history

our story

The history of Turner in Salem stretches back to the early 1960s when a local man, Doug Turner, founded the company as Doug Turner & Associates on South Lincoln Avenue. From humble beginnings, Mr. Turner built up his business to be a strong and innovative engineering company. In these early days, the company produced mining machinery and sub assemblies and carried out general machining work for local industry. Many well-known local names appeared in the order registers, including E.W. Bliss, a major mill building company.
On November 3, 1972, Mr. George Baillie bought the company after the death of Doug Turner. He reorganized the company to pursue the custom built machinery market and renamed it Turner Machine Company.
The relationship with the Bliss company peaked in the early 1980s when Turner Machine became a significant subcontractor in the making of the Bliss Mackintosh-Hemphill brand of tube straightening machinery. In 1985, Turner purchased the Mackintosh-Hemphill tube straightening product line from E.W. Bliss. The Mackintosh-Hemphill range of machines has, itself, a long history and takes its name from the Pennsylvania company who first started making straightening machines in the 1940s. Turner continues to give service and support with rolls and spare parts to this brand with about 1500 operational machines which are still in use with metal tube making companies.
In 1985, Turner was acquired by the Electric Furnace Company (EFCO) and was relocated to the EFCO industrial complex bounded by West Wilson and Prospect Streets.
With a desire to add further types of straightening machinery to its range, in 1995 Turner purchased the product lines of Wyko Equipments Ltd. England. With this acquisition, Turner was able to offer bar straightening machines and computer-controlled 10-roll precision tube machinery. In 2003, the assets of Turner were purchased from EFCO by a management team. Since 2003, the company has moved into a new era, constantly working to maintain our position as a world leader in straightening technology and maintaining strong relationships within the local Salem community and surrounding industry.

milestones

1934

In October, renowned Pittsburgh, PA engineer Mr. Abramsen patents the rotary straightening machine. The world's first production rotary tube straightening machine is built carrying the brand name Mackintosh Abramsen. (Turner Machine Company traces its lineage and has engineering archives all the way back to this first machine.) Through the early years, Mackintosh-Hemphill builds a range of "6-pillar" machines. A testament to the quality of the engineering is that a few of these very early 6-roll machines continue in service into the 21st century.

1946

Mackintosh-Hemphill introduces the "A" series of cross roll tube straighteners.

1955

Mackintosh-Hemphill product line is purchased by E.W. Bliss, who starts building rotary straightening machines in Salem, Ohio.

1959

Mackintosh-Hemphill introduces the "900" series of cross roll tube straighteners.

1960

Doug Turner founds Doug Turner & Associates, an engineering company in Salem, Ohio.

1971

Wyko Equipments Ltd., England introduces the first 10-roll precision cross roll straightening machine. This new development also embodies a roll pressure sensing system based on the use of hydrostatic load cells.

1972

Doug Turner & Associates is bought by George Baille. The company's name is changed to Turner Machine Company.

1985

Turner purchases the Mackintosh-Hemphill product line from E.W. Bliss.

1988

Wyko introduces CASAM, the world's first computer setting system.

1990

Wyko installs the world's first taper tube straightening machine driven by the CASAM system.

1995

Turner purchases the Wyko product line from Wyko Equipments Ltd., England. Engineers previously with Wyko continue working with Turner to this day.

1996

Turner produces the first US-built CASAM straightener. The CASAM system was developed in the UK in 1988.

1997

Turner rewrites CASAM system to run on MS Windows.

2003

Turner management buys Turner assets from EFCO.

2004

Turner introduces 10-roll versions of the 900 series tube straighteners.

2006

Turner relocates to 1433 Salem Parkway.

2008

Turner designs and puts into service the world's smallest 10-roll precision computer driven straightening machine.

2009

Turner introduces straightening head core exchange scheme for 900 series tube straightening machines.

2013

Turner celebrates 10 years as an independently owned company on March 31.

2014

The range of Turner precision straightening machines is further extended with the new 10-roll model 912.5 CASAM driven machine with digital roll pressure sensing systems.

2015

Turner continues to lead the field in the straightening of nuclear tubing, especially with the control of roll loads applied to the tube. In 2015 and 2016, Turner delivers two new complete straightening lines for zirconium fuel clad tubing. These lines were installed in the USA and China.

2016

A Cross roll straighter upgrade for a Steel producer in the Ohio Valley was designed and built in less than 7 months.

2017

Another Mack-Hemp gets replaced with our modern 922 Core exchnage heads in record time.

2017

Chicago land customer buys sister machine 10 years apart to increase production.

2018

A Company in Xi'an, China, installs new 10 roll Zirconium line.

2018

A Company in Connecticut installs special straightener for filter systems.

2019

North Carolina company replaces old WYKO machine with new state-of-the-art Turner Machine.

2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Turner continued to serve critical supply chain customers by installing machines.