About

Automation Controls, Inc. provides turn key Control Systems Engineering Projects & Service to several Industrial Manufacturing Customers in the Mid-West.  They also provide Emergency support both remote and onsite. In an emergency, ACI often has a part in the shop that can be used to get a Manufacturing Plant back up and running.  That’s one of the many benefits of having a local Systems Integration Company and why the owners are committed to keeping a Systems Integration Company in Topeka, Kansas.

Automation Controls was started in 1995, after owners, Paul & Regina Brown, got caught up traveling to support manufacturing plants with their employers.  On one occasion they had to transfer their children in the DFW airport.  Regina resigned from her job as a Project Scientist at Frito-Lay Headquarters, followed by Paul 2 years later, as an Engineering Manager at Techno-Mation, a Systems Integrator in Dallas, TX. Paul took a leap of faith, Feb of 1995, and opened Automation Controls, from their North Richland Hills, TX home.  August of 1995, they relocated Automation Controls to Valley Falls, KS, just outside of Topeka.

In 1998, Regina began working in the business and Incorporated it 1/4/1999.    Automation Controls, Inc., now ACI, hired their first part-time programmer in 2011 and full-time programmer in 2013, along with building an office and shop in Topeka.  In 2014, for the first time, ACI achieved over 1M in sales.

ACI began taking Controls Interns from KSU and Washburn Tech in 2016 and 2017 respectively.  Paul’s wealth of knowledge including a PE in Electrical Engineering (1992) and a PE in Control Systems (2008) and his many years of experience from PLC-2’s to ControlLogix Safety PLC’s, in a vast number of Industries, needed to be passed on.  As of 2023 ACI has taken in 9 Interns, both Engineers and Technicians.

In 2017, ACI purchased a second building at 103 SW 32^nd Ter. Topeka, KS to handle even larger panel orders and to support their many Industrial Customers.

In 2023, ACI became a Stratus Technologies SI Partner to support their Industrial Server projects. ACI added Health Insurance to their benefits pkg.