Company Profile
Jorgensen Conveyors, Inc. was founded in 1950 by Charles T. Jorgensen. Initially, the company was in all phases of general conveyor design, manufacture and installation in many types of manufacturing applications. Our early customers included major manufacturing companies such as International Harvester, American Motors, JI Case, AO Smith, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors. Conveyor types included belt, roller, heavy duty scrap handling and apron conveyors, overhead trolley, slat and chain conveyors. |
About Company
In the mid '50's Jorgensen began to
get involved in conveyors for machine tool applications involving transfer and
pallet shuttle systems. Along with these systems, it was at this time that
Jorgensen began to build metal belt conveyors to handle chips, turnings and
scrap produced by machine tools. These first machine tool chip conveyors were
built using belts purchased from other manufacturers. Jorgensen bought the
belt, built the conveyor casing and drive and sold the finished unit to the
OEM machine tool builder market.
Recognizing the weaknesses of
existing metal belts, Jorgensen designed its own belt, had the proper tooling
made and began to produce our own belt. The first stamping dies to produce
belt parts were made in 1954. At this point, the OEM machine tool market was
starting to become a substantial part of Jorgensen's business. Gisholt
(Giddings & Lewis), Sundstrand and Greenlee were among our first machine tool
builder customers. In the late '50's and early '60's, the machine tool chip
conveyor market developed as speeds, feeds and chip volumes increased,
creating demand for automated chip handling.
In the succeeding years, Jorgensen
continued to refine and improve our original design, and developed our present
patented 2-1/2" pitch chain featuring the off-set side wings, chain side bars
and axles that pass through the hinge loops of the belt apron plates and all
of the chain parts. The patents obtained by Charles T. Jorgensen on the
off-set "pass through" side wing came in the early '60's. This design
development was a key factor in Jorgensen becoming a major player in the
growing machine tool chip conveyor market. It was and still is an ideal chain
for the end-user customer since it is so easy to take the belt apart for
maintenance purposes. The design was also very cost effective, since it
requires fewer parts.
During the '60's, Jorgensen also
designed 4", 6", and 9" pitch apron belt with the same ease of assembly and
disassembly features for larger scrap and parts handling applications in the
metalworking industries. Additional belt designs were developed in the 6" and
9" pitch sizes to meet the more rigorous specifications of the automotive
industry.
In 1975 we developed a 1-1/2" pitch
belt used primarily for machine tool chip conveyors. This development was
driven by the machine tool industry's trend for building smaller machines
allowing less space for the chip conveyor. Again, we retained our patented
features as to belt detachability.
In 1995 Jorgensen developed the
Filterveyor, a chip removal system that addresses the coolant filtration
requirements of many of today's high speed CNC metalcutting machine tools.
< Today, Jorgensen enjoys a leading
position in the OEM machine tool market in the United States. Major end-user
industries served include automotive, construction and agricultural equipment,
aerospace, appliance and contract machine shops. We recently established a
joint venture with a company in the United Kingdom to gain new business in the
European market.
Jorgensen's design innovation and
willingness to build to the customers specifications in the formative years of
the machine tool chip conveyor market helped to establish our leading position
in the industry. The company continues to be owned and operated by third
generation descendants of Charles T. Jorgensen. Jorgensen currently operates
in a 100,000 square foot office and manufacturing facility in Mequon,
Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. |
