About Us

Ownership

In 1972, the first of his sons, Timothy, came to work in the family business. Timothy displayed a strong desire to learn the business from the ground up. He worked after school; he worked during his summer vacations; and he came to work full time in the summer of 1974.

Four years later, he received his machinist papers. In 1986, an agreement of sale was reached between Irwin and Timothy. What started out as a plan to acquire one machine tool every two years reached a two-a-year pace.

Customer Base

In 1983, the decision was made to employ manufacturer representatives. This provided a cost effective way of generating new sales, since manufacturer representatives are only compensated when orders are placed. With a sales network in place, a plan was devised to look for work that would still fit the capabilities of the company as it was configured.

Our base of new work came from a local railroad component manufacturer, Keystone Railway. Their products fit our existing stable of machine tools, and their volume allowed us to up our utilization to two shifts per day, often six and seven days per week.

Adding to this workload was work from BMY (now UDLP). These timely orders finally put us in a position to purchase an H-22 CNC Horizontal Machining Center. Since 1985, with this acquisition, nine (9) additional CNC Horizontal Mills (all equipped with 31.5" square pallets), have been added to our shop. In addition to the mills, three (3) CNC Turning Centers were also added. To compliment this stable of equipment, a DEA fully programmable CMM was added. In the middle of 2001, we installed another CMM, larger than the 1st two, and another machining center. This machine has a work envelope of 98".

Our Success

With all of these components in place, I. Auman Machine was capable of offering York International´s Frick division not only rough machining, but a finished machined product while holding true position tolerances of .0015 between dowel hole locations and bearing bores.

A previous vendor had already tried and failed. Through the diligence of our employees, and with tremendous cooperation from our customers´ staff, we succeeded. This process had already been developed, however, because of this success we were invited to engineer the machining process that is being used in the future generation screw compressor, which is the replacement for what we are currently machining. The test results are in and we are the proud participants of a successful project. Our ability to adapt to the demands of each of our customers is one more reason for our success.

Current Outlook

Our current situation is one of good customers and steady business. We are MIL-45208A qualified. We put a lot of emphasis on shop floor inspection, including the use of SPC charts where tighter tolerances are to be held.

To prevent complacency, we are now pursuing ISO certification. With our current sales exceeding $10 million, and our total employment level in excess of 50 dedicated employees, we see continued growth as long as we continue to meet the needs of our customers. Our current workload provides us with an opportunity to showcase our desire to meet our customers needs since we are currently working around the clock six days a week, plus time on Sundays as well.

Continued Expansion

Having started in a two-car garage, we have grown to a total of 24,000 square feet. Recently, a lease was signed for a three to five year term. This acquisition adds an additional 8,000 square feet of possible manufacturing space. This is an open span with dock area and 16-foot ceilings. Until manufacturing space is required, this area will be used for storage.