Wall Colmonoy Celebrates Milestone
They have manufactured surfacing and brazing products, castings, and engineered components for 80 years.
Posted: April 3, 2018
Wall Colmonoy Corporation (Madison Heights, MI), a materials engineering group and manufacturer of advanced metal coatings and components, was established by Albert F. Wall in 1938 in Detroit, MI. A Canadian who immigrated to Detroit in the 1920s after graduating as a chemical engineer from McGill University in Montreal, he first founded an industrial gas company called Wall Gases, which was followed by Wall Colmonoy in 1938. They now employ 500 people, with offices and manufacturing facilities located in the U.S. and the UK.
As a global leader in the manufacture of surfacing and brazing products, castings, and engineered components, their mission is to be a leader in providing users with engineered systems through technical expertise, partnership, quality, value, and innovation to achieve their desired performance of operating more efficiently and effectively. Colmonoy®, the original nickel-based hardsurfacing alloy, was developed in the 1930s for application on downhole drill bits for the oil industry. During World War II, it extended the life-span of arrestor hooks, tank grousers, tread and drive sprockets on U.S. Army tanks. Today it has applications in a variety of industries, from glass container to steel to power generation.
The company is also a pioneer and leading expert in high temperature nickel-based brazing: In 1950, then materials engineer Bob Peaslee invented Nicrobraz®, a new brazing technology involving nickel-based filler metals and hydrogen atmosphere furnaces. Peaslee pioneered the application of hydrogen braze for aircraft turbine engine components. The technology and process continue today and it is taught by their leading brazing engineers at Brazing School in both the U.S. and Europe. In 2006, they acquired Aerobraze (Cincinnati, OH) to complement their brazing, heat treating, welding, machining and coating capabilities. In 2014, they acquired Franklin Bronze Precision Components, LLC (Franklin, PA) an investment casting firm.
In their 80th year of keeping airplanes in the sky, glass bottles in production, food fresh, pumps pumping, nuclear turbines powering, and transportation greener, they continue to be owned and operated by the same family, the fourth generation of family members that demonstrates their consistency, stability, and long-term commitment critical to all stakeholders: customers, employees, and society.
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