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.