1952 was another banner year with our sons and daughters competing for $6,000 worth of scholarships. By the end of '52, additions to the office building and the expansion of shipping and receiving were underway. A new 55 ft. high heavy erecting bay was built and a new heavy yard crane was installed. These were just the first steps of a plant-wide improvement and expansion program involving six new buildings, and the installation of more than 150 machine tools.

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. For the war period, the government took over practically all of our production capacity to make Maxipresses to forge the jet blades that were so critical to the war effort.

Other innovations in the early 50's included our new Nail Maker capable of producing 1,200 nails per minute and a new Hot Nut Former that produced alloy nuts for bridges and sky scrapers. In 1954, another record was set when we built our first 10" Forging Machine, the world's largest, topping out at 1 million pounds.

By 1955, most of our building programs had been completed. The plant had expanded to over 400,000 sq. ft. seven times larger than at the turn of the century. An open house was held to show off the new expansion and our investment in over 150 new machine tools. Attendance was unbelievable . . . over 20,000 visitors.

In 1955, we were the only exhibitor of hot and cold forming machinery at the $20 million Machine Tool Show in Chicago. Prospects gathered to watch as we demonstrated our high-production metal forming equipment and methods. In the Fall of that year we announced another 20% increase in production capacity and purchased 32 additional major machine tools. The future lay bright before us.

Through the mid-50's we completed an all new line of Four-Die Boltmakers including the largest Boltmaker in the world. This giant
could consume one ton of steel every 13 minutes.

As the 50's wound down, we found ourselves in the midst of a business recession and for the first time in years, our work schedules were reduced to 30 hours per week. It didn't last long and by the spring of 1959, we were back up to 35 hours and shortly after that to 40 hours. By January of 1960, business conditions had improved and we pushed our production hours back up to 55 per week. With the close of the 50's, came a new innovation in industry . . . elimination of time clocks. With our new Honor Time Plan, each man was put on his honor to work the schedule he had selected.

In 1958, we expanded again by acquiring the J. G. Kayser Company in Nurnberg, Germany. This 103 year old company was the largest manufacturer of cold forging machinery outside of the U.S. This acquisition gave us the opportunity for growth in the world market and ushered in a new era of international business.

Throughout the decade of the 50's, we developed and honed the production techniques to form more complex shapes. We modified our Progressive Headers and Cold Nut Formers to accept new tool designs. This once again demonstrated that National Machinery was the world leader in forming machinery and methods technology.

In almost every decade, "The National Family" grew and by 1960 the attendance at our Meadowbrook Park picnic was 2,500. We continued our growth by building a new plant in Nuernberg, Germany and expanding our office, engineering and development departments here in Tiffin.

With this new emphasis on forming complex shapes, a new line of machinery was needed, like our five and six die Cold Formers. The Universal Transfer was developed to add even more flexibility and forming capability to this new line of modern forming machinery.

Through the early 60's we continued to expand our line of machinery. New Extrusion Maxipresses, Single-Die Tubular Rivet Headers, Two-Die Three-Blow Cold Headers and the world's largest press, the 8000 Ton Maxipres, were the pride of Tiffin.

Our service to country and community continued throughout the 60's and we received in 1963 the President Kennedy "E" Award
for significant contributions to the government's Export Expansion Program. At that time, only 200 companies in the U.S. had received this award.

In 1966, the Quarter Century Club celebrated its 30th Anniversary and welcomed in 36 new members bringing the total membership to 202. It was about this time that we developed a program called "Vocations in Metal Working" that gave our local area high school seniors an opportunity to receive vocational instruction in a variety of trades so they could find out first-hand about the jobs, skills, equipment and the people of National Machinery Company while getting paid in the process.

Toward the end of the decade a new word was heard at National Machinery Company computer. To help us improve assembly time,
eliminate production snags and speed up deliveries, we installed a new computer. Since that time we have found so many diverse and innovative applications for electronic data processing that we have outgrown our systems many times over and even today we are installing a new Information Technology System.

As the 1960's gave way to the 70's, new cold forming machinery and processes were flowing from the creative minds and skilled
hands of our workforce. The first 1875 Cold Former . . . it could produce parts 17" long weighing 7.2 lbs. At the rate of 35 pieces per minute, producing over 7 tons of shafts an hour. And, if you think that is big, you should see the 11,000-ton Maxipres we designed. This machine was so big it could not be made in Tiffin but was built in Japan and after a short barge trip it was installed where it is still in operation today. This Maxipres weighs 2,400,000 lbs. and stands 37 ft. tall.

By 1970, we had shipped our first High Speed Boltmaker and S2 Cold Nut Former, adding two new lines to our already extensive line of high speed machinery.

In the fall of 1970, visitors from around the world attended our Open House to watch 13 cold and hot forging machines on demonstration. Business was good and our future was bright and we needed more capacity to build these new large formers, so, work was started on a new 200-ton bay

Meanwhile in Europe, we continued to grow market share and expand our Nuernberg plant by adding new production bays increasing the original plant space by 50%. In March of '72 we reached another milestone with the shipment of our 1000th High-Speed Cold Header.

Although the machine tool industry had suffered a general recession during the past few years, we maintained a high work level and
were ready to take on the upswing in business in 1973. By the end of '73, our production for all of '74, '75 and part of '76 was sold.

With this increase in business we needed to expand, so again we looked to outside acquisitions and bought the Special Machine Company of Rockford, Illinois which we converted into a sheet metal operation to supply our sound enclosures. Additional capacity was needed in Nuernberg so a small manufacturing company in nearby Kulmbach, Bavaria was purchased to add some much needed machining.

The 70's came to a close with four new and better ideas like our line of three and four-die Hot Formers. These machines took in bars
fed through induction heaters and produced nuts and special parts at rates up to 150 pieces per minute. The largest, 10-3 Hot Former, set another world record for size. It was shipped to a customer in France for the production of gear blanks and ring gears. This large Hot Former could feed over 3" diameter hot rolled bars and 8" gear blanks at 45 gears per minute.On the smaller end of our line, new machines such as the High-Speed Single-Stroke Ball and Roller Headers and High-Speed Double-Stroke Metric Headers ushered in the decade of the 80's.

We were experiencing record orders and shipments during the 70's and early 80's while other machinery manufacturers were finding it difficult to survive. In 1981, our largest U.S. competitor, Waterbury Farrel Div. of Textron, closed the door on its cold heading and forming machinery operations. They sited a declining market. They said they would be best served by concentrating on rolling mill machinery, not cold heading or threading.

In 1982, another North American company, Hartford Specialty Machinery in Connecticut ceased to operate. Hartford competed with National in the smaller double-stroke high-speed header market, but were most successful in their flat-die thread rollers. In 1983, we purchased the thread-rolling portion of the Hartford Specialty Machinery Company and brought the product line to Tiffin. We manufactured the Hartford Threaders until we successfully developed our own line of more technically advanced FORMAX Threaders. Following the introduction FORMAX Threaders, we sold the Hartford line to Reed Roll Thread Company.

Some competitors in Europe and Asia also ceased to operate. By the mid-80's National also was in a very difficult business situation. We suffered from recessions through the world, the first time in anyone's memory that all markets were in economic downturn at the same time. It was our most difficult business situation in over 50 years.

Because we had borrowed heavily in the 70's and early 80's our financial position was no longer stable. Our banks were pressuring us to change and quickly develop a new business strategy in order to return to profitability and begin to reduce the large level of debt we had accumulated during the prior 15 years. A period of change was necessary in order to survive.

We first began an intensive program to sell the inventory we had accumulated in prior years. At the same time, we began a program to develop new technology in our cold forming machinery while we implemented a new selling approach overseas.

It was a difficult time, but the positive attitude of many was critical as we looked for new ideas that would help us survive and regain our
leadership position. The creative spirit at National remained and was hard at work behind the scenes. The positive spirit of people soon demonstrated its ability to remake our company, We formed teams as we worked to develop leading edge technology. The positive efforts of people working together became obvious to customers when we introduced FORMAX in November 1989 at Atlanta, GA at the International Fastener Exposition (IFE). We introduced, to record crowds, our new concept in cold forming machinery: FORMAX. The FORMAX line of cold formers met the needs of the fastener and the cold formed parts industry and was quickly embraced by many of our customers. The early success of FORMAX exceeded our expectations.

FORMAX provided customers a very simple and easy-to-operate system that drastically increased production through higher machine speeds and more rapid job changeovers. This new approach to cold forming machinery was quickly accepted worldwide. Before long, our manufacturing schedules were filled with production orders. The success of FORMAX was largely a result of people working together to try new approaches that would meet the needs of our customers.

FORMAX technology has continued to expand and grow. It now includes our FORMAX PLUS formers, FORMAX PLUS Threaders and FORMAX PLUS for Large Parts. In 1999 at the IFE Show in Chicago, we introduced the new FORMAX 2000. This technology will carry us and the formed parts industry well into the next century.

When we couple the advance technology of FORMAX with the dedication of our people providing outstanding service and high-quality machinery, it's no wonder that we've developed the reputation of setting "The World Standard for Excellence."

As we forge into this new century, we see changes and opportunities. We now see a future that emphasizes growth and stability. A future where we will work to extend our leadership position in the cold forming industry.