Wyman-Gordon

Wyman-Gordon is a company that designs and manufactures complex metal components. Founded in 1883 as a manufacturer of crankshafts for looms, it has a long history of making forged metal components, particularly for the aerospace industry. Wyman-Gordon is a wholly owned subsidiary of Precision Castparts Corp., and is based in Houston, Texas. It has thirteen (13) plants in five countries, and employed about 2,500 people as of 2012.

Wyman-Gordon is now ultimately owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as a result of the latter company’s acquisition of PCC in January 2016.

The Worcester Drop Forge Works was founded in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1883 by Horace Wyman and Lyman Gordon. It was later renamed the Wyman-Gordon Company. The company began with eight people in a small wooden factory building, forging crankshafts for looms. A 50-horsepower steam engine provided power for the drop hammers and other equipment. The fathers of the founders were both managers at the Crompton Loom Works and helped their sons' business win contracts for the crankshafts and for pistol and micrometer components.

The company won contracts from railroads for automatic couplers and from bicycle manufacturers for sprockets, spindles, and pedals, having gained a reputation for the high quality of its early work. From around 1902, it also began filling orders for crankshafts from manufacturers of the recently invented automobile. Horace Wyman died in 1905 and Lyman Gordon in 1914; George F. Fuller (1869–1962) succeeded to the company presidency upon Gordon's death. Fuller had joined the company as an accountant, but had invented several ways to improve the quality of the forged metal components. The company grew steadily under his leadership.

When World War I broke out, the U.S. government contracted with Wyman-Gordon to supply forgings for the 90-horsepower engines of Curtis Jenny biplanes. This was followed by contracts to produce airframe and engine forgings for almost all U.S. military aircraft. Wyman-Gordon maintained a close relationship with manufacturers of commercial and military airplanes after the war, making growing numbers of parts for engines, crankshafts, propellers, airframes, and landing gear. The company expanded the Worcester factory and opened a new plant in Harvey, Illinois.

During World War II (1939–1945) the company expanded again to supply many types of forged components to airplane manufacturers. Every American plane in combat service included Wyman-Gordon components.

In 1944, Wyman-Gordon was chosen to receive an 18,000-ton closed-die hydraulic press, the largest in the United States. The War Production Board had found from captured airplanes that Germany had larger presses than U.S. engineers had thought practical, and was using that equipment to forge large aircraft components from lightweight magnesium. Seeking to replicate this capability in the U.S., the War Production Board contracted with the Mesta Machine Co. of Pittsburgh to fabricate a new large press to be operated by Wyman-Gordon. A new plant was built around the press in North Grafton, Massachusetts, completed after the war in 1946.

The introduction of jet engines in the years after World War II caused a drastic switch in requirements, demanding fewer forgings, but forgings that were larger, lighter, stronger and more tolerant of heat than anything made so far. The new components produced by Wyman-Gordon were of much greater value, compensating for their decreased number.