PHOTO: Plymouth Tube President Donald "Van" Van Pelt visits with Josh and Maurine Wilder at the open house. Wilder was the seventh employee hired at the Winamac plant and retired 40 years later in 2001.

The Plymouth Tube Company was founded in Plymouth, Mich. in 1924. The company is a specialty manufacturer of precision steel tubing, steel and titanium Near-Net Shapes, and steel and titanium cold drawn shapes. Comprised of 10 manufacturing plants, including the one in Winamac, Plymouth Tube is family-owned with fourth generation leadership from president Donald Van Pelt. The company moved its headquarters to Warrenville, Ill. in 1986.

The Winamac plant was the Plymouth Tube Company's first expansion to a new location. The cold draw mill was the first building constructed at the Winamac plant in 1961. In 1988 the Winamac hot mill facility opened to produce redraw stock for the Winamac cold draw mill, as well as to manufacture hot finished seamless carbon and alloy steel tubes.

The company, then known as Service Steel - a Van Pelt Corporation, purchased 50 acres on the Pennsylvania Railroad and SR 14 in September 1960. The site was selected because of its central location within the Midwest and its proximity to the markets served by the greater Chicago area.

According to a history prepared for the open house, Plymouth Tube Winamac has served a variety of markets over the years. The original building is now the cold draw mill site.

The cold draw process takes a steel hollow tube and "draws" it over a mandrel to form a smaller diameter tube. The mill produces cold drawn carbon and alloy tubing for boiler, pressure, aircraft, ordinance, bearing and diverse mechanical applications. Additionally, the mill can produce tubing with special O.D.s and I.D.s. The cold draw can produce finished tubing up to 93-feet long, depnding on the tube size and grade.

There is 200,000 square feet under roof and a capacity of approximately 800,000 feet per week from five draw benches.

In 1973 the Winamac operations expanded with the construction of the weld mill. This facility welded steel tubing from coils of strip. This facility closed in 2002 due to market conditions.

The opening of the hot mill in 1988 served primarilty to supply the cold draw with hollows to produce orders for customers. This business has expanded to also include hot-finish external customers. Housed in a 136,500 square-fott building, located in the northwest corner of the 50-acre Winamac site, the three major components of the hot mill are a Mannesmann-type piercer, a Diescher elongator and a controlled sinking mill. This equipment can produce hot finished tubing sizes from 1.9 inche to 5-1/4 inch outside diameters with average wall thickness from .18-inch through 1-inch in most carbon and low alloy analyses.

In 2008, Plymouth Tube opened a new quench and temper line, Specialty Products (WSP) in the old weld mill building. The purpose of this operation is to bring in-house a process that was previously done by an outside vendor. The vision for WSP is to perform as a supplier of value-added services for Plymouth Tube's core products on the Winamac site.

Other Plymouth Tube plants are located in Salisbury, Md., two in East Troy, Wis., West Monroe, La., Hopkinsville, Ky., Chicago, Eupora, Miss., and Streator, Ill. 

UAW Winamac Local No. 1448 celebrates 45th anniversary

The Winamac Local No. 1448 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) celebrated its 45th anniversary in conjunction with the Plymouth Tube goldern anniversary open house.

"The Local looks forward to working with Plymouth Tube Company for another 50 years," a spokesman said, and the union also took the opportunity to thank the Van Pelt family for the employment of its members for the past 45 years.

The Local No. 1448 helps support several local organizations and charities, including Toys for Tots, Relay for Life, United Fund, ABATE, food drives, Bobby Skelton Run, diabetes fundraisers, and Pulaski County Human Services.

Current president of Local No. 1448 is Jim Berry, and vice president is Bruce Breyfogle. There are about 90 members.