Who We Are

We design, manufacture, and market our unique Electro-Thermal Actuators under the name Thermotion and a diverse line of Speed Sensors, Indicators, and feedback control technology devices under the name of Madison Electric Products.

Thermotion's family of Electro-Thermal Actuators convert electrical input into motion through rapid vaporization of a di-electric working fluid, or by energizing advanced Shape Memory Alloys. These actuators offer high force output over a long stroke length from a small, economical package. We have shipped over 8,000,000 actuators to the automotive, appliance, HVAC, and aviation industries worldwide.

MADISON ELECTRIC's line of hall effect and magnetic pick-up sensors, AC and DC tachometer generators, analog and digital meters, encoders, and ring tachometer devices have been used across industry lines to generate and display feedback signals in order to control system speed.

THERMOTION is ISO 9001: 2000 WITH DESIGN Certified.
		A Certified Quality Management System

Updated November 2007

THERMOTION CORPORATE HISTORY

1964-1972
Product Design and Development founded. Company performs prototype and development services. Earliest models of Electro-Thermal Actuator (ETA) technology developed. ETA capable of intermittent duty only, cycle-life expectancy less than 1000, cumulative on-time expectancy less than 50 hours.

1972-1975
Gould Corporation purchases Product Design and Development in order to utilize it as an R&D thinktank. Names it the Gould Product Development Division. Spends over $5 million dollars on technology and patent development. Several spin-off technologies move into the corporation. Early development of the Thermal Analog Control (TAC) which is used to monitor temperature of the new glass cooking surface appliances.

1976-1977
Gould changes charter from R&D to a product division with Profit and Loss responsibilities--becomes the Gould Actuator Systems Division. First production contract for wall outlet cord ejectors received. Extensive development efforts into automotive market take place. Appliance contracts for TAC units received. ETA capable of intermittent and continuous duty, cycle-life expectancy less than 50,000, cumulative on-time expectancy less than 1000 hours. Gould spins-off Division to become Design and Manufacturing Corporation (DMC).

1977-1981
DMC develops and takes to market the SAVENT unit, an Automatic Vent Damper for Gas Fired Appliances. Early design discussions begin regarding Four-Wheel Drive Actuators. ETA capabilities essentially unchanged from Gould era.

1981-1987
Development of a Four-Wheel Drive Actuator continues and production volumes begin. Vent/flue damper sales continue. Company develops a revolutionary condensate evaporator product for reach-in coolers.

1988-1996
Name change to THERMOTION CORPORATION. Sales of refrigerator ice-dispenser actuator begin. ETA cycle-life expectancy climbs to 100,000+ with cumulative on-time expectancy 1500 hours. ETA number 5,000,000 sold

1997-1998
Madison Electric Products purchased. Company moves to Mentor, OH. Thermo-Shift 4WD actuator introduced to automotive aftermarket.

1999-2005
ETA number 8,000,000 sold. ETA capable of 150,000+ cycles, 5000+ hrs. cumulative on-time. Development work on SMART Actuator begun. Madison introduces its Hi-Resolution Magnetic Encoder. Certified to ISO 9001:1994 in January 2002. Upgraded to ISO9001:2000 WITH DESIGN in January 2004.