Armstrong Tools was an American industrial

hand tool A hand tool is any tool that is powered by hand rather than a motor. Categories of hand tools include wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vises, clamps, snips, hacksaws, drills, and kni ...

manufacturer. In its final years, it existed as a brand of

Apex Tool Group Apex Tool Group is an American supplier of hand tools and power tools. It was formed as a joint venture of Cooper Industries and Danaher by the merger of Cooper Tools and Danaher's Tools and Components segment. In October 2012, Danaher and Coo ...

, LLC and manufactured the majority of its tools in the United States, focusing mostly on aerospace, government, and military users.

History

Armstrong was founded in 1890 as the Armstrong Bros. Tool Company in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

by the four Armstrong brothers. The brothers manufactured

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

parts and tools for repairing and manufacturing bicycles from the brothers' backyard shed and managed a retail store in downtown Chicago. In 1895, Armstrong introduced a tool holder for

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to c ...

cutting bits. Rather than individual forged cutting tools, this product used a single forged shank with interchangeable cutting bits, drastically reducing the cost of such bits. The success of this product allowed Armstrong to build a

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

in Chicago in 1900 (followed by a larger factory in 1905). In 1948, the company moved to its current facility, and in 1974, it opened a second facility in

Fayetteville, Arkansas Fayetteville () is the second-largest city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the biggest city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until ...

. Some Sears Craftsman Professional products lines (such as the former USA made Professional wrench line) were made by the Armstrong Division of Danaher and were virtually the same units, save for the stamping of the different names. In 1994, Armstrong was acquired by the Danaher Corporation, where it operated as its industrial hand tools division. In 2010, Armstrong, as part of Danaher Tool Group, became part of

. In 2017, Apex announced that it would

layoff A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...

170 workers at its

Sumter, South Carolina Sumter ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sumter County, South Carolina, United States. Known as the Sumter Metropolitan Statistical Area, the namesake county adjoins Clarendon and Lee to form the core of Sumter-Lee-Clarendon Tri-county (o ...

plant and cease production of the Armstrong and

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univer ...

brands by March 31.

References

External links

Armstrong Tools website

{{Tool manufacturers Industrial tool manufacturers Tool manufacturing companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Chicago Manufacturing companies established in 1890 1890 establishments in Illinois Danaher Corporation brands Danaher subsidiaries