Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals, Inc

Founded more than 150 years ago, Ashcroft manufactures a range of pressure and temperature measurement equipment and systems. It serves refineries, biotechnology and pharmaceutical laboratories, pulp and paper mills, wastewater treatment and semiconductor facilities, and power generation, food processing and chemical manufacturing plants. The company provides gauges, thermometers, switches, transducers, transmitters, instrument isolators, diaphragm seals, and control and calibration equipment. Ashcroft features products under the Ashcroft, Heise, Willy and Weksler brands. It offers calibration, seal assembly, facility survey, and product training and education services. The company operates a more than 320,000-square-foot, ISO 9001-certified facility. Ashcroft is owned and operated by Nagano Keiki Holdings of Japan.

Branson Ultrasonics Corporation, a subsidiary of Emerson Electric Company, designs, develops and manufactures plastics joining and metal welding equipment. The company develops solutions for precision cleaning, degreasing and processing. It also has expertise in ultrasonic tooling and magnetostrictive and piezoelectric technology. Branson Ultrasonics Corporation manufactures the Sonifier brand of cell disrupters for laboratory experiments and research studies. The company operates manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Slovakia, China, Hong Kong and Japan. It is ISO 14001 certified for its environmental efforts. The company was founded in 1946 by Norman G. Branson to harness ultrasonic energy for industrial products. Branson Ultrasonics Corporation is headquartered in Danbury, Conn.

With annual sales in excess of $6.5 billion, Praxair is a global company that supplies atmospheric, process and specialty gases, high-performance coatings and related services and technologies. Praxair's primary products include: atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, argon and rare gases produced when air is purified, compressed, cooled, distilled and condensed; and process and specialty gases such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, semiconductor process gases and acetylene produced as by-products of chemical production or recovered from natural gas. The company also designs, engineers and constructs cryogenic and non-cryogenic supply systems. Praxair adopted its name in 1992, from the Greek word praxis, or practical application, and air, a primary raw material. The company was founded in 1907 when it was the first company in North America to commercialize cryogenically-separated oxygen. Steve F. Angel became chairman of Praxair, Inc. in May 2007. He had been president and chief executive officer since January 2007. He was named president and chief operating officer in February 2006. Praxair maintains facilities in Danbury, Conn.