GWS Tool and Die was founded in 1987 by Gordon Wallace Saylor to produce tooling and components for the Commercial Vehicle industry. In 1991 Rick Sojak joined GWS and changed the core focus of the Business to the design and manufacture of Tube forming equipment.
In 2000 we changed our name to GWS Tube Forming Solutions® Inc. to emphasize what we do as a company which is to not only provide tube forming equipment but also forming solutions for all types of tubing.
Through the years GWS has been a leading innovator in the development of new forming techniques and processes which have become industry standard and copied by our competitors. Some of the main highlights of equipment development have been the Pform series of end forming machines, the first truly CNC end former on the market released in 1992. Hydro-formed tube shearing systems for engine cradles and frame rails. Designed and manufactured the first trim head for a CNC tube bender used by AMCS. Introduced the first fully electric true CNC Pform machine in 1998.
In 2000 GWS was contacted by Delphi automotive to develop the first GBD post size Catalytic converter sizing machine. This was the first system that laser measured the Monolith, weighed the mat and then produced a shell to the size of these components. This system was the forerunner to all of the current GBD pre and post size catalytic manufacturing in the world today. We are continually developing equipment and processes for manufacturing Catalytic Convertors that improve product quality and decrease the part to part cycle times.
In 2003 GWS introduced the first Extrusion bender on the market where tubes are bent by pushing the raw material through a contoured clamp with the finished part profile. This method allows for bend on bend parts to be produced with almost Zero percent scrap. The parts are consistent in profile from the first part produced to the 1,000,000 part produced. It also alleviates waste material as the raw blank needs to be 3mm longer than the finished part on average.
During the past decade our core focus has been developing and improving the processing of both pre and post sized catalytic converters. We now hold two patents for the forming of catalytic converters. The first is for controlling the transition between the GBD sized portion of the converter and the end cone interface. The second patent is for the reducing of shaped (non-round) converters, to GBD. During the development of our non-round tooling we have successfully reduced an oval converter shell by over 60mm in perimeter. We are able to reduce numerous non-round shapes including an 8 (eight) radius “square” converter.
We produce cells that combine operations that would normally require multiple machines into a single machine thus saving our customers on floor space and manpower.
GWS continues to develop new Tube Forming Solutions® to enhance our customer’s bottom line.