Winamac Coil Spring’s job shop mentality combines engineering and craftsmanship in jobs of all sizes
By Mark Shortt
When Walter Pesaresi founded Winamac Coil Spring, Inc. in 1948, he impressed upon his employees that a customer who needs 10 springs needs them just as much as a customer who needs 10 million. Thus was born the job shop mentality that still guides Winamac’s work today.
“We definitely embrace the term ‘custom,’ as we believe our customers demand a part that is truly unique in design and function,” said Winamac Coil Spring Sales and Marketing Manager Brian Shafer, in an emailed response. “Our diversity and expertise allows us to approach every design and unique application independently.”
Since its founding, the family-owned, custom spring and wire form manufacturer has served a variety of industries, from medical to railroad, to power sports, but agricultural equipment remains its largest market. The company can coil a broad range of extension, torsion, and compression spring parts that vary in wire diameter from as small as 0.008 inch up to 0.625 inch, Shafer said.
When companies choose Winamac Coil Spring, they are typically choosing the firm for help in solving a problem. The company can provide solutions for the customer while also keeping manufacturability in mind for its operators, he said.
“When we have the opportunity, we like to assist our customers early in the design/development stage to ensure that our springs and wire forms meet or exceed expectations for fit, form, and function,” he said. “We combine engineering, craftsmanship, and quality material to provide a robust part for our customers.”
Shafer said Winamac has “invested a great deal of capital and intellect” in its double torsion/pick-up tine department, designing and building its own large diameter coiling machine and secondary operation machines. When feasible in production, the company has added automation to assist its operators and improve safety and overall quality.
Its wire form division has the most specialized capability, offering swedging, nibbing, drilling, punching, and cold heading on tempered wire up to 0.295 inch and un-tempered wire up to 0.625 inch, he said.
“Over the last decade, we have incorporated robots in our manufacturing process for safety and productivity reasons, and have empowered the operator with the ability to do the setup and assist in programing the robot,” he explained. “We have found this to be extremely effective since there is still somewhat of an art to spring making. Currently we have 13 robots in operation, and we believe our innovation to manufacturing, combined with our craftsmanship, sets us apart within our industry.”
Winamac employs a variety of tools for quality checks throughout the manufacturing process, including, gauges, fixtures, scales, and a 3D laser scanner for its wire forms. The company uses SMI Standards from the Spring Makers Institute as its base for tolerances, and its quality program is certified to ISO9001:2015, Shafer said.
Like many companies, Winamac has struggled to hire enough people to meet its capacity demands over the last several years. The company currently employs about 175 people and is continuing to seek additional staff.
Capital reinvestment to improve manufacturing capacity also remains a priority for the Kewanna, Indiana firm.
“During the ’90s, we had five major expansions, and in 2015, we purchased a 50,000-square-foot facility to expand our wire form division, bringing our total to 250,000 square feet,” Shafer said. “We have reinvested over 2 million dollars since 2020 with a current recapitalization project in our grinding department to improve capacity and capability.”