June 8, 2015
Winamac Coil Spring begins construction on the new Engineering Design Center. Fourth generation family members Brock Huber, Ross Huber and Garrett Pesaresi work together to demolish a wall that will become the entry way into the new design center. The engineering department has grown extensively over the years in size and scope. The new center will provide more office space plus testing area for the engineers. Chris Swope, Lead Engineer, is excited about the new center, noting that the expansion will help the department serve customers better with a greater capacity to test components and gather data.
Winamac Coil Spring announced they will be attending the 2015 GIE+Expo, October 21-23 in Louisville, KY at the Kentucky Expo Center. This annual outdoor power equipment show is one of the largest of it’s kind. WCS is excited to be a first time exhibitor at this show. Gene Huber, Jr. commented that many of WCS current clients are also exhibiting at the show.
Brian Shafer, WCS Marketing Manager, says that WCS will debut it’s new booth at this year’s show. “We are excited to have a new look and feel for our trade show exhibit. It definitely is going to be eye catching!” Be sure to stop by and see WCS at booth #1024 in the OEM Supplier Pavilion.
GIE+Expo – Booth #1024
SMI METAL ENGINEERING EXPO – Oct. 19-22, 2015
The countdown is on for the SMI Metal Engineering eXpo debut! SMI created the event to give attendee’s and exhibitors an opportunity to learn from the industries brightest minds. A very important part of the Metal Engineering eXpo will be the technical symposia geared to address areas involved in manufacturing, materials and testing, as well as technology, business practices and motivational leadership.
WCS’s Vice President, Gene Huber Jr., who heads the technical symposia has been busy finding speakers for the eXpo in addition to working on a stress relieving study, which is scheduled to be presented during a tech session.
For full show details go to: http://www.metalengineeringexpo.org
Winamac Coil Spring Wins Big at Arctic Cat –
WCS received two distinguished awards from Arctic Cat, Inc. at their supplier conference held in Thief River Falls, Minnesota earlier this year.
Kyle Mollencupp, WCS product engineer, and outside sales representative, Casey Newell attended the event to receive the Gold Supplier Status and Zero Defect Status awards for 2014.
It is quite an accomplishment to receive perfects scores for both quality and delivery/service. Congratulations WCS!
WCS Wins at Arctic Cat
WCS Engineering Design Center
The best kept secret at WCS is our world class design and engineering center. The center itself is equipped with the latest in 3D modeling and design technology. We also maintain the latest in diagnostic and testing equipment to offer our clients a full spectrum of engineering function.
Our engineering staff has a combined 50 plus years of product and design experience. From concept, to component implementation, our team of engineers can assist you in developing parts for your assemblies. If you have a project that needs expertise in spring and wire form performance, we can help from start to finish.
WCS prides themselves as being a solution based manufacturer, from design, to prototyping, to production, to value added labeling and sub assembly. Our engineering center makes sure your product works at the most reliable level while keeping costs to a minimum.
For your next coil spring or wire form project, contact the WCS engineering design center before you begin.
Call 574-653-2186
Complete Spring Design Capability
A Community of Volunteers –
January 13th, 2011 at Winamac Coil Spring started just like any other day until the unthinkable happened. A fire broke out in the plant’s paint room and without hesitation a community of volunteers sprang into action. It’s hard to determine who is blessed more, Winamac Coil Spring for having an exceptional community volunteer fire department, or the community for having a strong volunteer fire department supporter. Whichever the case may be the bond between a company and their local volunteer fire department can’t get much stronger.
Larry Baldwin, a retired 40 year veteran and former Chief, said “they have been a major supporter to the fire department from day one when they moved from Winamac to Kewanna in 1957.” The support is so strong that the fire station is now known as “Plant 3” among WCS employees. Joe Hott, a 41 year team member and WCS Maintenance guru who served on the volunteer fire department for 25 years, believes that what makes the relationship between WCS and the fire station so unique is the heart and soul of the WCS ownership. Joe says, “They have given the department money, equipment, and most importantly time.”
Time is one of the most precious commodities we have and ever since the company was founded in 1948 by Walter Pesaresi, volunteering time to such a noble cause has been rewarded. In fact, volunteering has become part of the corporate culture. No one knows just how many WCS employees have served on the Kewanna Volunteer Fire Department over the years, but the company estimates having an average of 7 to 9 WCS employees serving the department at any one time during the past 58 years.
Company president Tony Pesaresi, grandson of the late Walter Pesaresi and volunteer firefighter, said “We believe in being good community stewards and we believe by allowing our employees the opportunity to be volunteers we create an intangible benefit that really can’t be measured. Our policy has always been to allow the volunteers to leave work and respond to emergency calls. This gives the community a sense of peace and makes you feel good knowing you are giving back.” Tony expressed, “it helps you sleep at night knowing you are doing the right thing. We believe our fire could have been worse had we not had so many firefighters working here.”
In the early days every WCS employee/volunteer firefighter would respond to an outside emergency call; whereas, today WCS takes a more strategic approach. According to Tony Pesaresi, they want to remain good stewards to the community and they want to take care of their customers as well. By implementing a self-regulating/call situation policy they are able to do both. The employees decide amongst themselves who can take the time to go on an emergency call and who needs to stay at work. “In situations where there’s a major structure fire, likely we would all go; however, we have protocols in the event all of the volunteers would leave work, making sure our customers are still taken care of,” commented Tony Pesaresi. Brock Hinderlider, a 15 year employee of WCS and Captain of the fire department, says “that it’s nice that the company continues to pay your wage through the first hour of being gone on a call. If you are out longer, you get to make up your time.”
While the hopes are there will never be another situation like the day the fire broke out in 2011, WCS remains 100 percent committed to their employees, their community of volunteer firefighters and first responders.
Pictured left to right: Heath Gearhart, Adam Hisey, Brock Hinderlider. Not pictured: Brian Guzman, Tracy Cunningham, Chuck Felda, Josh Weaver, Chad Conley and company president, Tony Pesaresi.
WCS’s volunteer firefighters.