GREENE – The Historic Sherwood Hotel in Greene hosted the Raymond Corporation’s annual Inventors Club Luncheon on Wednesday, an event focused on honoring current and former Raymond engineers whose patents have been filed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

As model of fostering innovation and design, some 32 patents filed by 19 Raymond employees have been awarded by the U.S. Patent office in just the past four years, averaging six per year in the last 15 years; and since 1929 employees of the Greene plant have been responsible for nearly 200 patents.

Keynote speaker Lance R. Collins, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering at Cornell University, spoke on the importance of innovative engineering and the relationships between engineering academia and industry.

Michael Field, CEO of Raymond lauded the dedication and hard work of Raymond engineers and said that he believes that patents are key to advancing the company in a forward direction.

“Companies speak publicly of innovation all the time. Thirty-two patents in four years shows that we act on that conversation and Raymond is truly invested in innovation,” said Field. “With this event, we are showcasing and honoring the people at Raymond who embody our philosophy of continuous improvement and innovation. Their dedication to this philosophy plays a large role in Raymond’s success today, and we thank them for that.”