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A-dec (Austin Dental Equipment Company) is a dental office furniture and equipment manufacturer based in Newberg, Oregon, United States. It is considered one of the largest dental equipment makers in the world,〔 and as of 2002 is Newberg's largest employer with 832 employees.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Newberg Community Profile )〕 Founded in 1964, the company's annual revenue of $250 million comes from the sale of products such as dental chairs, stools, delivery systems, medical lighting, cabinetry, and other accessories. ==History== In 1964, Ken Austin built an improved air-powered vacuum system known as the Air-Venturi System, which varied from the belt-drive devices in use at the time. That same year the company released the first miniature delivery unit designed specifically for the new reclining patient chair, Dec-Et, followed by the complementary Tray-Cart, the first mobile dental assistant's work surface. The mobile equipment helped the company grow rapidly. In 1966, A-dec was incorporated, and at the time the company was housed in a Quonset hut in Newberg.〔〔 They built a new plant and offices on on the edge of Newberg in 1971. The company expanded distribution into 23 countries that year as well. In 1977, A-dec offered a full line of instrument delivery systems. In subsequent years, the company added chairs, stools and dental lights, becoming a full service provider in the 1980s with revenues of $75 million annually by 1990. They developed a dental cabinetry line in 1983 as well as building the self-contained water system, allowing dentists to have a controlled water supply to handpieces, and syringes, improving the industry’s infection control. A-dec began a partnership with W&H, a family-run company based in Austria and a leading manufacturer of rotary dental instruments in 1985. The partnership positioned A-dec for new growth into the dental handpiece and ancillary equipment markets with the A-dec|W&H co-brand. In January 1990, they bought A-dec Diversified Inc., a company also in Newberg. The company grew to 600 employees by 1992. In 1999, the company was named as the 88th largest woman-owned company in the US. A-dec introduced new products the Cascade and Radius in the 1990s, and in 2004 introduced the A-dec 500. The chair-mounted delivery system brought new technologies together for the first time and created an integrated system. The development of A-dec 500 led to streamlining the company’s production lines and staging A-dec for a quicker time-to-market for its products. They also switched from a cold press to a hot press for their wood piece production at their plant. The company was one of the leading contributors to a campaign to force a vote on a proposed income tax increase by the state legislature in 2003, which was defeated in 2004. By 2006 the company had grown to almost 1,000 employees and annual revenue of $250 million.〔 A-dec named Scott Parrish president of the company in 2007, replacing founder Ken Austin. In 2008, the company held a contest for dentists and gave the winners new office equipment. They also opened a new training facility that year in Newberg. This facility doubles as a showroom for visiting dental professionals to view the company's products. The company introduced the A-dec 300, a fully integrated chair and delivery system with a smaller footprint in 2009. That year they also laid off 100 employees due to the worldwide economic downturn. In February of that year the company was fined by the Environmental Protection Agency and then reached a $325,700 settlement for selling an unregistered pesticide. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A-dec」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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