Progressive for 50 Years: Projects That Defined Our Path

Author:  Jim Whalen
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 31, Issue 4, Fall 2017
Doc ID:  2017140
Year of Publication:  2017
Abstract:  
THE BEGINNING Progressive opened in 1967 in Holland, Michigan, about 35 miles from our current location in Grand Rapids. The company was a small machine shop, primarily building part holding jigs and fixtures for the die cast polishing industry. Back in those days, chrome plating of plastics did not exist, so any small chrome-plated part of your car or industrial product was die cast, polished, and then chrome plated. The surface of the die cast part had to be polished prior to plating. There were many polishing facilities back in those days. In addition to the die cast polishing tooling, Progressive Engineering, as it was called then, also did job shop machining and fabrication for a company who built small manual abrasive blasting systems.