1977 – 1978
ALL COMPANIES HAVE A GREAT SUCCESS STORY; ALLOW US TO PROUDLY SHARE OURS. ALL-FILL INC. IS A FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED THAT HAS THRIVED OVER THE COURSE OF THREE GENERATIONS OF EDGINTON’S.
Since the very beginning of 1969 some employees have come and gone, others are still employed to this day. The industry has changed and All-Fill was eager to adapt along the way. There were tough times, there were always great times. No matter the business, the key to success is hard work and determination. Never was this truer than in the very beginning, the early years in which the first employees laid the structural foundation and required a work ethic for long-term success and growth. At All-Fill, we have a great story to tell, enjoy following the history of our company throughout this blog series and we will get back to work so that we can continue writing future chapters.
1977
AS ALL-FILL RAPIDLY PUSHED FORWARD ENTERING THE 1980’S THE CURRENT SPACE AT THE NEWTOWN SQUARE FACILITY WAS QUICKLY BECOMING AN ISSUE.
The original building would yield to a new facility located at 40 Great Valley Parkway, Malvern, PA. The Malvern facility was over 33,000 square feet and offered the opportunity for expansion.
With a blank canvas to work on, Dick Edginton quickly found a way to take advantage of the additional space and investigated the benefits of getting into aftermarket sales for the entire auger filling industry.
Within the new structure, All-Fill was able to dedicate full time spaces for the many sectors of the company including full staffed sales, engineering, machine shop, assembly, administration, and crating teams.
1978
DICK EDGINTON WAS CONSTANTLY FRUSTRATED WITH HAVING TO PURCHASE AUGER TOOLING (OFTEN TIMES CALLED ACCESSORIES) FROM OUTSIDE VENDORS.
Given the large quantity of auger filling machines being placed in the plants of end users throughout the country, Dick wanted to capitalize on the replacement tooling for those machines. A packaging industry acquaintance Gary Baker and Dick partnered to co-own and operate Auger Fabrication.
Auger Fabrication set out to provide tooling and accessories directly to All-Fill as a direct supplier but also to provide tooling for any application in need of a horizontal or vertical auger. In addition, Auger Fabrication could also provide proprietary parts for the common auger filling machine, non-tooling related.
The ability to have complete control over the entire manufacturing process for the auger fillers was comfortable to Dick. Auger Fabrication quickly established a stock level of tooling so that delivery could be made immediately. With the middleman seemingly eliminated as well, the end user would benefit from a decreased pricing structure. The market for augers is expansive. Thinking outside of the packaging industry, orders quickly came in pertaining to custom auger designs and various purposes. All-Fill and Auger Fab were seamless to an outsider and really the perfect match. To this date, All-Fill and Auger Fabrication still work hand in hand to supply machines and parts to a global customer base.
AUGER FABRICATION WAS LOCATED JUST ACROSS THE STREET FROM 40 GREAT VALLEY PARKWAY AND ALL-FILL OBVIOUSLY HAD NO PROBLEM ADJUSTING TO THE MANUFACTURING DEMANDS.
The thread mill was a very important machine to the manufacturing process. The thread mill is a well-constructed, rigid turning machine that would take a solid diameter of round raw material (typically stainless steel) and slowly turn it down to stock flight and pitch sizes. The flights of the auger directly determine the throughput amount of product. The thread mills could be operated by one employee, and to this day Auger Fabrication has qty-10 thread mills in operation over two working shifts. The thread mill is a slowly dying breed as a vast majority of them are no longer supported for service and retrofits. The current technologies regarding computer operated CNC machinery have slowly but surely had an impact on the efficiency of thread mills, but time will tell what extent. Once the thread mill has completed the turning task, the auger needs to be polished for a delivered finish.
