Hunterről

When experts said it couldn't be done, Lee Hunter invented a way to quick charge automobile batteries. He then went on to build a highly successful company to manufacture and sell his other inventions that would soon after revolutionize the automotive service industry. Today, Hunter Engineering Company designs, manufactures and sells a wide range of auto service equipment for a global market. Hunter products include PC- and Windows®-based wheel Futóműállító rendszerek, suspension and brake testing systems, computerized wheel balancers, on- and off-car brake lathes, tire changers and vehicle lifts.

Hunter Engineering Company owes its beginnings to a discharged automobile battery. Lee Hunter, Jr., a 23-year-old St. Louis architecture student, found himself frequently confronted with car battery failure in his Packard convertible. In 1936, it took several days to recharge a car battery. Hunter was determined to find a better, faster way. With the help of a former Washington University electrical engineering professor, Hunter began experimenting and his efforts paid off. His quick-charge battery recharger was based on a diverter pole generator. He put this new product on the market and during the Great Depression, the Lee Hunter, Jr., Manufacturing Co. sold the $497 Kwikurent charger as fast as the company could make them.

After serving in both the U.S. Army Engineering Corps and Ordnance Corps during World War II, Hunter returned to St. Louis in 1946 and reopened his business at Ladue Rd. and Hunter Ave. in Clayton, Missouri, under the name of Hunter Engineering. The new company manufactured another Hunter invention, the 'Tune-In,' which balanced automobile wheels while they were spinning on the car.

At the same time, Hunter began assembling what would later become the largest dedicated U.S. field sales and service team in the industry. Hunter also laid the foundation for a global distribution base for Hunter products.

In 1955 Hunter developed a new wheel alignment system called 'Lite-A-Line,' which became the industry standard. Lite-A-Line was the industry's first simplified light beam wheel aligner. Wheel-mounted instruments used projected light beams to achieve precise wheel alignment.

The development of innovative products to serve the booming automobile industry during the 1960s made Hunter the undercar service leader. In 1962, Hunter's 'Tune-Align' became the first mechanical alignment system capable of compensating for lateral wheel runout, a major factor affecting wheel alignment precision.

Hunter also continued to grow its export markets and in 1964 was named by the U.S. Department of Commerce as a winner of the E-Award for excellence in the development of export trade.

Outgrowing its original location on Ladue Rd., Hunter moved in 1964, to a newly constructed factory, administrative office, and research and training center complex on a 23-acre campus near St. Louis' Lambert International Airport.

In 1969 Hunter took another important step introducing the F60/70 Compute-A-Line, the first successful computerized dynamic wheel aligner. Hunter would continue to lead the industry in the application of computer technology to wheel alignment for the next 30 years.