Cans, Bottles & Boxes, Oh My!: Lynchburg’s Packaging Automation Industries
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- Identifier
- JML.SphexClub_Bradford_20260219
- Title
-
Cans, Bottles & Boxes, Oh My!: Lynchburg’s Packaging Automation Industries
- Description
- Text of a lecture delivered to the Sphex Club on February 19, 2026. Michael V. Bradford traces the “industrial genealogy” of Lynchburg’s packaging automation industry, emphasizing the entrepreneurs who built a nationally significant manufacturing cluster beginning in the 1960s. The story starts with Dacam, created by Old Dominion Box, and especially with Bob Englander, whom Bradford portrays as the industry’s central figure. Englander and engineer George McVeigh founded Simplimatic Engineering in 1963, pioneering customized conveyor and packaging systems for major beverage companies. Simplimatic’s rapid growth later produced multiple spin-off firms, including Alliance Machine Systems, Sentry, and Automated Conveyor Systems, led by former executives such as Bill Graff, Adam Vinoskey, and Michael Shenigo. Bradford also highlights Belgian immigrant Al Stroobants, whose Belgium Tool & Die became another major automation enterprise. Together these innovators created a durable regional ecosystem of advanced manufacturing, patents, skilled labor, and global industrial influence.
- Date
- 19 February 2026
- Creator
- Bradford, Michael V.
- Subject
- Packaging automation -- history
- Location
- Lynchburg, Virginia
- Digital Format
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- Sphex Club (Lynchburg, Va.)
- Repository
- George M. Jones Library Association
- Rights
- Bradford, Michael V.
- George M. Jones Library Association
- Rights Holder
- George M. Jones Library Association
Part of Cans, Bottles & Boxes, Oh My!: Lynchburg’s Packaging Automation Industries