Manufacturing
The 2015 Washington Manufacturing Awards: Heritage Award
HERITAGE AWARD WINNER Physio-Control Redmond To the extent that Washington has any sort of biomedical industry, much of the credit can be given to Physio-Control, founded 60 years ago by Dr. Karl William Edmark. Physio-Control and Edmark are best known for the heart defibrillator, once a revolutionary idea. Today a standard piece of emergency medical…
The 2015 Washington Manufacturing Awards: Building Trades
WINNER Henrybuilt Seattle There are artisanal food producers and artisanal wine makers. Is there such a thing as an artisanal furniture manufacturer? If so, can you make a viable business out of it? Henrybuilt says the answer to both questions is yes. Born in Scott Hudsons shed on Vashon Island, the company targets the luxury…
The 2015 Washington Manufacturing Awards: Emerging Manufacturer
WINNER Fathom Seattle Three-dimensional printing is rapidly moving from the wave of the future in manufacturing to the standard operating procedure of today, and Fathom has been riding that wave. The seven-year-old Bay Area company converted a sales office in Seattle to a full design and production house, offering advanced prototyping and low-volume production. The…
The 2015 Washington Manufacturing Awards: Manufacturer of the Year, Small Firms
WINNER Torklift International Sumner Torklift International makes the stuff that makes trucks, RVs and cars more useful, productive or secure. Towing hitches. Turnbuckles. Tiedowns. Locking devices. Steps and handrails. The company also invests in new products, such as a camper bumper that provides extra storage and seating while also accommodating accessories like a grill. Its…
The 2015 Washington Manufacturing Awards: Manufacturer of the Year, Midsize Firms
WINNER Omax Corporation Kent Thanks to a technology developed by Omax founders John Cheung and John Olsen, a needle-thin, ultra-high-pressure jet of water with tiny abrasive particles mixed in cuts through metal, stone, glass, concrete, ceramics and composites quickly and accurately. Its quite a legacy, one that the company hasnt been resting on. In the…
The 2015 Washington Manufacturing Awards: Manufacturer of the Year, Large Firms
WINNER Romac Industries Bothell Romacs products are as critical as they are unseen. It makes repair clamps, couplings and other devices, fittings and tools used in water works, waste-treatment plants and for keeping distribution and collection systems in working order. Founded in 1969 by Manford Mac McNeil with an innovative stainless-steel repair clamp, the business…
The 2015 Washington Manufacturing Awards
What makes a company or a manufacturing executive worthy of recognition as one of Seattle Business magazines Washington Manufacturing Awards recipients? That was the big-picture question the judges wrestled with as they sifted through the many nominations of excellent candidates. The panel concluded that while the companies they selected may differ in size, age and…
Back to the Future: A Road Less Traveled
Distraction isnt always a good thing in business, but its an integral marketing element at Tilting Motor Works. The Snohomish companys three-wheeled motorcycle conversions provide an eye-catching distraction whenever company founder Bob Mighell takes one on a long road trip or to motorcycle rallies. Tilting Motor Works makes kits that add a second front wheel…
Measuring Up: Itron’s Transition into Software
Around the world, an estimated 34 percent of treated water never reaches the tap because of leaks in aging infrastructure. Helping to identify those leaks so they can be plugged is one of many new analytic capabilities that Liberty Lake-based Itron Inc. provides utilities as part of a new strategy. Itron has more than 8,000…
Back to the Future: Storage Units
Coming up with great ideas for technology and companies does not drive the regions economy. Turning those great ideas into products that someone will actually pay money for is what propels the economy. UniEnergy Technologies, a Mukilteo company developing grid-scale storage batteries using vanadium-flow technology, scored a major success last summer with the announcement of…
Chinese Investors Propose to Build Three Methanol Plants in the Region
For the most part, the state of Washington has been a bit player in the oil-and-gas revolution remaking the United States economy. The state has no commercially viable deposits of oil or gas. It has no petrochemical complex fed by those fuels. While a handful of firms supply components and parts to the industry, its…
Pangea Motors Aims to Clean Up in Manila
The jeepney, an iconic vehicle of public transportation in the Philippines, is based on American technology. So its fitting that the next generation of public-transit vehicle might also come from the United States specifically, from a company in Vancouver, Washington. Pangea Motors LLC hopes to have on the roads of Manila this summer a 16-passenger…
Paccar Keeps Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’
Last year wasnt a very good year for the Class 8 segment the heavy-duty rigs laypeople think of as semis in the United States and Canada but, as is its habit, Paccar Inc. managed to keep on truckin. From 225,000 heavy-duty trucks ordered in 2012, the industry slumped to 212,000 orders in 2013. Both figures…