In 1911, the late Chester B. Hamilton, Jr., founded the Hamilton Gear and Machine Company with the intention of specializing in the design and manufacture of industrial gear products. He thus organized the first Canadian company to provide an exclusive engineering and production gear organization to service Canadian industry. Hamilton Gear and Machine Company became a member of the AGMA at their first annual meeting in 1917.
The company was involved in many unique projects throughout its history. It was involved in the St. Lawrence Seaway Locks development by providing most of the open gearing for the lock gates. When the pulp and paper industry boomed in the 1960s, Hamilton Gear and Machine Company provided most of the gear drives for every pulp and paper company in Canada and Indonesia. They even supplied reducers to Iran and Poland during this time. As the company grew so did its capabilities and respect throughout North America. The US Navy was supplied Hamilton Gear worm drives for their helicopter’s handling project and NASA looked to Hamilton Gear to provide large ring gears for their ground deployed space tracking stations. Hamilton Gear supplied many conveyor and processing drives into the South American mining industry during the 1970s and 1980s as well.
The 1980s and early 1990s saw the company fall on hard economic times, and in 1995, Standard Machine Ltd. purchased the intellectual rights including trademarks as well as tooling, drawings, patterns, serial number books and spare parts for Hamilton Gear’s various gear lines.
Today, the company provides engineering and design services for the upgraded Hamilton Gear catalogue reducers and open gearing that have existed for over 40 years and are still running in many applications. With the ability to offer carburized and ground gearing as replacement parts, these units and the Hamilton Gear name are sure to exist for many more years.
