Servotronics Inc.’s first-quarter profits soared fivefold as the Elma company’s cutlery business returned to profitability.

The Elma motion-control equipment and cutlery manufacturer’s strong profits, which came on a 5 percent increase in sales, were a major turnaround for a company whose earnings had plunged by 77 percent during the final three months of last year on a 16 percent slide in revenues.

Servotronics executives said the improvement in profits was due to the increase in sales, especially at its cutlery business, which was profitable in the first quarter after losing money a year ago.

Servotronics’ profits shot up to $622,000, or 29 cents per share, from $125,000, or 6 cents per share, a year ago.

The company’s sales strengthened to $7.9 million from $7.5 million, with most of the improvement coming from the cutlery business, which got a boost from rising shipments under several of Servotronics’ military knife projects and a more profitable product mix.

The cutlery business earned $430,000 during the quarter, after losing $425,000 a year earlier, as sales jumped by 13 percent to $3.4 million from $3 million the year before.

Servotronics’ Advanced Technology Group was fairly stable during the first quarter, with operating profits inching up by 2 percent to $1.01 million from $997,000, despite a 1 percent dip in revenues as some of its customers stretched out or canceled orders because of the weak economy. Sales of motion-control equipment slipped to $4.45 million from $4.51 million.

Servotronics executives also said they were encouraged by the predictions from major commercial aircraft makers — major customers of its motion control equipment—that deliveries could start to increase late this year and continue growing into 2012.