Introduction

Jackburn Mfg., Inc. was founded in 1962 as a contract manufacturer of wire forms, specializing in wire handles for buckets and other types of containers. Although still serving that market, in 1967 the company developed its own unique market niche by starting the manufacture of fabricated wire grates for gas stoves and propane stoves in recreational vehicles. It later entered the home appliance market, and today fabricates millions of burner grates for almost all of the major gas range manufacturers. The company is now the largest independent supplier of round and square grates in the country. Most of the burner grates today are fabricated using a combination of a round or flat wire base with three or more stamped and formed fingers or tines, resistance welded to the frame.

In 1977 the firm was moved to its current location which encompasses over 80,000 square feet in three facilities. Currently serving well over 100 active customers, Jackburn’s wire forming and stamping customer base is diverse, purchasing everything from simple “S” hooks and container handles to complicated components for plant hanging systems in greenhouses.
The Stamping facility includes a 250 ton, a 100 ton and a 95 ton straight side presses and a variety of OBI punch presses up to 70 tons in capacity. A fully equipped tool and die area designs and builds blanking and forming dies for the stamping operation.

The wire forming and fabrication operation includes a total of 12 automatic fourslide wire forming machines capable of forming wire from .080″ to .250″ in diameter. It also features a state-of-the-art ring coiling and welding machine that forms and buttwelds 4″ to 15″ diameter rings in a single operation. The centerpiece of this operation is a CNC 4-axis wire bending and forming system for precision production of complex two and three dimensional wire forms in all geometrical shapes, suitable for both long and short production runs.

Production equipment in the wire fabrication area includes a line of (26) resistance welding machines ranging from 30 to 250 KVA, consisting of spot, butt and press type welders, including one equipped with a (6) station turntable.

Complete engineering and design assistance from concept through prototyping is available, and all wire form tooling is designed and built in-house. The new CNC wire bending and forming system will expedite production of prototypes and pre-production samples, as it will require a minimum of tooling and short set-up times.

Jackburn is located in northwestern Pennsylvania on Lake Erie just west of the city of Erie, approximately 100 miles from the cities of Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and only a few miles from east-west and southbound interstate highways and Erie International Airport. The firm is centrally located to serve the eastern, Midwest and southern market areas.