Arro Manufacturing started in 1952 as a two-man die shop. Today we run a 25,000 square foot plant in Ashville, New York, with presses from 15 to 600 tons and a toolroom that still designs and builds stamping dies.
We got here one step at a time. Each step added something our customers could use, and most of them came back to one idea: keep the tooling and the parts close together. Here is how it went.
1952: A two-man die shop
Arro began as a partnership. The shop designed and built tooling for the automotive, hardware and appliance industries in the Jamestown and Buffalo, New York areas.
That work is still the foundation of everything we do. A die shop is judged on one thing: whether its tools run well in production. The people on the press floor find out quickly if a die was built right, and a small shop only keeps its customers if the answer is yes.
1964: Arro Tool & Die, Inc.
In 1964 the partnership was incorporated as Arro Tool & Die, Inc. The company kept doing what it was known for, supplying tooling to the major industries in western New York.
For customers, not much changed day to day. The same shop was building the same kind of work, now under a name that would stay on the door for more than fifty years.
1970: A new plant and a press room
In 1970 Arro built a new 16,000 square foot facility on ten acres in Lakewood, New York, and added a stamping operation.
That second part changed what the company could offer. Up to then, Arro built tools that ran in other companies' presses. Now Arro could build the die and stamp the parts too. Having tooling and stamping under one roof helps in ways that are easy to miss:
- The people who built a die are a short walk away when it goes into the press, so tryout and adjustments move quickly.
- When a part needs a change, the toolroom and the press room work it out together instead of trading phone calls between companies.
- Customers deal with one shop from the first drawing to finished parts.
1997 to 2011: Room to grow
The stamping side kept growing, and the building grew with it.
- 1997: The plant expanded to 20,000 square feet to give stamping more space and add press room equipment.
- 1999: Another 3,000 square feet went to the stamping operation.
- 2011: Another 2,000 square feet went up to house a new 600 ton press.
The 600 ton press was a big step. A press that size opened the door to larger parts and heavier material, the kind of work a smaller press room has to pass on.
Every addition to the building since 1970 was made for the same reason: more room to stamp parts right next to the people who build the dies.
2017: A new name for the work we do
In 2017 the Bauer family acquired Arro Tool & Die, Inc. and changed the name to Arro Manufacturing.
The old name described where the company started. The new one fits where it was headed and what it does now. Tool and die is still at the center, but customers also come to us for stamping, precision machining, Wire EDM, welding and assembly.
Arro also has two sister companies. Rowley Tool & Die has been around since 1945 and focuses on progressive tooling, die design and Wire EDM. P&G Steel rounds out the group.
What that history means today
Our plant at 4687 Gleason Rd. in Ashville covers 25,000 square feet. Under that roof we:
- Design and build all types of stamping dies, progressive and single-hit, along with fixtures, prototype tooling and special machines
- Run presses from 15 to 600 tons
- Do precision machining, Wire EDM, and MIG, TIG and spot welding
- Handle assembly, order handling and shipping logistics
- Engineer parts and tooling in 2D and 3D CAD, with Mastercam and Esprit
Our customers work in automotive, construction and solar, power and energy, aerospace, heavy transport (including heavy duty truck components) and electronics. Over the years we have also made parts for medical, military and fabricated metal products customers. The full list of what we do is on our capabilities page.
How we work goes back to those early years. We aim for turnkey service, so a customer can hand us a part and we take it from tooling through shipping. We stay flexible and respond fast. And we try to be dependable, which for us means aiming for zero defects and parts you can put straight into production without inspecting them first.
If you have a part that needs a die, a press, or both, we would like to hear about it. Request a quote and tell us about the job.
