Global Fastener News

Rockford: High-Tech Fasteners in City’s Future?

John Wolz

Heading toward Rockford on Interstate 90 are 18-wheelers loaded with coils of wire rod. The trucks are a visible sign that Rockford is still a fastener manufacturing town.

After decades of fastener job losses, Acument Global Technologies’ decision to manufacture aerospace fasteners in Rockford represents a turnaround for the north central Illinois city on the Rock River.

Rockford’s economic leaders are looking beyond Camcar and talking about titanium and other high-tech fastener products as the future for the industry in Rockford.

In the 1800s wood screws and nails were needed to supply the furniture industry started by Swedish immigrants in Rockford. The Rock River provided both transportation and the site for a dam that would harness water power for factories. The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad moved materials in and products out.

Following World War II, some Rockford industries, including furniture and agricultural equipment, were nearly extinct. Fastener manufacturing and machine tool industries were at a fraction of their peak production. By the mid-1980s unemployment was setting records.

But fastener manufacturing has continued to move west from Rockford … to Japan in the 1980s, Taiwan in the 1990s and next China.

Despite the Asian competition, the Rockford Area Economic Development Council lists 22 fastener companies in the city, which has a population of 152,916 and claims a three-county metropolitan area of 339,100.

Acument’s decision to manufacture aerospace fasteners in Rockford was based on the plant’s being available and the region’s being “blessed with highly skilled machine operators,” Camcar executive director Tim McGuire explained. “They have 10, 15 or 20 years experience.”

Robert Lamb, industrial development manager for the City of Rockford, told FIN that manufacturing with titanium is a growth industry for Rockford. Adding that the custom design alloy fasteners for the first space rover came from Rockford, Lamb said the future is in the high-tech niche. “We are not going to compete on a commodity basis.”

For more on the redevelopment of fasteners in Rockford read the September 3, 2008, issue of FIN. �2008 FastenerNews.com