Meadville Business News

Tool and die trailblazers such as
Talon Inc. earned Meadville the
name of Tool City U.S.A.

Meadville Tribune
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
By Keith Gushard

Today's tooling and machining industry in the area has a direct link to
Talon Inc. and its famous product - the zipper. However, Meadville's
tooling and machining industry began to develop shortly after the city's
founding in 1788. In 1807, the Meadville Society for the Encouragement
of Manufacturing formed.

Meadville had seven "Iron Foundries and Machine Shops" in its city
directory in the mid-1800s. But, Talon arguably is the firm that has had
the greatest impact on Meadville's industrial history, employing several
thousand people and giving rise to the development of tooling and
machining firms here.

Talon began in 1913 as the Hookless Fastener Co. and changed its name
to Talon Inc. in 1937. The forerunner of the modern zipper had been around
since the late 1800s, but it had not proved to be reliable until Gideon
Sundback, an engineer from Småland, Sweden, was able to perfect a
practical version. Sundback was working for Automatic Hook and Eye Co.
in New Jersey, a company that developed hook and eye closures for shoes,
but the idea didn't sell and the firm went out of business. Meanwhile,
Sundback had developed and designed a practical slide fastener - or zipper.

After Automatic Hook and Eye went out of business, Sundback was brought
to Meadville in 1913 by Lewis Walker Sr., a Meadville attorney, and other
local investors after they formed the Hookless Fastener Co. to promote
Sundback's idea. Sundback's slide fastener used a series of small interlocking
metal scoops, or teeth, that were opened and closed by a metal slide. The
fastener had 10 fastening teeth per inch in two facing rows of teeth that were
pulled into a single piece with the use of a slider. A patent for the "Separable
Fastener" was issued in 1917.

To make the zippers, Sundback also created the necessary machine.
Sundback's S-L or scrapless machine used a special Y-shaped wire and
cut scoops from it. The machine then punched the scoop dimple and nib, and
clamped each scoop on a cloth tape to produce a continuous chain for the
zipper.

As the company grew, it had to have skilled workers to produce the tens
of thousands of tiny zipper teeth needed. Talon developed its own machines
and spare parts to manufacture the teeth.

It also developed a tool and die apprenticeship program to train employees
how to build and repair the machines. The company had about 50 apprentices
at any one time, graduating between 10 and 12 per year for a total of almost
400 toolmakers.

While they learned to make precision parts from steel, they also got a
diverse industrial education. Apprentices had to learn heat treating, metallurgy,
chemistry, quoting, planning, cutter sharpening, engineering and quality control
as well. Talon's apprentice program led to the development of Meadville's
independent tooling and machining firms. Those firms were started by former
Talon apprentices who had left the company to go into business for
themselves.

Six businesses were started between 1945 and 1960 that are the foundation of
today's more than 130 tooling and machining shops in Crawford County.
They are:
-Starn Tool & Manufacturing Co., 1945, with founders Gleason Starn and
James Owen Starn.
-Leech Tool & Die Works Inc. (now Leech Industries Inc.), 1948, Joseph
P. Leech.
-Canto Tool, 1950, Al Canfield and Clarence Toohey.
-Layke Tool Co., 1953, Al Canfield.
-Pennsylvania Tool & Gages Inc. 1954, Gordon Burns and Armond Glover.
-Sipco Inc. (now Sipco Molding Technologies) 1959, Henry Sippy.

The tooling and machining industry is continuing to evolve as technology
changes. Over the years, firms have started or evolved into other areas,
making items such as plastic injection molds and molded parts for other
industries or developing specialized machines for use by other manufacturers.

While Talon had independent firms develop over the years, it slowly wound
down production here in Meadville as it had plants in North Carolina, South
Carolina and Mexico.

Coats Viyella acquired Talon Inc. in 1990 and production ceased in Meadville
in 1994 as it faced increasing foreign competition.

A plant in Gaston, N.C., closed in 1996 while production also ceased at
Stanley, N.C., in 2000, and a plant in Lake City, S.C., also closed. In 1998,
Talon was teamed up with Grupo Industrial Cierres Ideal, a Mexican
conglomerate to manufacture zippers.

In 2001, Tag-It Pacific Inc. of Woodland Hills, Calif., purchased certain Talon
zipper business assets, including the Talon brand name, trademarks, patents,
technical field equipment and inventory from Grupo Industrial Cierres Ideal and
Talon. It's now the exclusive distributor of Talon brand zippers.