Swissturn USA

09/26/2023

Swissturn/USA, Inc. Acquires Malden Centerless Grinding

(Oxford, MA) Swissturn/USA, Inc. of Oxford, MA announced today that it has purchased the assets of Malden Centerless Grinding. Malden Centerless has been a key provider of centerless grinding services to Swissturn and other area manufacturers for many years.
The addition of Malden Centerless Grinding’s capabilities will allow Swissturn to integrate an important process into its machining of precision turned products. The integration of Malden Centerless Grinding’s capabilities also offers Swissturn the opportunity to provide additional services to its current customers and to continue to provide grinding services to Malden’s long-term customers.

The equipment and employees of Malden Centerless Grinding have been transferred to Swissturn’s facility, centrally located in Oxford, Massachusetts.

Rick Laviolette, President of Swissturn/USA, said that Malden Centerless Grinding’s capabilities are a natural fit for Swissturn. “Having this capability in-house is going to benefit our customers by managing costs and lead times”, he said. “We’re looking forward also to working with Malden Centerless Grinding’s customers”, he continued. It goes without saying that the entire Swissturn Team enjoyed working with Bob Jordan over the years and wishes Bob well in his future endeavors.

In announcing the acquisition, Mr. Laviolette appointed Dean Russell, Swissturn’s VP of Commercial Operations to lead the integration and management of the centerless grinding operations at Swissturn.

Centerless grinding is often used to prepare bar stock for use in a Swiss screw machine. Bar stock that may have as much as .005” variation in its mill form, can be centerless ground to .0003” total diameter tolerance. Grinding of bar stock utilizes a thru-feed process, meaning that the bar stock is introduced into the grinder and is continuously fed between the grinding wheel and a regulating wheel to reduce the diameter to a very close tolerance and to improve the surface finish. Use of centerless ground bar stock is a critical step in machining Swiss screw machine parts. Centerless grinding is also frequently used post-machining or post-heat treating to grind finish diameters on precision machined parts to extremely close tolerances and finishes.

12/18/2022

This year, the generous employees of Swissturn/USA, Inc. purchased toys, gifts and gift cards for Oxford's "Operation Santa". All the gifts were packed up and delivered to the Oxford Police Station on Friday. Thanks to Deb Light and the Oxford Police for organizing this wonderful program which will help brighten Christmas for many Oxford families. 🎅

11/08/2022

Arrived at work this morning to see the last Total Lunar Eclipse for three years - next one to occur on March 14, 2025. The entire Moon falls within the darkest part of the Earth's shadow, called the umbra. When the Moon is within the umbra, it turns a reddish hue. The Lunar Eclipse is sometimes called the "Blood Moon' because of this phenomenon.

09/23/2022

SWISSTURN had a great time visiting the 2022 IMTS+ International Manufacturing Technology Show!

Swissturn attended the 2022 IMTS conference in September to discover the latest innovations in digital and traditional manufacturing. Our team connected with other manufacturing experts for inspiration and to discover new machining technologies, processes to solve manufacturing challenges and methods for improving shop efficiencies. We are getting busy using the momentum and the enthusiasm from last week’s IMTS to explore & transform!

09/06/2022

Nick Smith, Machinist at Swissturn, participated in the Demolition Derby at the Spencer Fair on Sunday evening. Nick, in Honda Civic #430 tied for first in their heat with his friend Tim, in the #12 Honda, as they were the last two cars moving in their Heat. Unfortunately Nick was unable to get his car running again to participate in the Grand Finale (two winners from each heat). Nick did a great job in his first demolition derby! Congratulations Nick!

09/02/2022

Nick Smith, Machinist at Swissturn, will be participating in the Demolition Derby at the Spencer Fair on Sunday, September 4th, at 5:00 p.m. Nick trailered his Honda Civic to work this morning for everyone to see. Hopefully there will be lots of Swissturn Employees in the stands cheering Nick on! Go Nick!!

07/20/2022

06/23/2022

On Saturday, June 11th, 2022, Swissturn celebrated multiple milestones and a celebration of life at the Samuel Slater Experience in Webster, MA . . . A wonderful evening was had by all who attended!

05/13/2022

Last week, Swissturn lost our dear friend and long-time employee Scott Leahey after a long illness. Scott came to Swissturn 25 years ago as an ambitious and curious 21-year-old. Scott had a natural aptitude for and love of CNC machining. Over his 25 years with Swissturn Scott was always excited to learn how to program and set-up each new CNC lathe and machining center that we added. CNC machining was his career, but it was also his hobby. He would spend much of his free time reading about CNC programming, browsing manufacturers’ websites, and machining message boards to learn new programming tricks. Scott was humble and quiet and always willing to take on new challenges. He will be sorely missed. No services are planned, but Swissturn employees will celebrate Scott’s life and reminisce about him at a company event in early June.

https://www.wrightroyfuneralhome.com/obituary/Scott-Leahey

04/01/2022

…found this when I arrived at work this morning … Happy April Fool’s Day!

02/22/2022

Presentation to Management and Graduation was held today at Mass MEP in Auburn, MA for the Graduates of the Front Line Supervisor Apprentice Program – Consortium 1 - Cohort 1. This program included 150+ classroom hours via Zoom and 2,000 hours of on-the-job training. Congratulations to both Jesse Ziegler and Candice Merrick who each made their presentation and were each awarded a medal and a certificate. Thank You to Karen Myhaver, Coordinator of the Program and also to Joe Simao, Project Manager who taught the class.

01/06/2022

Last week we announced to our employee-owners that Swissturn has transitioned to a 100% employee-owned company. The Swissturn ESOP had previously owned 49% of company shares.

Employee-ownership comes at no cost to Swissturn’s employee-owners.

Rick Laviolette, President of Swissturn, said “It’s only natural that we transition to 100% employee ownership. We believe in the power of employee engagement to drive extraordinary business results because we have already seen it in action. There is no greater policy for promoting employee engagement than by making the employees into owners.”

Swissturn CEO and former owner Kenneth Mandile said, “The transition to full employee ownership reflects my confidence in the employee-owners of Swissturn and in the management team. Employee-ownership helps to ensure the continuation of Swissturn as a part of our local community and it protects jobs. Employee-ownership enhances Swissturn’s reputation as a great company to work for at a time when so many companies are struggling with employee recruitment and retention.”

ESOP plans have generated tremendous retirement wealth for millions of plan participants. According to the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), “there are approximately 6,482 ESOPs in the United States, holding total assets of over $1.6 trillion.

According to the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) there are over 13.9 million participants in ESOPs. The NCEO said that “ESOPs paid out over $137 billion dollars to participants in 2019”. Manufacturing companies like Swissturn make up 21% of all ESOPs, tying professional services as the largest industry segment of ESOPs. Massachusetts has 115 ESOPs that include over 22,000 participants.