Barnes Group Inc – An Unparalleled Reputation for Excellence and Innovation
Barnes Group Inc. was founded in 1857 by Wallace Barnes as a spring manufacturer for clocks and hoop skirts. The business grew enormously over time and spent the next few decades acquiring spring manufacturing competitors and expanding their facilities across the United States. In 1923, the Associated Spring Corporation was formed and the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1963. In 1976, the company was rebranded as Barnes Group Inc. Although the position of chief executive officer is open to others outside the family, control of the company remains within the Barnes name through their board member positions.
From humble beginnings making metal springs for clocks and skirts, the company eventually grew to be a global manufacturer of aerospace and defense springs and precision components, nitro-gas springs, hot runner systems, and molds for plastics. After acquiring Central Metal Products of East Windsor, Connecticut in 1981, the company began its first foray into the aerospace field. In 1982, Barnes Group opened a separate aerospace division, Barnes Aerospace, after acquiring Windsor Manufacturing of Connecticut. In 2005, the company reached the $1 billion mark in revenue and has a vast international presence.
Barnes Group maintains facilities in four continents, with more than 60 locations, including Europe (affiliation with Tempered Group, Ltd. of England began in 1961) and Asia (where the company established a jet engine facility in Singapore in 1990). For the fiscal year of 2013, the company’s revenue totaled almost $1.1 billion for their two primary business segments: Industrial (accounting for $687.6 million in sales) and Aerospace ($404 million).
Barnes Group’s product portfolio with their industrial group includes highly-engineered precision parts for critical applications in the transportation, industrial equipment, consumer product, packaging, electronics, medical, and energy markets. They specialize in hot runner systems, precision mold assemblies, precision mechanical springs, punched and fine-blanked components, and offer many other metal-based components and assemblies.
Their aerospace group focuses on providing equipment for OEMs that produce turbine engines, for airframe and industrial gas turbine builders, and for the military. General Electric is this division’s largest customer, accounting for about 55% of total sales. Additionally, Barnes Group has a rich history of involvement in national space endeavors, including John Glenn’s mission to orbit earth in 1969 (in which the company’s springs were used in Glenn’s space suit) and the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969 (in which Barnes Group’s springs were used onboard the space craft).
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