Urschel Laboratories Inc. is a global retailer of food-processing machinery, based in Chesterton, Indiana. The company was founded by William Urschel in 1910, after he invented a gooseberry snipper. The company's headquarters were located on South Napoleon Street in Valparaiso, Indiana, from 1910 until 1957, when a new plant was constructed on Calumet Avenue, also in Valparaiso. The company moved to a new facility in nearby Chesterton in 2015.

In 1907, William Emmett Urschel began experimental work on a gooseberry stemmer. Urschel received his first patent for the Gooseberry Snipper in 1908. In 1910, Urschel founded the Urschel Gooseberry Snipper Factory, a small two-story wooden shop at 158 South Napoleon in Valparaiso, Indiana, located next to his residence and in an area populated with gooseberry farmers. Urschel later invented a machine that provides chocolate coating on ice cream to make an Eskimo Pie.

In 1922, Urschel had invented and began selling the bean snipper, which increased the amount of beans canned each year, rising from approximately two million cases of canned beans in 1922 to more than six million cases in 1928. Beginning in 1923, Urschel's company began development of a mechanical green bean harvester, with backing from the Scott Viner company in Columbus, Ohio. William Urschel is the first known man to attempt to build such a machine. In 1925, Urschel began working on a red beet harvester and topper.

By 1929, the company had been renamed Urschel Laboratories. In August of that year, the company sent a mechanical green bean harvester to the Fremont Canning Company in Fremont, Michigan. At the time, green beans were only picked by hand. The harvesting machine, which was capable of picking 90 to 95 percent of beans in a given area, was driven by a self-contained gasoline motor, and was estimated to save approximately $500 per day by replacing human labor. Canning companies viewed the machine favorably as there was a lack of willing labor at the time to pick the beans by hand during the heat of the day. Urschel Laboratories was believed to be the only company to offer such a machine. Bean picking was one of the few agricultural activities where machinery had not been used.

Urschel's red beet harvester and topper – manufactured by the Scott Viner company and known as a Scott-Urschel product – was released in 1930, and was a success. At that time, the company employed 15 men who worked in the construction and perfection of Urschel's inventions. Only model-building experimentation took place at Urschel Laboratories, while production was handled by industrial producers. However, William Urschel planned to add 3,000 sq ft (280 m²) of floor space to his factory with the intention to perform some manufacturing at the plant. The green bean picker was still in development as of 1930, at which point William Urschel was also perfecting a sugar beet harvester, expected to be his among his most profitable products. Urschel had also perfected an onion topper and a vegetable peeler. By November 1936, Urschel Laboratories had manufactured several canning machines for Chivers and Sons, which was in negotiations to purchase a red beet harvester. At that time, Urschel Laboratories was working on the first machine that would be used to cut celery for canning.

At the beginning of World War II, Urschel Laboratories was instructed to cease its manufacturing of food-processing machinery and to convert completely to the manufacture of war machines. Urschel Laboratories manufactured shell loading and assembly equipment, as well as testing devices and engine parts for experimental aircraft. Urschel Laboratories was later instructed to build equipment for the food dehydration industry for the remainder of the war. In 1942, the company had approximately 50 employees.

In February 1946, Joe Urschel, general manager of Urschel Laboratories and William Urschel's son, announced that the company would expand its manufacturing operations with a 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m²) building, which was to begin construction in spring 1947. The new building was to be located on five acres of land that the company purchased on Roosevelt Road, north of Evans Avenue. The company's then-current building on South Napoleon Street would be retained for experimental laboratory purposes and for some manufacturing, while Joe Urschel would be in charge of the new building. At the time, Urschel Laboratories had 35 employees and was among the best-known companies in the industry of food-processing machinery.

In June 1946, William Urschel announced his latest invention, an eight-legged machine that had been in development for two years and which he referred to as Frankenstein's Horse. The machine, then in the testing phase, was intended to replace Caterpillars in certain conditions, and was the first of its kind to be patented. In 1947, William Urschel announced a small, portable cement-laying machine that was still in the experimental stage. The machine was later used in the construction of some of Urschel Laboratories' factory buildings. William Urschel, at the age of 68, died in September 1948, after suffering with an illness for two years. Joe Urschel was the company president at the time. In 1950, the company was experimenting with a new machine capable of cutting sweet corn from the cob.