History

Company founder Frank W. "Pat" Murphy out in the oil fields.

 FW Murphy Production Controls was born out of one man's search for simple, reliable engine protection. While Frank W. "Pat" Murphy was a sales manager for a major equipment distributor in the 1930's, he found that his customers' main complaint was "burned up" engines. They were equipped with poor quality, non-indicating safety switches which were difficult to test and often inoperative. Pat decided to develop a simpler yet more effective "Safety Switch."

Pat's idea, later renamed the Swichgage®, was to combine an indicating gage with a switch that would stop the engine when low oil pressure or high coolant temperature existed. It was a simple design, easy to understand – and it worked well. Operators loved the new design because they could see the operating gage, adjust the trip point to their needs, and test the switch for operation. His invention was so well accepted, Pat decided to devote 100 percent of his time to manufacturing his "Murphy Safety Switch." Production began with Pat and his wife, Rosalie, building the instruments on their kitchen table in Mt. Carmel, Illinois.

Over the past 75+ years we have developed hundreds of products that monitor and control compressors, pumps, generators, and more. Our control systems for industrial operations monitor pressure, temperature, liquid level, overspeed, time and vibration. We cover it all, from simple start/stop operation to sophisticated automation systems. Many of our products and systems carry major international authority approvals.

The Swichgage® was so successful that Pat and his wife, Rosalie, began building the instruments on their kitchen table in Mt. Carmel, Illinois.

In 2009, FW Murphy merged with EControls. EControls was established in 1994 and is a leader in the design, engineering, and production of complete engine control solutions supplied to OEM's in the engine and vehicle industries.