Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 148,478 pages of information and 233,901 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Hall Automation
From Graces Guide
Hall Automation of Watford, maker of robots
1974 Business established in a small factory leased to Douglas Hall by Pye[1]; the first robot was built for paint spraying
1977 BOC purchased 30 percent of the company as part of a joint endeavour to develop robots for welding
New factory established in Watford
1979 BOC sold its stake and GEC acquired the company
1980 Claimed to be Europe's largest maker of industrial robots[2]
1981 Queens Award for Technology[3]. Douglas Hall was managing director. The company supplied robots to BL and Ford for use in paint shops[4].
1981 Douglas Hall left the company.
1981 Became part of GEC-FAST
By the end of the year was making 20 robots/week[5]
1982 The Watford factory was closed and the work transferred to Rugby - see GEC Robot Systems. GEC's strategy for robots concentrated on licencing Japanese and other robots.