National Machinery history

1882: Move to Tiffin, Ohio Meshech Frost, future owner, along with several other investors convinced Mr.

1883: 3 Prestigious Awards At the National Exposition of Railway Appliances held in Chicago, National received awards for the best Bolt Header, best Bolt Cutter and best Hot Press Nut Machine.

1900: Meshech Frost becomes Owner Meshech exercised the option to buy out other investors and became National Machinery Company’s Owner and CEO.

1901: Innovation was key for growth Innovative machines continued to flow from our drawing boards and by the turn of the century, National Machinery Company was shipping machines like Tripple Bolt Cutters, Box-Bed Headers, Hammer Headers, Hot Forged Nut Machines and even a few cold rivet machines.

1903 lathe patent granted to William L. Schellenbach and assigned to this firm.

Modernization continued and in 1908, the first large overhead crane was installed.

1911-01-05 The Iron Age: "William L. Schellenbach, formerly with the John B. Morris Foundry Company, Cincinnati, has resigned to accept a position as special mechanical engineer with the Lodge & Shipley Machine Tool Company."

Around 1915, the demand for forgings was reaching an all-time high for the railroad and the new automotive industry.

1930: Launch of Maxipres A new machine and a new name was flashed across the forging industry - Maxipres.

With the development of our pneumatic clutch in the early 1940's, it was renamed the High-Speed Forging Maxipres.

1943: Army Navy E Award Our efforts won us the renowned "Army Navy E" award.

1951: Jet engine blade forgings During the early 50's our Maxipres redesign was completed and thrown into the Korean War effort setting new standards in production for jet engine blade forgings.

1955: Expansions, Investments and 20,000 visitors Most of our building programs had been completed.

1960: Forming complex shapes With a new emphasis on forming complex shapes, a new line of machinery was needed, like our five and six die Cold Formers.

1979: Hot Formers The 70's came to a close with four new and better ideas like our line of three and four-die Hot Formers.

In 1981, our largest United States competitor, Waterbury Farrel Div. of Textron, closed the door on its cold heading and forming machinery operations.

Starting with the original FORMAX machine, the line expanded into FORMAX Plus and FORMAX 2000 models.

2002: National Machinery under new ownership After a brief closure National Machinery Company is purchased by a family member of former owner Meshech Frost.

National celebrated 130 years with an Open House in 2004 that showed off the new visitor Welcome Center and tour of the complete facilities along with machine demonstrations for customer and the Tiffin community.

2011: Production of 7-die FORMAX FORMAX has continued to be developed over the years.

2014: 140 years The week of Sept 22nd marked the celebration of National Machinery’s 140th anniversary.