about us
Company History by Simon Ormerod, CEO
In 1933 two entrepreneurial Scotsmen, John Findlater and Alex Lumsden founded a general forging company named Ajax Steel and Forge in Highland Park, Michigan to support the growing industrial base in that area. The company prospered and soon outgrew its original facilities and then moved to a larger plant in downtown Detroit. Over the years Ajax expanded its product line to included crane hooks and composite die sections for application in the growing automotive industry.
In 1956 it was decided to split the company into two separate business units and thus the Ajax Composite Die Company was born. The first home for this new company was in rented facilities in Auburn, Detroit, and later moved to a new building only two blocks away.
The Composite Die business remained strong until the late 1960’s and then sheet metal parts began to be replaced with plastics. Ajax saw the Ring Rolling as a great alternative to the Composite Die business and in 1969 made a critical decision to move in that direction. They put up a brand new plant in Wayne, Michigan and moved forward.
In the meantime Edgewater Steel (known to all as ‘The Big E’), located in Oakmont, PA on the Allegheny River near Pittsburg had set up a forging operation to produce train wheels, seamless rolled rings and hammer forgings. The company was already a producer of rings for the bearing market and decided to set up a new plant in South Carolina to better support its key bearing customers located in North and South Carolina.
Edgewater gained strong technical support from all over the globe and built a state-of-the-art ring rolling facility in York, South Carolina. The plant rolled its first ring in 1980 and some of those first team members are still at Ajax, applying their years of skill and knowledge to make constant improvements to your operation.
The markets were challenging and thus Edgewater encountered some financial difficulties in the early 1980s and was forced to sell the South Carolina operation. The purchaser had already decided that there was a great future in Ring Rolling - and Ajax took over the plant in 1986. The plant in South Carolina was a perfect complement to the Wayne, Michigan plant and Ajax developed into a premier supplier to the North American Industrial Ring Rolling market.
Much has changed at Ajax since 1980 but the attention to customer service and quality that put Ajax in its leading market position remains stronger than ever today. The company name is now ‘Ajax Rolled Ring & Machine’ to emphasize the fact that we have a much keener focus on machining than ever in our past. We have very proud past, wonderful traditions, and are poised for a very successful future!
Ajax Timeline
| 1933 |
Ajax Steel and Forge, a general forging company, is founded in Highland Park, Michigan. |
| 1956 |
Ajax Composite Die Company, specializing in dies and crane hooks, splits off from Ajax Steel and Forge, moving operations to Detroit. |
| 1969 |
Ajax management decides that the future of the company is in seamless rolled rings. With a new Wagner ring mill, and a new building in Wayne, Michigan, Ajax Rolled Ring is born. |
| 1980 |
Edgewater Steel, a competitor to Ajax, builds a new ring rolling facility in York, South Carolina. |
| 1986 |
Ajax Rolled Ring purchases the Edgewater plant in York, South Carolina. |
| 1990 |
Ovako Steel, under SKF ownership, buys both operations in Michigan and South Carolina and subsequently moves the headquarters to York, South Carolina. Ajax becomes a sister company to Ovako mills in Sweden and France. For the next twelve years, the company is known as Ovako Ajax. |
| 1996 |
Ovako sells the Michigan plant. |
| 2002 |
Ovako sells the South Carolina plant to eXpert Forge & Machine. The company does business as AJAX Rolled Ring & Machine. |
| 2005 |
Ajax is purchased by a private equity firm, Dogwood Equity, and continues to do business as AJAX Rolled Ring & Machine. |
| 2008 |
Ajax is purchased by New York based Prospect Capital Corporation (NasdaqNM: PSEC), a public equity company with assets of $800 million and 60 portfolio companies |
|
