C R Onsrud celebrates a century in the machining industry

Troutman, North Carolina – Onsrud is a name that has been associated with the machining industry for a long time. War-time production found the a variety of well-known aircraft rolling off of metal industry machines with the Onsrud name engraved on the side. Gun stocks which housed the barrels and actions of the M1-Garand rifle were also manufactured with machines carrying the family name of Norwegian immigrant, Oscar Onsrud. This is a special year for the Onsrud family, with 2015 signifying the 100-year landmark event that transformed the machining world.

 

In 1915, Oscar Onsrud and his son, Rudy, invented the very first high-speed, air-driven spindle. This development replaced much of the existing belt-driven cutting and milling machinery then prevalent in factories, and ultimately allowed for the creation of modern-day CNC machinery. The grandson of Oscar, C.R. Onsrud founder Charlie Onsrud, worked many long hours in the old family facility in Chicago, Illinois, where they manufactured customized machines for machining/building aircraft parts and much more.

 

Striking out on his own, Charlie adapted the family cutting technology and know-how for the large, wood manufacturing industry located in the southeastern U.S. He started with one machine – the inverted router, a machine which is still sold today. As opportunities arose to help streamline the production process by offering more efficient, specialized machines, his company grew. Driven by the same innovative mindset used by his father and grandfather, C.R. Onsrud continues to focus on building tailored, application-based machines.

 

The Onsrud family legacy of innovation began 100 years ago, and today, C.R. Onsrud is once again a brand people are starting to recognize for speed, accuracy, and innovative efficiencies in metal, composite, and plastic manufacturing. Tom Onsrud confirms, “Metal machining isn’t new to the Onsruds, and we’re finding applications every day where we can excel in that industry, such as nested-based machining.” 

 

Aerospace applications in both metal and composites are familiar to C.R. Onsrud. “My grandfather and great-grandfather were making parts for a variety of aircraft as far back as World War 2, and today our machines are still cutting parts for companies such as Boeing, Cessna, and Zodiac,” says company CEO Tom Onsrud. “Some of those 60-plus-year-old Onsrud machines my family built are still manufacturing parts today, and we have new machines cutting parts for NASA’s latest telescope.”

 

Every customer who chooses an Onsrud has a specific application in mind, or a need to improve a current manufacturing process, and the Onsrud family offers the engineering history and know-how to bring those applications to reality. C.R. Onsrud CNC machines are not off-the-shelf, plug and play pieces of equipment – they are highly specialized – and the company will continue to deliver tailor-made innovation just as the family has been doing for the last century. If a machine has a high-speed cutting spindle, it can trace its roots back to the Onsrud family legacy.