(GMI) was originally formed in 1944 by Wilbur and Orpah Graybill. Initially, the company built specialized farm equipment, but an early patent on a hay bale tensioner opened doors in 1950 for the company to begin manufacturing in the first part of what is Graybill’s present day facility. In 1956 the company began working with its first food industry client and started creating pie machinery for a
local bakery. This marked the entrance of Graybill Machines into what would soon be our specialty -- custom food machinery. Over a decade later, in 1968, Wilbur and Orpah incorporated the company as Graybill Machines, Inc. By this time a majority of its work was in food machinery. After operating a New Idea farm equipment dealership, and their extensive work on tomato harvesting machines ended in 1978, Graybill discontinued its farm equipment business. Through the years 1977 to 1982, a major portion of our capacity was used for design and short-run manufacturing of retail displays, as well as concrete forms for precast median barriers. Starting in 1986, Graybill made a number of specialized machines for the truss component industry. This increased business allowed GMI to double their building space in 1979, and again in 1984. Food machinery continued to occupy an ever-increasing part of our business in the 1980's, guiding Graybill Machines to narrow its focus to specialties such as Product Registration and Handling, Finishing Systems, and Specialized Process and Packaging Machinery. In 1994, GMI celebrated its 50th anniversary. In the same year we introduced our 84" Pretzel Extruder, and continued development of machinery for specialized confectionery processes that allowed us to make valuable contributions to new products being introduced by our customers. The beginning of the 21st century ushered in additional high speed, multi-lane confectionary projects, followed by development of our Dean Washdown Process Machine and Dean Pie Machine. Based on earlier specialized feeders, our CFA line was developed to provide an economical multi-product enrober feeder, and a request to automate filling tote bags with fruit led to the Apple Bagger, followed by another building expansion. Layout, design, and manufacture of a high speed snack pie line along with finishing and decorating equipment for snack cakes allowed us to play a major role in equipping a new plant for a major regional baker. Today, we at Graybill Machines, Inc. continue to build on our history of innovation and quality machinery as our reputation for custom-designed automation solutions spreads. Our unique insistence on studying each situation in order to provide an engineered solution specifically optimized for that case continues to differentiate our company from others who only offer standard machinery. Let us put our history to work for you!
