Lincoln Electric is celebrating its 115th year anniversary this year, commemorating its 1895 founding by John C. Lincoln, and the progress that has made it one of the world’s leading developers of welding equipment and technologies.

Welders know Lincoln for its rugged and innovative machines and consumables, and its know-how, which help customers worldwide to manufacture products competitively.

But, beyond manufacturing, Lincoln has been the most frequently studied case for the Harvard Business School because of its long-standing incentive management philosophy. Manufacturing, engineering and selling excellence in a focused industry, combined with unique and forward-thinking employee practices, form Lincoln’s successful strategy.

John C. Lincoln founded the company with a capital investment of $200. His younger brother, James F. Lincoln, joined the company in 1907 and together they built a foundation of corporate values that supports Lincoln Electric today.

For over a century Lincoln Electric has pioneered scores of innovations, starting with the world’s first variable-voltage welding machine in 1911. Today’s revolutionary software-driven Power Wave^® inverter-driven welding power sources, coupled with engineered consumables, have reinvented welding by providing every industrial segment with customized weld integrity to satisfy the most stringent requirements.

“We hold the same values today that John C. Lincoln held that day in 1895 when the Company first opened for business,” said John M. Stropki, chairman and CEO. “As we celebrate our 115th anniversary as the leading innovator in the arc welding industry, we maintain our enduring passion for the development and application of welding technologies that constantly provide better solutions to our customers’ needs.”