Metalforming Matters

Fifty years ago, Pat Thompson started a modest metal stamping business in Holland, Michigan.  The enterprise only had two production machines and was the first deep-draw metal stamping company in Western Michigan.  Today, PMA member company Trans-Matic is a global leader in metal stamping with more than 500 employees and facilities in not only Michigan, but Mesa, Arizona, Monterrey, Mexico, and Suzhou, China. Trans-Matic is headed by Pat’s son, P.J. Thompson. Both Pat and P.J. are past PMA chairmen of the board. The elder Thompson was recently interviewed by MLive for the company’s milestone anniversary.   When asked about the history of Trans-Matic, he said, “I'm amazed at how the business has grown.  It is far beyond my mission and far beyond my ambition.  We've just followed the opportunities wherever they led us, and we kept making investments in our people and in our machinery and equipment.” To commemorate 50 years, Trans-Matic hosted a celebrati...

School is out for summer and that means young students have three months ahead of them to spend at camps, day programs and other exciting activities. One community college in Elgin, Illinois, is taking this summer as an opportunity to launch the inaugural season of Manufacturing Camp, a three-day all day summer camp to learn skills like computer-aided design, welding and sheet metal cutting. The Chicago Tribune ran a story on this unique program and how it allows students to explore the manufacturing field during their summer break: Students will be introduced to the inner workings of manufacturing, [and will have the opportunity to] meet with industry professionals to learn more about the various jobs and career paths, and tour a local manufacturing facility.  "Manufacturing Camp is designed to introduce students to the world of manufacturing through a hands-on project made in real shop facilities," said Anne Hauca, dean of workforce development and continuing education...

Nearly three months after the President’s announcement of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, American manufacturers are struggling to compete in a global market. This week, the front page of the Washington Post featured PMA Board Member Bill Adler, president and owner of Stripmatic Products in Cleveland, OH. In the story titled “This Ohio factory thought it could bring U.S. jobs back from China. Then Trump got involved,” David Lynch writes: As steel prices in the United States rise, Adler worries they will pinch his employees’ bonuses and profit-sharing checks. The 25 percent increase in Stripmatic’s sales that he anticipated from the sausage stuffer contract, the $1 million in new factory investment and the 10 new jobs it would have created have evaporated. “If it wasn’t for the increase that came on because of the threat of tariffs, then I honestly believe we’d be supplying these domestically,” Adler said of the machines that pack ground meat into sausage casings. “Thi...