Company News

Camcraft Inc. in Hanover Park, Illinois, manufactures high-precision components and assemblies. Utilizing the latest machining technology and automation, the company makes complex hydraulic engine management and fuel system components for on- and off-highway applications. It specializes in producing difficult, precision-machined components—parts that require heat treatment, grinding, bore sizing, hard turning and superfinishing to achieve micron tolerances and provide superior performance for customers’ applications.

When it comes to components for industrial machines, Montana Hydraulics LLC owners Mark and Della Ehlke say there isn’t much they can’t make. “We’re able to pretty much take on just about anything,” Mark said. “In fact, we had a tagline at one point: ‘If you can imagine it, we can build it.’”

To build cars, appliances and airplanes, it takes tools made in Idaho. At Micro 100 Tool Corp., a cutting-edge operation helps create cutting tools. "We make carbide cutting tools that are used in all machining and manufacturing operations around the world," said Dale Newberry, president of Micro 100 Tool.

Some people say there is an art to machining. In some cases, there is actual artwork. Machinists Inc. in Seattle, the largest precision machining shop in the Northwest, has made big sculptures since the early 1990s. The first piece was a 17'×13'×3' steel sculpture that hangs in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and many more have followed. However, art accounts for only about 1 percent of the manufacturer’s work, said Weld Engineer Steve Pollard, who has been with the company for 30 years.

John and Miles O’Brien are two of a few South Bend, Ind., business founders whose product is still being manufactured in the United States. John and Miles, born in Ireland in 1868, were identical twins whose family immigrated to the U.S., settling in Connecticut in the 1870s. At the age of 35, they went into business for themselves in a one-room building at the corner of West Washington and Johnson streets in South Bend. They began manufacturing lathes, at the time the most vital machine for any industry using metal or steel parts.