|
|
|
It seems
like only yesterday that we opened our doors, |
|
|
|
It seems
like only yesterday that we opened our doors, |
|
|
1966:
Founded in 1966,  fiveemployees, one shift, drafting boards for 2D designs, hand operated machinery, contoured parts required models and copy mills, and large calculator in engineering only. Shop did math calculations manually on paper. |
 1976:
25 employees, second shift started, drafting boards, 2D designs, hand
operated machinery, duplicating models still "state of the
art" for contour parts, a few shop guys had pocket calculators at a
cost of $150.00, started mold repair area for customer support. |
1981: 50
employees, considered a large shop by the  industry,
home computers being developed for
the first time (Commodore, Timex, Texas Instruments, Atari), shortest
"time to market" yet experienced,
built our first computer housing type molds for Texas Instruments
(TI-99-4a), in compressed time frame (normal timing was 14 -- 16 weeks),
we built the first set of molds in 60 days, completed the project of 9
sets of molds in 14 weeks. |
| 1986: 80 employees, bought a few CNC machines, bought high end 3D CAD design stations and create tool paths for the CNC machines, started third shift for 24 hour operation, put engineering support in place for repair work; created our first attempt at sampling facility next door, created project management due to increased capacity, developed safety team, developed quality team, added more engineering staff. |
 1996:
140 employees, developed mold construction teams, repair area now
24/7 operation with trucking on call, full CNC capabilities with lots of
CNC machinery, engineering coverage on all shifts, established technical
outside sales force, doing multi-mold packages, early stages of ISO 9000
certification, separate construction team for quick prototypes, are in
direct competition with offshore competitors. |
| 2001: 170 employees, acquired Southeast facility doing medical and unscrewing molds as well as repairs, computers in all areas of the shops, doing on floor programming full 3D data for all operations, tool makers access designs without hard copy prints, CNC machines running unattended as required, all molds designed as solids, ISO 9001 certification in 1999, normal deliveries are now 3 to 10 weeks depending on difficulty level, in 1999 started an in house tryout facility with all new equipment 4 presses 74 -- 946 tons. |
|
We are
proud of all our employees for the 35 years of continuous growth and
commitment. This would not have been possible without each and everyone
of our employees taking on more responsibilities and being committed to
producing quality molds for our customers. |
