Compass Precision Unit Growing Quickly
North Plains, OR – February 14, 2023 – Strom Manufacturing proudly announced Tuesday that it has installed a new DMG Mori NHX 4000 horizontal machining center (HMC) to meet rapidly expanding customer demand. Strom is an operating company of Compass Precision, a Charlotte-based manufacturer of custom, close-tolerance metal components for mission critical applications.
“Our customers have been pushing us for more and more,” stated Bill Strom, President of Strom Manufacturing. “So we asked Compass for a new machine. We presented our justification and got approval for this investment very quickly.”
Strom Manufacturing’s new horizontal mill is similar to two existing DMG Mori horizontal machining centers already installed at its North Plains facility. But the new unit is the latest generation HMC offered by DMG Mori, with considerably more advanced capabilities and software. It also has 12 pallets and a linear pallet conveying system, making the machine exceptionally well qualified for extended lights-out operation.
“We could hardly believe how big this new machine is when it arrived,” said Paul Sonderen, Strom’s Sales & Estimating Manager. “But the DMG Mori people quickly got it installed and running. This investment represents a significant step forward in our capacity and capabilities to machine precision metal components.”
“Strom has a core of loyal customers, mostly in Oregon and Washington,” explained Brian Kedroske, Strom Quality Control Manager. “With our new horizontal machining center, equipped with 12 pallets, we are ready to satisfy all of their needs plus take on some new accounts.”
Including its new machine, Strom Manufacturing now has four HMC’s plus nine vertical machining centers. Seven of these thirteen units are equipped with multiple pallets and mechanisms to move these pallets in and out of machines in support of unattended operation.
“As an automation junkie loving advanced equipment, our new DMG Mori NHX 4000 is a sweet dream,” said Strom Technical Manager Mike Strom. “The Compass folks told us we would be investing in new equipment. But we never thought it would happen so quickly.”
Strom Manufacturing has been a unit of Compass Precision since its purchase in July 2022. Strom specializes in producing precision metal components for high technology, branded outdoor recreation, and specialty industrial customers in the Northwest. The firm operates from a modern 13,000-square-foot facility on North Plains, OR, a suburb or Portland. It has about a dozen employees and supplies customers in Oregon, Washington, California, and Arizona.
Strom Manufacturing’s new HMC represents the twentieth new CNC machine that Compass Precision has purchased in the past three years. In 2022 alone, Compass added a DMG Mori NTX 2500 multi-tasking mill/turn machine at Advanced Machining (Compass operating company in Salisbury, NC); a Haas VF-2 vertical machining and a Doosan Lynx lathe at Tri-Tec Industries (Charlotte, NC); a Milltronics’ VM6030 IL vertical machining center at Douglas Machining (Winona, MN); and a Haas VF-7 vertical machining center at Quality Products & Machine (Charlotte, NC). Additional investments are planned.
“Compass loves buying equipment to better support its customers,” explained Jim Miller, Compass’s Vice President of Sales. “We are blessed to have accounts with rapidly growing needs. Plus, we are constantly adding capabilities and capacity to serve new customers. If you need custom, close-tolerance metal components, especially for mission-critical applications, talk to us.”
Compass Precision was founded in 2019 by Gary Holcomb and two private equity partners based upon the simultaneous purchase of three precision CNC machining companies in North Carolina – Advanced Machining & Tooling (Salisbury, NC); Quality Products & Machine; and Tri-Tec Industries (Charlotte, NC). Compass added Gray Manufacturing Technologies (Denver, NC) to the fold in August 2020, then acquired Douglas Machining Services (Winona, MN) in March 2021. Since then, Compass has purchased R&D Machine (Oldsmar, FL) in April 2022 and Strom Manufacturing (North Plains, OR) in July 2022, bringing its number of operating companies to seven.
For more information about Strom Manufacturing and Compass Precision, please contact Gary Holcomb, Compass CEO at [email protected].