lowell, Michigan.
1932 Installation of machines for commercial sorting of Michigan beans. The World's first color sorters.
1934 Development of automatic equipment for sorting of blanched peanuts.
1935 First successful installation of automatic sorting machines in the blanched Virginia peanut industry. 1937 Developed a sorting machine based on a two-color principle of selection.
1940 Installed first bowl feed sorting machine.
1941 First successful installation of two color sorting machine for Idaho peas.
1947 Installed two color sorting machine for green coffee beans in Colombia, South America.
1952 Introduced color sorting machine for green coffee into South Africa.
1953 Introduced gravity feed machines for the sorting of lemons, apples and other similar products.
1956 Changed name to Mandrel Industries Inc. and started expansion and diversion program. Entered field of geophysical instrumentation by acquisition of ElectroTechnical Labs, Inc., Houston. Company relocated to Houston, Texas.
1957 Formed ELEXSO Corporation to sell sorting machines overseas.
1960 1960's ESM tested a harvester-mounted color sorter for tomatoes, but it wasn't until the early 1970's when price of tomatoes skyrocketed that we began selling harvester-mounted color sorters.
1964 Became a subsidiary of the Ampex Corporation, a diversified oil field equipment/service company.
1970 Geosource purchased "ESM" from Ampex.
1970's Introduced the MEGASORT line of multi-channel slide machines. Installed hundreds of machines into the peanut and rice industry. In 1978 alone, we shipped more than 100 MEGASORTS 38-channel. Also developed the GB line of bichromatic machines making an instant impact on Central American coffee industry.
1980's 3 VISION product line became the successor to the GB line and continued to find success in the peanut and coffee industry.
1984 ESM was acquired by ODISTA, which was led by Pat Childress.
1986 Introduction of Shell-ex the first sorter to use infrared technology revolutionized the pecan, almond and walnut industries.
1992 ESM was purchased by the Satake Corporation.
1993 Introduced the ScanMaster, the first high volume, high-resolution CCD camera, and broad slide color sorter.
1995 Expanded the ScanMaster line with the introduction of infrared version and a range of sizes.
1996 Introduced the GridMaster length/shape sorter.
1997 Introduced the ColorMaster Belt Sorter in both visible and IR versions.
1999 Introduced the SeedScan, seed maturity laser sorter based on chlorophyll fluorescence.
1999 Introduced the ScanMaster II, expanding the operator interface and communication capabilities of the ScanMaster product line.
2000 Expanded the ScanMaster product line with the introduction of a UV sorter.
2001 Introduced the ScanMaster Jumbo, capable of running large products such as macadamia nuts, in-shell almonds, large pecan halves, etc.
